Davenport's Negev honour draws criticism

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By Paul Mayne
Thursday, March 13, 2008
An honour about to be bestowed on President Paul Davenport for “leadership and commitment to diversity, tolerance and defending human rights" has generated criticism from some faculty on campus who believe it should be rejected.
Davenport is to be honoured in June at the annual Negev Dinner, created to highlight outstanding community leaders and significant events in Jewish life. It is an honour Davenport says he accepts with great pride.
 
The dinner is sponsored by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), which the faculty group says promotes “exclusion, dispossession and institutionalized discrimination."
 
“I see the Negev dinner as a tribute to Western's values and that is why I am proud to accept this honour from the Jewish National Fund," says Davenport, adding proceeds from the event will fund environmental projects in Israel, carried out by the JNF.
 
“The majority of these projects focus on reforestation, rehabilitation of springs, and treatment of waste water," says Davenport. “Josette and I have selected the En Ro'im Spring Development. The importance of this work is something (we) witnessed in our trip to Israel last year."
 
With acceptance of the honour, announced in December, has come criticism from some faculty who argue the JNF, which controls large sections of land in Israel, practices discrimination and has been a party to dispossessing Arabs from their land.
 
While the JNF and its practices are not generally well-known in North America, they are sufficient enough for the faculty group to ask Davenport to reject the recognition.
 
“President Davenport is being honoured for promoting tolerance and diversity at Western. This is admirable," says Law Professor Michael Lynk, one of 36 faculty members petitioning Davenport to reject the honour.
 
“But the organization which wants to honour him - the Jewish National Fund - is an organization that practices institutionalized discrimination and dispossession in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The JNF is promoting high-minded ideals for low-minded purposes."
 
Lynk cites the JNF's ownership and control of 13 per cent of Israel's land and influence in supervising another 80 per cent. He says all of these lands are reserved for the exclusive use of Israeli Jews. Palestinian citizens of Israel (20 per cent of the population) are not allowed, by the JNF's charter and Israeli laws, to lease, use or benefit from the lands.
 
“The Palestinian citizens are restricted to owning and using approximately three per cent of Israel's land," he says. “This is legalized social exclusion, which no modern liberal democracy would think of tolerating."
 
The JNF's practices, Lynk says, include sponsorship of Canada Park, built in the occupied territories on the ruins of three Palestinian villages destroyed in 1967.
 
“Lending the university's good name to an organization whose practices are contrary to the objectives of tolerance and diversity is inconsistent with the mission of a university, and only entrenches some of the barriers to a peaceful and just resolution to the conflict in the Middle East," says Lynk.
 
Davenport has received communications - pro and con - regarding the honour.
 
“Matters involving the Middle East are usually controversial. People on all sides tend to believe passionately in the justness of their positions," admits Davenport. “I respect the right of colleagues to voice their concerns and condemn my decision. Indeed it is because of these values that we are being recognized and that I am accepting the Negev honour."
 
Davenport says much of the criticism focuses on a century-old JNF policy on land ownership. Israel is a democracy and there has been intense internal debate about this issue - the issue is before Israel's High Court - so he hopes the matter will be resolved.
 
“I am not supporting one side or the other in the long-standing Middle East conflict," says Davenport. “As president of Western I travel to many parts of the world, which have policies or practices, which are controversial and challenged internationally. I do not comment on their local political issues either."
 
Frank Simkevitz, Executive Director of JNF Regional Ontario, says Davenport's name has come up in the past to receive the honour, citing his “commitment to human rights and what he has done for the university in bringing about an attitude of inclusion".
 
However, Simkevitz says he has been taken aback by the criticisms at Western.
 
“It's not the first time it has happened, but I'm surprised it's happening in London," he says, adding when McMaster University President Peter George was honoured in 2003 there was “no backlash" from the academic community.
 
Lynk says he believes when Davenport accepted the invitation in December, he was unaware of the JNF's record. However, since then he has received letters and packets of information.
 
“With the greatest of respect, I believe that the onus rests with President Davenport to square his stated reasons for accepting the award with the JNF's troublesome record," says Lynk. “Simply repeating these high-minded reasons in the face of the damning evidence is unconvincing.
 
Davenport says his decision is final.
 
“I hope my colleagues and the community at large, whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian or Hindi, will respect my decision and understand my goal is not to cause divisions at Western or in London - but rather to accept this award as recognition of the commitment by Western, as well as myself, to celebrating diversity and promoting tolerance and free speech."

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