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Thread ID: 3942 | Posts: 10 | Started: 2002-12-10
2002-12-10 05:17 | User Profile
[url=http://etherzone.com/2002/fall121702.shtml]FOREIGN AGENTS RECRUIT ON CAMPUS: HILLEL CLUB VIOLATING THE LAW?[/url]
By: Paul Fallavollita
Many colleges in the United States charge all students a "student activities fee," the proceeds of which are divvied up by the elected student government to recognized clubs. These clubs, once the student government approves their operations on campus, present their budget requests and make their respective sales pitches about what extracurricular activities they plan to offer the students, such as water skiing or the chance to volunteer for community service projects. North of the border in Montreal, a campus Hillel club offered Concordia University studentsââ¬âor an admittedly small fraction of students who would be interestedââ¬âthe opportunity to fight in a foreign military: the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Concordia determined that these recruiting activities were a violation of Canadian law, specifically the Foreign Enlistment Act. This revelation recently caused the Student Union of Concordia to vote 8-1 to revoke Hillelââ¬â¢s status as a recognized campus organization, suspending its funding and rescinding its privilege to hold on-campus events.
[url=http://www.hillel.org]Hillelââ¬â¢s webpage[/url] calls its group "the largest Jewish campus organization in the world," whose mission is to "maximize the number of Jews doing Jewish with other Jews." Part of what this mission means for students to "do Jewish" (an actual phrase used repeatedly) according to the site, is:
"to provide them with opportunities to do Jewish that are meaningful and appealing to them. Students are empowered to take responsibility for their Jewish identity, whether they wish to participate in a community service project, express themselves artistically, participate in a social event, engage in informal Jewish learning or attend religious services."
Like many student organizations that receive subsidies from the university, Hillel received $3000 annually from Concordia. When the Hillel at Concordia was caught violating Canadian law by distributing a recruiting flyer for [url=http://www.mahal2000.com]Mahal 2000[/url]ââ¬âa volunteer program run by the Israeli military aimed at overseas studentsââ¬âthat funding was rightly cut off. Mahal forces often guard Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Canada, along with most nations, prohibits recruitment for foreign militaries on its soil.
Hillel claims that a student activist, not the Hillel staff, placed the offending Mahal flyer without official authorization. The distinction is a truly Talmudic one, as hair-splitting as it is convenient. The Hillel site reveals some interesting statistics and underlying assumptions about the students it serves and their place in the world, noting that:
"80 percent of college-age Jewsââ¬âapproximately 400,000 individualsââ¬âattend some form of institution of higher education. The Jewish community believes that the college years offer the last opportunity to provide Jewish content to young people before they disperse to the working world...at a time when young people are searching for meaning in their lives and are in danger of assimilating into the community around them" [emphasis mine].
The language quoted above suggests that Hillel rejects the much-touted idea of "assimilation" when it comes to the continuity and integrity of the Jewish community. Instead, a picture emerges of a small, tightly knit group with a high degree of self-awareness and a strong sense of destiny as a distinct people acting in concert. Indeed, Hillelââ¬â¢s perception of the process of assimilation as a "danger" is a clear and accurate assessment; assimilation is another word for submergence or disappearance. No one can fault the Jews, or any other group, for seeking to survive and ensure that their ancestors will remain recognizable to their descendantsââ¬âthat is what it means to be related, after all, to bear a family resemblance. It comes as no surprise to learn that feeling "empowered to take responsibility for their Jewish identity" can lend itself to a response such as joining the IDF to further Israeli expansionism. Hillel and Mahal may maintain an organizational separation, but they both issue from, and remain wed to, the same ideological and biological source. They also carry on reciprocal relations in cyberspace; Mahalââ¬â¢s website links to Hillelââ¬â¢s. For that matter, Mahal also links to the leading [url=http://www.etherzone.com/2002/raim041902.shtml]American Likudnik[/url] pundits Joseph Farah and Daniel Pipes.
Hillel clubs operate on many American campuses as well, which raises the obvious question of the hour: could Hillel also be here recruiting Americans for service in a foreign military? The United States has several laws that may be applicable to such activities, if they are indeed occurring, such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and the Neutrality Act. Mahalââ¬â¢s website warns potential recruits about these legal possibilities that:
"Serving in the IDF may jeopardize the citizenship of certain countries. However, in recent years, no cases are known of someone's citizenship being revoked. Concerned volunteers ought to clarify this matter in their country of origin."
