Thread by @dgrdon

Yesterday, media reported on four students who testified to a HoC committee on "antisemitism and Jewish safety", saying Jewish students are "terrified" and "don't feel safe."

They failed to mention three of them hold or previously held positions in pro-Israel advocacy orgs...🧵

Nati Pressmann was a Campus Fellow for the pro-Israel media advocacy org @HonestRepCanada. She testified as founder of the "Canadian Union of Jewish Students,"
which only launched a week ago. That org doesn't have a website but its launch was profiled by @nationalpost.

Michael Eshayek is VP External Affairs of Concordia's StartUpNation, which promotes Israel as a tech hub. In March, they co-hosted an event that invited IDF reservists to talk about the "fight against the delegitimization of Israel." They're on Insta: instagram.com/thestartupnati…

Nicole Nashen was the president of Hillel Concordia from 2021-22. Hillel seems to be housed within Federation CJA and works with CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs), both pro-Israel orgs. Nashen's testimony called out "anti-Israel activists" and pro-Palestine encampments.

Rachel Cook is the only student who who does not appear to have pro-Israel org affiliations. She previously said of the University of Alberta that “antisemitism and anti-Israel bias are institutional here.” jns.org/jewish-law-stu…

Two non-students also spoke to the committee. Yosh Tashish works for Hillel Ontario. His bio on Israel Policy Forum's website says "he currently serves as the lead professional for Queen’s University Hillel in Kingston, ON." Hillel Ontario does pro-Israel advocacy.

The other was was Neil G. Oberman, the lawyer who unsuccessfully sought an injunction on behalf of two McGill students to get the pro-Palestine encampment there cleared by police. cbc.ca/news/canada/mo…

Oberman also represented two unnamed students in taking legal action against McGill after a protest there in Feb. thesuburban.com/news/city_news…

Several other students spoke at a press conference outside. Three are mentioned in @StephTaylorCP's article (which I think incorrectly states that six students spoke on Parliament Hill - it was four in committee and then seven or more at the presser). ctvnews.ca/canada/jewish-…

All three additional students mentioned in that article work / worked for / held positions in pro-Israel organizations. That also isn't mentioned in the article.

Sydney Greenspoon: StandWithUs Emerson Fellow (current)

Anastasia Zorchinsky: president of StartUpNation (current)

Claire Frankel: Hillel McGill, Chai fellowship, Hasbara fellowship, Honest Reporting Canada Media fellowship, CJPAC (mix of past and current)

Of the MPs on the committee, several have been lobbied extensively by CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs):

Anthony Housefather
Marco Mendicino
Randall Garrison
Melissa Lantsman
Marty Morantz
readthemaple.com/here-are-the-1…

As far as I can tell, there were no anti-Zionist Jews who spoke at the antisemitism committee nor at the press conference afterwards. I haven't seen any quoted in the media reports about the committee either.

In the top news results about the committee hearing and press conference, reports only refer to "Jewish students" and did not specify how many were or had been involved in pro-Israel advocacy groups (at least six of seven students).

It's a media failure that the reporting depicted those who spoke at this committee as the authority on Jewish student experience, didn't note their org affiliations, and didn't mention or quote the many Jewish students participating in the pro-Palestine campus encampments.

Link to the HoC committee notes:

Video: ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer…
parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/Pow…

Correction: Rachel Cook also recently worked for a pro-Israel advocacy org, as chief of staff to Reut USA's president in 2022-23. So that's 4/4 students who were on the committee and 7/7 when including those at the press conference.

https://twitter.com/make_mine_marx/status/1789070126891061305