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Amy Hamm: White UBC prof claims to have 'absorbed anti-Palestinian racism'

A UBC panel discussion was used as an opportunity for self-congratulatory anti-Israel academics to pat themselves on the back

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Some anti-Israel academics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) recently demonstrated their poor understanding of the word “dialogue” by holding an event in which organizers explicitly banned debate or opposing views.

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Put on by the department of psychiatry’s equity, diversity and inclusion committee, the event was titled, “Taking collective liberatory action to promote health as a human right, and health equity for Palestinian people: An anti-oppressive dialogue within the health professions.”

Amy Hamm: White UBC prof claims to have 'absorbed anti-Palestinian racism' Back to video

It was advertised as a collaboration between the university’s psychiatry and occupational therapy (OT) departments, and was funded by UBC’s Equity & Inclusion Office and the Strategic Equity and Anti-racism Enhancement Fund.

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The event was scheduled to occur both in person and online. However, two days prior, the event organizer, Tal Jarus, a professor of occupational health who described herself as a “queer white cis woman Jewish settler,” emailed attendees and claimed that the meeting would “be held online only for simplicity sake and because of the small number of people who registered for the onsite option.”

This was shown to be untrue when panellist Annalee Yassi said during the live event that it had actually been moved online “largely because of its so-called controversial nature.”

At the outset, moderator Sarah Leavitt, a creative writing professor who specializes in comics, told the audience that the event was meant to “discuss aspects of Jewishness that have been drowned out by the focus of mainstream Jewish institutions on identifying Jewishness with Israel and Zionism.”

Leavitt continued, “Our panellists have all written or published papers to condemn the silent complicity of health-care institutions in the face of genocide in Palestine, the state of apartheid in Israel and attempted ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” before noting that no debate would be allowed. Online comments were turned off, so attendees had to directly message panellists with questions that were not visible to anyone else.

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Following this, Ben Mortenson, head of UBC’s OT department, got on camera and made the bold, contradictory claim that, “The university and its leadership does not take positions on geopolitical conflicts and classifications.”

Not a single one of them condemned Hamas or the October 7 terrorist attack that led to the war in Gaza.

Moussa Abu Mostafa, who appeared remotely from Gaza, lamented the “systematic destruction” in Gaza and said that he and his fellow Palestinians “are very disappointed about the stance from the international community, especially health-care professionals who are our colleagues.… We think if we were in their positions, we would have done a lot for Palestinians.” He argued that all health-care professionals must speak out and insist that Israel is committing genocide.

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Yassi, a professor at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, went so far as to make excuses for antisemitic acts of terrorism. “When a synagogue is attacked by someone grieving for the loss of their family from Israeli bombs, that’s horrific — it should be soundly condemned, it is illegal, it should be punished severely,” she began. “But the data strongly suggests that such acts don’t come from innate hatred of Jews. Rather, the perception by misguided people that being Jewish means supporting Israeli crimes. That’s what increases the risk for these things to happen.”

In other words, synagogue attacks — many of which have happened on Canadian soil — are the unfortunate but expected outcome of Israel defending itself against Hamas. To prevent further attacks, Israel must cower and lie down. What nonsense.

Not to be outdone, Aliya Khan, a professor of medicine at McMaster, made the false claim that Israel has “banned” infant formula from entering Palestine. She then shared images of Palestinian toddler Karim Abu Nassar and insisted the child had been “tortured” by IDF soldiers, a claim made by Hamas-associated media outlets that Israel has denied. “Babies have been tortured,” said Khan.

Khan’s claims — none of which have been verified — went wholly unquestioned.

Several of the panellists discussed a paper they co-authored titled, “Shattering Silence, Inviting Dialogue: Anti-Oppressive Occupational Therapy During the Genocide of Palestinians,” but managed to derail the stated topic of the event by discussing how traumatic it felt for them, personally, to write the paper. They spoke of “embracing” one another and being “held” through their trauma, being “trauma-triggered” and “staying in trust” with the other authors.

“I’m entitled to my own rage,” announced occupational therapist Hiba Zafran, speaking about her writing process. (Zafran also claimed that requests made to event organizers that they rewrite the invitation amounted to literal violence. She did not elaborate on these requests, instead only hinting that some sort of behind-the-scenes controversy had occurred.)

Katie Lee Bunting, an assistant professor of teaching who self-identifies as a “queer white woman,” admitted to having “absorbed anti-Palestinian racism” (she did not explain further) before writing the paper. Jarus, meanwhile, went on about her emotional struggle when deciding whether to put her real name on the paper.

At some point, the “progressive” mask slipped, and the true reason everyone was gathered for the event became apparent: so that a group of self-congratulatory academics could flaunt their virtue for all to see — with no debate or discussion allowed.

Towards the end — perhaps after realizing that the event had descended into an indulgent navel-gazing competition — the panel appeared to suddenly recall the presence of Mostafa, who was on the line from Gaza, and began to excitedly ask him to come back on screen. “Are you still there, Moussa?! Are you still there?!”

He came back, briefly, seated in what appeared to be a grand parlour. Several cloying thank yous were offered in a tone not unlike the one used when woke people announce their pronouns, or their status as a “settler colonialist.”

One UBC faculty of medicine physician, Kevin Solomons, told the Post that he left the event early, out of frustration that his numerous questions were ignored by the panel. One such question: “Why do you not identify Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRGC as genocidal institutions/regimes since all three promote in their charters and/or public statements the elimination and extermination of Israel?”

Jarus, after the event ended but before logging off, told the other speakers that she “forgot to record the session.”

So much for dialogue.

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