Students told not to protest against Israeli journalist

Raymond Kwan
Senior Staff
A group of students from the Iranian Human Rights Society at York University (IHRS-YU) allege that York security told them they would not be allowed to protest the pres- ence of an Israeli journalist who spoke at York Nov. 4.
Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, spoke to an audience of 75 people regarding efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The student group Hasbara at York organized and sponsored the event.
According to Hannah Bhamanpour, an executive member of IHRS-YU, when members from the IHRS-YU arrived in Founders College to attend the event, they were confronted by York security and told they would not be allowed to protest the event.
Bhamanpour added her group had no intention of holding a demonstration or a protest from the very beginning.
“When we approached the event […] we were approached by two se- curity officers and the manager of security. We did state that we are not here to cause trouble, we are just here to present our view and what had happened was we were told we weren’t allowed to demonstrate outside in the hallway,” said Bhamanpour.
Alex Bilyk, York’s director of media relations, confirmed there was no protest and no confrontation between York security and members of the student club. He also said no one was escorted from the event.
Bhamanpour said she feels her group was unfairly targeted, especially given that over 150 people were allowed to protest a Nov. 16 York anti-war activism talk by former British Member of Parliament George Galloway.
Adir Dishy, president of Hasbara at York, said his group never objected to anyone protesting the event and did not ask for security. “We didn’t ask for any security. The university thought maybe [the protesters] could become […] a lit- tle hostile, so they sent two security guards,” said Dishy.
Dishy maintains that while at a few moments the atmosphere became fervent and impassioned, there was no yelling and the audience was orderly.
“[The audience was] very respectful the whole time and everybody had the chance to ask questions at the end,” he said.
Bhamanpour explained her group handed out pamphlets at the event that encouraged students to petition York’s vice-president students, Rob Tiffin, about how York should not allow people who promote war on to campus.
“Hoffman came on campus to promote war on another nation, which we feel shouldn’t be something happening on campus,” said Bhamanpour.
Dishy argued Hoffman never advocated for war, but instead for a four-step approach to Iran.
“There’s four ways to go by sanctioning Iran. The first is political, the second is diplomatic, third is the economic sanctions and the last straw would be military masses. [Hoffman] made it very clear that [war] was the last thing anybody wanted,” explained Dishy.