Dispute over Israel flag in Vari Hall

Yuni Kim
News Editor
A confrontation among York’s cultural student groups on campus led to a heated debate regarding the existence and official recognition of the state of Israel last week.
The Middle Eastern Student Association (MESA) and the Iranian Students Association at York University (ISAYU) were jointly tabling in Vari Hall on Feb. 10 to promote upcoming political guest speaker Dr. Norman Finkelstein.

On the other side of Vari Hall, Hasbara Fellowships at York were tabling to promote the showing of Iranium, a controversial documentary that analyzes the history of the Iranian regime and its alleged nuclear weapon development initiatives.
Noting the Egyptian, Iranian and Palestinian flags were hanging behind MESA’s table, Hasbara@York member Oriyah Barzilay said she went up to them with an Israeli flag and asked whether it could be put up alongside the others.
“Apparently, their group is not supposed to be political,” she said. “They had all their flags up there, so I approached them.”
The group members suggested she speak to MESA president Brian Rizvi* over the phone about the issue.
“There was no problem, and we were being civil,” said Barzilay of the initial dialogue. “Then [Rizvi] proceeded to tell me that he doesn’t recognize Israel as a Middle Eastern country […] that it’s Palestine.”
Rizvi confirmed that he had spoken to Barzilay about the issue.
“We recognize that there is a single Palestinian state, and that’s [MESA’s] only stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Rizvi. “She asked if we could put the flag up. I told her that the membership doesn’t want the flag up, so we won’t put it up […] within our group, it doesn’t matter to us. If our members wanted to recognize [Israel], then it would be recognized.”
According to Rizvi, the membership is comprised of a list of students who are designated official members of MESA.
“It’s within our constitution that we reserve the right to not put up certain flags,” said Rizvi. “We go by the constitution.”
MESA’s constitution includes a Jan. 5, 2011 amendment that states “MESA does not have any obligations to represent nations, interests, peoples, cultures, ideas or values of the entire Middle East or that do not pertain to the middle east or contradict to that of the best interest of this region.”
In addition, it is also written that MESA “has no obligation nor should not represent bodies of the region that are not recognized in unanimity by the Arab league, Turkey, Iran, and the Canadian Arab Federation.”
Hasbara@York president Adir Dishy says the underlying issue is that MESA is denying the existence of the state of Israel.
“To say they don’t have to represent flags or countries that aren’t part of the Middle East, that’s totally acceptable,” said Dishy, noting that Turkey and Israel have had a good relationship. “But they are clearly not recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a country, which is totally unacceptable. Israel’s been a country for 63 years […] I don’t even know how to respond to something so outrageous.”
ISAYU president Mehraz Javadyniya – who was present at the time of the confrontation  – stated that the dialogue between the two parties was civil, but worried that bystanders might get a negative impression of the public dispute.
“A majority of Middle Easterners do not recognize the state of Israel,” he said. “However, the Iranian Students Association does under a two-state solution.”
With regards to Rizvi’s decision to decline hanging the Israeli flag by the MESA table, Javadyniya said that their democratic decision to do so should stand.
*Name has since been changed upon the individual’s request