Police called as protesters surround Hillel office

Photo by Jad Yaghmour

The police came out in full force on Feb. 11 to deal with protesters. 

Police were called after a Drop YFS press conference boiled over into a heated war of words where both sides accused one another of racism. The conference was held to announce that the necessary signatures had been collected to impeach the current York Federation of Students (YFS) executive. More than 100 people gathered in support of the embattled student union executives outside of 321 Student Centre on Feb. 11 during a press conference. Krisna Saravanamuttu, YFS vice-president equity, was among those who chanted “Let us in” after the YFS and their supporters were not allowed into the room, which was above the fire-code capacity of 30 people. “When they came to our board meeting two weeks ago, we let everybody in, but when these students – these students who just came here to see what was going on and to have their voices heard – were told they couldn’t come in,” Saravanamuttu said. “That seems hypocritical to me.”

Daniel Ferman, Drop YFS organizer and president of Hillel at York, said that the amount of people in the meeting room had already exceeded the fire regulations and they could not let any more people in. “We invited everyone,” Ferman said. “It was a public meeting; unfortunately our fire capacity was 30. At 40 we had to cut it off. Some members refused to do that and the doors were left open and we proceeded to begin with the meeting.” Drop YFS campaign organizers said they let everyone know that the conference would end if there were any disruptions, which – according to Elinor Izmaylov, Drop YFS media spokesperson – is what ended up happening. Izmaylov added that the campaign
organizers were trying to have a civil press conference, and the noisy chanting outside disrupted it. “Some people couldn’t be

Police clear rowdy demonstrators 

allowed in because we had a capacity issue. The option to move an event to a bigger room was offered to us 15 minutes after the scheduled start, after everyone was informed about the location,” Izmaylov said. Izmaylov said the press conference was disrupted during her speech and that shortly thereafter the Drop YFS organizers left the room and proceeded to the Hillel at York office on the fourth floor of the Student Centre. Meanwhile, protesters chanted “Down with racism” and “Shame on the Zionists.” The Drop YFS organizers, many of whom are members of pro-Israeli campus groups Hillel at York and Hasbara Fellowships at York, and YFS supporters engaged in a heated exchange.
Izmaylov said she considered some of the chants to be hateful. “I think it’s very upsetting that some students on campus are not welcomed and freedom of speech and freedom of expression turned into hatred of speech and people just don’t know the difference between the two,” Izmaylov said.

Jesse Zimmerman, a third-year international development studies student, was on hand to support the current YFS. He said the chants were justified because he considers Zionism to be a racist ideology. “If you’re against communism or fascism, you’re not a racist, you’re not against Jews – there are many Jews in our group,” Zimmerman said. “Zionism is a political ideology and we’re against that.” Ferman disagrees. “Zionism is a core belief of so many people,” he said. “I encourage them to have a dialogue instead of protesting outside.” Saravanamuttu said he believes the reasoning behind the Drop YFS had less to do with the student union’s conduct during the strike and more to do with a recent resolution they passed condemning the Israeli bombing of Gaza at a recent YFS board meeting. “At the board meeting, members of Hasbara Fellowships, members of Hillel at York University warned us outside of that meeting that if this motion gets passed, we will be impeached,” he said.

Ferman denied the accusations, saying that plans had been in the works to impeach the YFS executives since December. “What you see there is very extreme views,” Ferman said. “This campaign was about making our student government accountable. It’s about a recall election; if these student leaders feel they have the students, then let them run again. I asked them ‘Please run again,’ and let us see if they have the confidence of the student body.” Police arrived at 5:40 p.m., when dozens of students gathered outside the Hillel office to express their disappointment with the organizers of the Drop YFS campaign. Although no physical violence occurred, many people inside the Hillel office expressed concern for their safety.

“It makes me feel unsafe; I mean we’re up here, a number of students have come up here, Jewish and not Jewish, that are feeling very unsafe,” Ferman told Excalibur as the crowd chanted outside Hillel’s doors. Saravanamuttu said people who gathered outside room 321 during the press conference acted civilly. “They wanted to express their opposition to the discrimination that has been promoted by the Drop YFS campaign and after numerous attempts of people getting inside, the organizers of the event decided to go ahead and start a press conference,” he said.

- With files from David Ros