CUPE Stupidity

When an ongoing violent conflict flares up, such as the current fighting in the Gaza Strip, the most constructive thing that Western organizations can do is try to muzzle any and all debate about the issue, right? Oh wait - that's ridiculous. And yet that seems to be the stance preferred by the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). 

CUPE Ontario is asking that the province's universities prevent Israeli professors from speaking - or even researching - on their campuses unless said professors condemn Israel's military action in Gaza, in particular the bombing of the region's Islamic University. 

The current violence is just the latest eruption in a conflict that has gone on as long as the state of Israel has existed, and as time goes on it becomes more and more difficult to identify clear-cut good guys or bad guys. Lots of blood on everyone's hands. Yet CUPE Ontario seems to feel that it is, in fact, just that easy to choose a a side, and that Ontario universities - ostensibly the cornerstones of free speech and thought - should censor any employees that don't hold the "correct" opinion.

The so-called logic here is that Israeli professors will present a biased view of the situation. What's interesting is that CUPE is making its move after an appeal by the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees. Presumably no one from this group has been forced to condemn Palestinian rocket attacks as a condition of their employment.

I don't understand why it's CUPE's place to try and strong-arm free Canadian institutions into adopting a specific political stance on a controversial issue in the Middle East. Nor do I understand how it will help Israelis, Palestinians or Canadians trying to make sense of the situation to block professors from doing their job. Especially since the proposed ban seems to include all Israeli professors, not just those that teach, say, politics or religion. 

Because of Israel's aggression (or is it response to aggression?) in Gaza, an Israeli math professor at York University might be denied entrance to his own algebra class. It's the kind of insanity that makes the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict look almost rational by comparison.