Following the furor over his call for violence against supporters of Israel, Igor Sadikov, SSMU member of Legislative Council and Board of Directors, has posted an “apology.”
https://www.facebook.com/vokidas/posts/10154479472505817
Statement regarding the tweet I recently published:
I regret the way that I phrased my opposition to Zionism and the fact that some of my constituents and fellow students felt harmed by it. To be clear, this tweet was not an attack against Jewish students, but on the adherents of a political philosophy that has detrimental impacts on Palestinians on a daily basis. This is an ideology that I oppose, in the same way that I oppose colonization and dispossession in Canada, in the United States, and elsewhere in the world. Given my own Jewish heritage, I believe that we must continue to disentangle Jewish identity from Zionism. Finally, I do not condone nor advocate violence on the basis of membership in any identity group.
Note the phraseology – he regrets that “some of my constituents and fellow students felt harmed by it.” He does not seem to regret that non-constituents and non fellow students who support Israel might feel harmed by it. Furthermore, he admits it was an attack against “Zionists”, but not Jews of course – even though, unlike his claims, you cannot “disentangle” the two. The playing of his own Jewish heritage card is also a nice touch.
But of course, this is not a sincere apology. I know this beyond the politically correct wording. You see, Igor has ‘Liked’ the following comment underneath the apology on his Facebook wall:
No doubt he is going to remove the ‘Like’ as soon as this post is brought to his attention. So I implore all of you to have a look at it now, and if you see it too, take your own screenshot to verify what I am saying is true.
In the meantime, please join me in bringing this too to the attention of McGill University. Clearly, Sadikov does still advocate violence against supporters of Israel.
