Jewish students at Western University react after posters of hostages pulled down

Jewish students at Western University are speaking out after posters of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas were pulled down from campus buildings in an incident captured on video. 

The video posted this week on X —  the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — shows two young men pulling posters off the wall at Western's University Community Centre building, then ripping up the posters and throwing them in the garbage.

In the video while the posters are being removed, a woman asks that the men to give them back. When questioned why they are removing the posters, one of the men replied with, "you started this." 

Jewish students who spoke to CBC News said the incident has been reported to Western's Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. In a statement to CBC News, the office would not confirm if it had received a complaint. 

However Opiyo Oloya, the university's associate vice-president of equity, diversity and inclusion said in the statement that the war between Israeli and Hamas has led to a "challenging time for many university campuses, including our own."

"We see the deep pain experienced by those with ties to Israel and Palestine, and we are working to support our students, faculty and staff," the statement said. "Western is a diverse campus where people of all faiths and backgrounds should feel safe, welcome, and supported. This is a top priority for my office, and for Western as a whole."

The statement said the university is working to ensure students can share their views about the war peacefully and that Western's Special Constable Service will monitor events and work with organizers to make them safe.

The university does have a poster policy which says all posters must be approved by facilities management. The policy states that "while university staff regularly remove posters that don't meet those requirements, we certainly don't condone individual students taking material down of their own accord."

The students who put the posters up admit that they were not sanctioned. CBC News was unable to identify the men in the video or determine whether they were affiliated with any campus group. 

Jewish student Hannah Alper said the idea for the posters came out of a discussion in an online chat group among Jewish students at Western, noting she knows the woman in the video who asked for the posters back. She said students printed out posters of the hostages and began posting them in campus buildings. 

Posters weren't 'pro-Israel'

Alper said she wouldn't have minded if campus security had removed the posters to enforce the policy. The problem was that other students were allowed to take them down. 

"It wasn't a political statement," Alper said of the posters. "It's to raise awareness and to bring the hostages home and to show people what is going on. It doesn't say anything pro-Israel."

Alper said the day after the incident shown on the video, about 200 Jewish students stood together outside of the University Community Centre, each holding a photo of an Israeli person currently held hostage in Gaza.

Jay Solomon of the Jewish student group Hillel Ontario said Jewish students have the right to erect the posters as part of a peaceful discussion about the war.

"This is one way that the Jewish community can make sure that those people taken hostage and killed are remembered," he said. 

A University Students Council spokesperson declined to comment about the incident. 

"While we appreciate you reaching out, all of the USC's energy right now is focused on our students and making sure that they feel safe on campus," they said in a statement. "The USC has made the special constables on campus aware of the situation."