Amnesty International’s University of Toronto chapter is threatening “unprecedented” acts of “resistance” if the school opts to crack down on anti-Zionist activity amid a rise of antisemitism on Canadian campuses.
The student chapter, which seeks to “bring awareness to students, faculty, and alumni about human rights violations around the world,” made the threat in response to a letter by Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather, David Lametti, Ben Carr, Marco Mendicino and Anna Gainey condemning rising on-campus antisemitism
The letter, addressed to Canada’s 25 biggest post-secondary institutions, asked schools what steps they have taken to adress antisemitism, and to own up to whether they see calling for the genocide of Jews as a violation of their student codes of conducts.
On some campuses, including at York University in Toronto, students have been calling for “intifada” (an armed uprising) in the months following the terror group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
The U of T Amnesty chapter responded to the letter on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “if the (U of T) administration starts a crackdown on Palestinian students or Pro-Palestinian organizations/organizing on campuses… they will face the most unprecedented form of resistance from us STUDENTS.”
The account followed up by claiming that this “resistance” will not terrify Jewish students, noting “we don’t even need to express our love and sympathy for our Jewish student fellows. We equally will display the ‘most unprecedented form of resistance’ for them.
“People will always stand up and protest injustice, however you try to package it.”
The account subsequently engaged with several people who opposed their message – telling one user that “combating antisemitism cannot come at a cost to suppress freedom of expression, and we are not accepting this double-standard where mainly the Pro-Palestinians are being targeted.”
The term “resistance” has been used by some people to describe Hamas’ violence.
True North asked the Amnesty chapter for clarification on what it meant by “resistance,” and to ask if the group condemns calls for “intifada.” The club did not respond directly, but did share a subsequent X post for “the Journos who want a comment on (the original) post.”
In that post, the chapter noted it “does not condone any form of antisemitism on campuses. We unequivocally condemn it.” It added that “the most unprecedented form” means “a peaceful and massive mobilization for protecting wrongfully targeted students, faculty and staff.”
The University of Toronto also did not return a request for comment.