In "[url=http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/071585/850715003.html]Contradictions of Dual Citizenship[/url]," Robert G. Hazo of the Middle East Policy Association writes that nations have an interest in forbidding their citizens to serve in foreign armies. He argues that "however friendly two countries may be, their interests are not and cannot always be identical." Hazo points out that this problem particularly arises when Americans decide to serve in the Israeli military, recounting disturbing information how:
"It is, therefore, entirely possible that, as some investigators claim, an American citizen who learned to fly in U.S. military service was among the pilots of Israeli aircraft which, along with Israeli torpedo boats, attacked the U.S.S. Liberty in 1967, resulting in the death of 34 American sailors and the wounding of 171 more. American citizens serving in the Israeli forces have boasted on some radio and T.V. talk shows of participating in the invasion of Lebanon, an action condemned by the U.S. government in the United Nations."
Of course, few will sound the alarm about these potentially unlawful, dangerous, and maybe even treasonous Hillel activities in America, because the threshold is set so ridiculously low for inviting potentially career-damaging accusations of "anti-Semitism." This isnââ¬â¢t about anti-Semitism, though, itââ¬â¢s about fairness, and whatââ¬â¢s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? The role of alternative media is to make connections and comparisons that the "mainstream" will not dare, searing sacred cows, revealing "ugly" truths, and reminding readers of events buried in the back pages and beneath the fold, if printed at all. Therefore, in the case of this Hillel story, the "rest of the story" is that Organized Jewry did not object when the American Friends of the British National Party (AFBNP) found itself in a similar position on the hot seat.
Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) headed by Morris Dees hammered away at the AFBNP, accusing it of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires bodies working on behalf of foreign interests to register with the government. The SPLC contended that the AFBNP was sending donations made by Americans to England to fund the campaign efforts of the British National Party (BNP), a rising nationalist Right political party. In the face of this politically motivated harassment, the AFBNP retroactively registered under the FARA and then closed down.
The AFBNP advocated the preservation of British, and ultimately Western, identity, just as Hillel promotes and defends Jewish identity. The AFBNP sought to help Americans organize to defend American interests, in an attempt to replicate the successes the BNP was having across the pond. The AFBNP participated in functions with the Council of Conservative Citizens, for example. Yet, it would seem Hillelââ¬â¢s fellow travelers condemn that same survival impulse in Europeans and European-Americans. And the AFBNP was not recruiting Americans to serve in the British military, either.
Now that Hillel has been exposed, the deans of students and student unions at American universities should launch investigations of their local Hillel clubs to discover if similar illegal recruiting is taking place on their campuses. Failing that, a re-constituted House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) might be right for this assignmentââ¬âand it could profitably add other notorious globalist, socialist, and Zionist organizations to its watch list, including the Council on Foreign Relations. Such inquiries need not take place exclusively at the federal level, but at the level of the several states and municipalities as well, in the true spirit of the Tenth Amendment. Of course, the government is currently in the hands of the globalists and their sympathizers (as well as their "useful idiots"), so perhaps it is best to shelve the HUAC option temporarily until the ascendance of a patriotic government of national restoration. Perhaps it is better that vigilant citizens pursue the matter privately instead.
"Published originally at [url=http://etherzone.com]EtherZone.com[/url] : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."
2002-12-10 05:22 | User Profile
Excellent piece.
About AFBNP, it there's International Zionism, why not International BNPers? I mean in it's the same deal if you ignore the fact that the Brits are more honest about it.
2002-12-10 05:35 | User Profile
Originally posted by Ragnar@Dec 10 2002, 01:22 **Excellent piece.
About AFBNP, it there's International Zionism, why not International BNPers? I mean in it's the same deal if you ignore the fact that the Brits are more honest about it.**
Thanks! You're right about the international-BNPers double-standard. The AFBNP was acting as a sort of "bridge," encouraging a lot of American groups and individuals on the nationalist Right to cooperate and coordinate with each other, and there was a pretty penny being raised from it as well. Needless to say, the AFBNP quickly rose to the top of the target list of the Inner Party.
Case in point:
There's a CNN article on the AFBNP/SPLC affair at
[url=http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/08/31/britain.extremism]http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/08/31...itain.extremism[/url]
and the question of who donated to the AFBNP came up. The SPLC spokesman said:
"There are industrialists, wealthy apartment-building owners. These are people who do not want their names in newspapers, who never want to be on television."
