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University of Winnipeg apologizes for ‘anti-Semitic statements’ at campus event

The language could be considered anti‐Semitic under the internationally accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett presents data from the new Anti-Semitism Cyber Monitoring System. Credit: Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.
Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett presents data from the new Anti-Semitism Cyber Monitoring System. Credit: Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

The University of Winnipeg in Canada apologized for “anti-Semitic statements” made during a campus event on Jerusalem back in February.

A university committee determined “that certain statements made at the event could be considered anti‐Semitic” under the internationally accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, according to a report released earlier this month.

The committee said it evaluated video evidence, in addition to notes and remarks from a follow-up discussion regarding the controversy, held with “interested parties” in April. It also looked at written statements by “interested parties,” along with the IHRA definition.

A dialogue about the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December, the discussion, titled “My Jerusalem: Responding to the U.S. Embassy Announcement,” consisted of “panelists representing the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”

Fadi Ennab and Idris Elbakri stood in for members of the Christian and Islamic faiths, respectively, while the Jewish panelist was Rabbi David Mivasair, who has compared Israel to an “apartheid state,” in addition to making other anti-Israel statements.

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