Toronto (November 5, 2017) - Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is pleased to learn that the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) joins the growing list of student bodies rejecting the discriminatory Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.  

A motion was brought before the SFUO's Board of Administration this Sunday to add several new "social justice" ​policies to the SFUO’s policy handbook, including support for the BDS movement against Israel. Students quickly r​allied to ensure that the motion was amended to remove any reference to  BDS. This comes after reports of unsuccessful attempts to strip Hillel Ottawa and the Israel Awareness Committee of club status earlier this year and follows on a growing list of student bodies that have rejected BDS, including University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, Simon Fraser University, McGill and University of Winnipeg.

"While the false narrative of the BDS movement becomes clearer with each defeat, it took the proactive commitment of students to counter those who continue to try to co-opt student politics for their own purposes," stated Avi Benlolo, President and CEO of FSWC.​ "Anti-Israel motions have no place under policies purporting to promote ​social justice. SFUO's Board of Administration, with a mandate to act in the best interest of all its students, properly rejected this latest attempt to marginalize the pro-Israel and Jewish voices on campus."

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Media Contact: 

Avital Borisovsky 
Communications Associate     
416.864.9735 x 29 
aborisovsky@fswc.ca

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Follow us on Twitter at @CanadianFSWC for latest news and organization updates

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Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) is a top Jewish human rights foundation in Canada's organized Jewish community. It directly impacts over 100,000 people each year and 500,000+ peripherally. FSWC is committed to countering racism and antisemitism and to promoting the principles of tolerance, social justice and Canadian democratic values through advocacy and educational programs including workshops, Freedom Day, Spirit of Hope Benefit, Tools for Tolerance and the widely acclaimed Tour for Humanity. FSWC is affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization headquartered in Los Angeles which has won two Academy Awards, has built two Museums of Tolerance (with a third being built in Jerusalem) and is an NGO at the United Nations, UNESCO, OAS, OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament. Visit us at www.fswc.ca. 

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