Well, given what the SPLC did to them, can anyone blame the AFBNP for keeping its records to itself? I'm sure there are plenty of figures in the Inner Party who don't want to be named, either, on the other side. After all, those people are famous for changing their own names from -stein, -tol, -witz, -berg, -nik and so on to Smith and Johnson. Who has more to hide?
2002-12-10 05:48 | User Profile
good article...this should stir up some s***
I can't wait to see the Israel Firsters go off on it over at LF
2002-12-10 09:53 | User Profile
An excellent piece as usual, Paul. It's always a pleasure to read your well-written, hard-hitting columns.
2002-12-10 18:53 | User Profile
Thanks, guys. The usual suspects have launched their attacks in response.
BTW, does the original posted article on this thread above look like it's in bold face? Someone PM'ed me saying it was and that it made it hard to read. Thing is, I never intentionally put it in bold face, and I don't know how it got that way, if it is that way. Maybe something happened in the cut-and-paste process. It looks okay to me, doesn't appear to be in bold text to me, but it might just be my browser. Sorry if I did make it difficult for anyone.
2002-12-10 20:45 | User Profile
It doesn't look bold to me.
Nice work.
2002-12-11 08:50 | User Profile
[url=http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Hillel+reinstated+at+Montreal+school&intcategoryid=2]http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?str...intcategoryid=2[/url]
Under threat of lawsuit, university reinstates Hillel ââ¬â with conditions
2002-12-11 13:08 | User Profile
Originally posted by Centinel@Dec 11 2002, 04:50 **[url=http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=Hillel+reinstated+at+Montreal+school&intcategoryid=2]http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?str...intcategoryid=2[/url]
Under threat of lawsuit, university reinstates Hillel ââ¬â with conditions**
Wow, what a shocking, unexpected development....NOT!
2002-12-11 19:21 | User Profile
From The Globe and Mail, available online at: [url=http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/front/RTGAM/20021211/whill1211/Front/homeBN/breakingnews]http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/Articl...BN/breakingnews[/url]
Banned group taking campus union to court
By OLIVER MOORE Globe and Mail Update Wednesday, December 11 ââ¬â Online Edition, Posted at 11:34 AM EST
A Jewish student group banned from Concordia University is going to court to have its status on campus reinstated and its funding restored.
Legal counsel for Concordia Hillel on Wednesday announced the details of their case, which they say represents the first banning of a Jewish student organization "since Austria in the '30s."
The group was banned by the Concordia Student Union (CSU) after a complaint that pamphlets they were distributed included appeals for students to join the Israel Defence Forces.
Canada's Foreign Enlistment Act makes it illegal for anyone in the country to recruit or induce someone "to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state." After voting 8-1 to ban Hillel, the CSU justified the action by noting that it is legally liable for the actions of its student clubs.
The CSU argues that the group broke federal law because it was recruiting Canadians to join a foreign army, but Concordia Hillel co-president Noah Joseph says that the pamphlets were just an excuse to crack down.
"It's very clear that that's a thinly veiled excuse," he told globeandmail.com from Montreal. "We're basically their only political opposition on campus, we're the only ones who oppose them in any of their practices or policies and they've been looking for a way to get us out of the way."
Concordia Hillel's lawyer said that the CSU had ignored a Monday deadline to reinstate Hillel and that court documents are being prepared. A preliminary hearing could be set as early as next, lawyer Michael Bergman told globeandmail.com.
"The resolution banning the Hillel from Concordia is illegal, it is contrary to the Charter of Human Rights, it is contrary to the Concordia Student Union constitution and bylaws, it was adopted using an irregular and improper procedure," he said.
"It is essentially a ban on the rights of Jewish students at Concordia to the four fundamental freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of assembly.
Representatives of the Concordia Student Union were not immediately available for comment.
Mr. Joseph said that "only the courts" can solve the impasse, arguing that "the CSU has continuously misbehaved and misused the power that it's granted by the Ministry of Education."
Mr. Bergman said that only a public apology from the CSU could head off the brewing legal battle.
"My client will not accept that, for the first time since World War Two, a Jewish organization has been proscribed," he said. "The only possible way to resolve this is through the unconditional withdrawal of the ban and an appropriate apology, a recognition that what they did was wrong"
Concordia has been the site of several violent incidents between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli factions. Chaos broke out Sept. 9 when former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to appear and campus security officials were forced to stop his speech from going ahead. The university responded by imposing a moratorium on Middle East debate that was only recently lifted.