Many thanks to the Students for Palestinian Rights at the University of
Waterloo for quickly addressing this problem of an exchange between Haifa and
University of Waterloo. Now we need to step in and lend our support by writing
and phoning Dr David Johnston [EMAIL PROTECTED] , Martin Van Nierop [EMAIL
PROTECTED] and Anne Pidduck at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz of Chapters Indigo have made a $500,000.
donation to the University of Waterloo to pay for a tuition-free student
exchange program between Haifa University and the University of Waterloo. To
give Waterloo students a true picture of what is happening in Palestine/Israel
SFPR has asked that the exchange also include time at Birzeit University and
Palestinian areas. Anne Pidduck the co-coordinator of the program said she is
doubtful that tours of the OT will be offered since it's a High Risk area.
(Plus the road to Birzeit has recenlty been blocked.)
Personally, I think UW should return the donation and not participate in this
exchange. It will be used as a propaganda effort with far reaching
consequences. Reisman and Schwartz are grooming UW students to be pro-Israel
for when they graduate and take up influential positions in Canada. A similar
case in point - the Ontario Chiefs of police and other senior officials who
participated in a police trip to Israel are now in powerful positions such as
most of the executive of the Ontario Chiefs of Police Association and head of
the OPP etc.
Please see the full story of the Haifa/UW exchange program, information links
and phone numbers in the email BELOW.
In order to win people over to our concerns, please state your case logically
and politely. Overly emotional or rude calls can alienate the people we are
trying to educate.
If you are a UW alumni please say so in your letter or phone call.
Thanks, Susan Howard-Azzeh.
Nours Arab <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: "Rami Alhamad" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Susan Howard-Azzeh" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Nours Arab" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:01:45 -0500
Subject: [Nidah] Concern Over Reisman-Sponsored Haifa/UofW Exchange Program
In early January, Students for Palestinian Rights (SFPR), a student club
at the University of Waterloo (UW) noticed posters all around the university
about a University of Waterloo-University of Haifa exchange program, which
boasted that the term spent at Haifa would be tuition-free. Gerry Schwartz,
CEO of the Onex Corporation, and Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo Books and Music
were covering the bill with a $500,000 donation. You can read more about this
donation directly from the UWaterloo buletin:
http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2006/oct/03tu.html
As many of you may be aware, there are existing efforts to promote boycott of
Indigo/Chapters/Coles because of previous stances/actions taken by the CEO
couple. You can get more details about the boycott effort from the Coalition
Against Israeli Apartheid's Chapters Boycott website at
http://www.caiaweb.org/indigoboycott. In short, Reisman and Schwartz are the
founders of the Heseg Foundation, which provides scholarships to "lone" Israeli
soldiers. You can see the Heseg Foundation here: http://www.heseg.com/.
Having learned about the Schwartz-Reisman-funded exchange program at the
University of Waterloo, SFPR decided to distribute flyers about Israel's
discriminatory policy, specifically in the education sector. These flyers were
distributed outside the exchange program's information session. This was
effectively a very peaceful and professional protest, which was covered by the
university paper:
http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2140
During this protest, SFPR was offered the opportunity to speak to UW
administration. Two SFPR members met with Anne Pidduck, the UW Co-ordinator of
the exchange program. SFPR was hoping to ensure that minimally the program
does not act as a propaganda tool that gives a one-sided picture of Israel.
After negotiations with the UW administration, UW expressed willingness to
allow SFPR to co-host future information sessions to ensure that interested
students are given a fuller picture of Israel and take that into consideration
before participating in the program. It must be noted that the UW
administration did not consult any student body before accepting this money.
However, they appeared to have been expecting a response but having little
concern about it. They placed us in this reactionary position as opposed to
being included in the decision process.
SFPR would love to have the support of UW Alumni in contacting the University
of Waterloo .
The contact info for people you may want to call and express your concern to
regarding the exchange program donation are:
Martin Van Nierop Communications & Public Affairs
+1 519-888-4881 or 519-888-4567 x84881
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Anne Pidduck School of Computer Science
+1 519-888-4567 x34662
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[Note from Susan: You may also wish to contact the president of the University
of Waterloo, David L. Johnston at 519-888-4400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] , University
of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infopres/HTML/president.html .]
Cheers,
Nours
SFPR, UW
==========================================================================================
Ralph Nader's dad to Ralph when he was 10 years old: "So what did you learn
in school today? To believe or to think?"
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