Humber College voices 'regret' after student removed from campus for posting Palestinian flag stickers
CBC
Dozens of students organized a walkout Humber College in Toronto on Tuesday after one student was removed from campus for putting up stickers of the Palestinian flag amid heightened tensions on many Canadian university campuses.
Hani Alaf, a Syrian-Canadian postgraduate student, says he plastered about a dozen stickers around Humber's Lakeshore campus last Tuesday. The stickers depicted the Palestinian flag and read "Boycott Israeli Apartheid."
Two days later, he was sitting in class when a staff member of Humber's public safety department approached him and asked him to leave campus and not return, he says.
"[I was told] that I have been accused of spreading hate speech, of spreading antisemitic rhetoric and of desecrating and vandalizing property," Alaf told CBC Toronto.
"My actions of putting up those stickers were in protest, in the most peaceful and diplomatic of ways and not in violation of their code. It was just an absolutely crazy accusation that has absolutely no truth."
The incident comes as many colleges and universities are seeing a rise in on-campus tensions amid the ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip following Hamas's attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, and rallies calling a ceasefire to stop the climbing death toll.
At least 10,328 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including some 4,237 children, according to local health officials. Israeli officials say that 1,400 Israeilis have been killed and 240 hostages were also taken.
Thousands of people have taken to Toronto streets over past weekends, calling for a ceasefire as Israel continues to pound the besieged enclave. The Toronto rally was just one of many other demonstrations that took place in more than two dozen Canadian cities.
Toronto police meanwhile say there has been a significant rise in reported antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in the city.
Alaf, 24, says he was told Thursday that he could face arrest if he returns to campus and was given no other details.
"I had not spread hate speech and misinformation and I did not spread antisemitic rhetoric," he said. "To [say] that Israel is an apartheid state is an unequivocal fact affirmed by international human rights organizations."
He says fellow classmates were "dismayed" after he was reprimanded by the school and organized the walkout to protest the incident.
Later that same day, he says he received an email from the school telling him he could return to campus and attend any classes. On Friday, Alaf says he was contacted by the Dean of Students by phone and told that the school deeply regrets what unfolded.
Emily Milic, associate director of communications at Humber College, says the school initially received a number of complaints about the content of the stickers.
