SPHR Defense
On March 13, the Jewish Tribune published an article entitled “Back with a Whimper: Israeli Apartheid Week in Montreal,” written by Daniel Smajovits. The article included a direct quote from Dana Remer, co-president of Concordia Students for Israel, in which she accuses Concordia’s Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights of having access to external finances and resources as “the people that work with [SPHR] are not in school anymore.” Though we understand that the author is entitled to his own opinions regarding the events surrounding Israel Apartheid Week, we cannot accept the libelous accusations made against SPHR. These comments were made irresponsibly, given the constructive and transparent dialogue with Remer that had occurred after an SPHR event this past fall semester.
SPHR Concordia is made up of hardworking students who dedicate long hours to ensure the advancement of its mandate. It is
therefore extremely unfortunate that defamatory statements are undermining our efforts. Upon discovering this article, we reached out to the co-president of CSI in the hopes of gaining some clarity on the situation.
Remer stated that her words were taken out of context and assured SPHR that she would contact the Jewish Tribune to correct the
misinformation that had been published. We have since not seen any changes to the article. In the meantime, we hope that this is an isolated incident and we await the pending retraction.
In addition, we regret the author’s failure to contact SPHR Concordia and give us an opportunity to respond to the false allegations.
—Asma Alaribi, BSc Biology
Sara Shaltony, BA Journalism
Solidarity for Palestinian Human
Rights
