Two articles in The Griff, from Edmonton-based MacEwan University’s student-run newspaper, are a Bingo card full of anti-Israel tropes, shopworn cliches and copy-and-paste catch-phrases indistinguishable from Palestinian propaganda organs.

They are written by David Slater, currently attending Grant MacEwan Communications Studies, and self-proclaimed “student journalist,” according to his LinkedIn profile. One piece is called “End the siege, end the occupation” from October 19, and the other “MacEwan needs to talk about Palestine”, on November 23.

“The aftermath of the horrific Hamas attack on Israeli Kibbutz [sic] has unleashed a bloodthirsty and brutal Zionist retribution upon the Palestinians. The real tragedy, however, is that this violence was, and still is, avoidable,” Mr. Slater wrote in his October column. To be more precise, the Hamas attack also included thousands of rockets fired at civilian areas, and the indiscriminate murder of some 250 innocents at a music festival. 

It’s interesting that he chose to use the words “bloodthirsty” and “brutal” for Israel, but not Hamas. Terrorists from the Islamic group burned families alive, slaughtered dozens of babies, and victims’ body parts were chopped off while they were still alive – all to the euphoric glee of the perpetrators.

“To justify what is now, by any measured account, an unconscionable act of ethnic cleansing, Israel has labelled all Palestinians as Hamas…” he wrote. But Israel’s counter-terrorism actions are far from ethnic cleansing; in fact, the United Nations (UN) has a working definition of “ethnic cleansing” that defines it as the forcible removal of one ethnic group to be replaced by another.

But Israel isn’t doing that. Not by “any measured account.” Israel actually did the reverse: they forcibly removed thousands of Israeli Jews from Gaza during the 2005 Disengagement. The idea, moreover, that Israel has “labelled all Palestinians as Hamas” is another slur: absurd, unproven and has no factual basis. 

“Israeli, American, British, and Canadian governments demand Palestinians remain in a concentration camp, lay down, and die politely,” he wrote. The heartless use of the phrase “concentration camp” trivializes the Holocaust, and there is no comparing it, in any way, to Gaza and this comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany fits the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism. All of these governments have expressed their deep, unequivocal, concern for Palestinians. No proof these governments seek, desire, let alone “demand” any innocent Palestinian deaths. This is just empty, ugly, and baseless hyperbolic rhetoric. 

“The Israeli bombing campaign” he wrote, is “targeting schools, hospitals, mosques, emergency and rescue workers, and fleeing civilians.” The IDF found weapons in schools, in hospitals, and a weapons lab in mosques, and much more.

“We must understand this (Palestinian) war is not religious violence; it’s colonial. This is a war of occupation and land seizure,” Slater authoritatively told readers. 

If Slater has received a memo from Palestinian terrorists stating their goal is effectively a real estate dispute, then he has not shared that with Hamas. The Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group will proudly tell anyone who will listen what their true goals are.

Hamas’ founding charter is rife with religious calls for violence against Jews and Israel, and its senior leaders loudly make no secret of their fanatical goal to destroy all of Israel.

A month later, Slater’s November column reflected no more of a tethering to reality than his previous commentary.

In his more recent column, Slater called on the university administration to vocalize its support for the Palestinian cause, and repeatedly accused Israel of carrying out “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, once again providing no evidence for his false accusations.

For all of Slater’s rhetorical flourishes in accusing Israel of war crimes against Palestinians, he whitewashed Hamas’ October 7 massacre in southern Israel – the largest mass killing of Jews since the end of the Holocaust – by describing it only as “the Oct 7 Hamas cross-border attack,” choosing to deliberately avoid telling readers, not just about the nature of the violence inflicted on Israel, but about the chilling face of Hamas, which not only carries out bloodthirsty attacks on civilians, but which gleefully records it for perpetuity.

Slater’s column did more than demand that the university take a stand on the Israel-Hamas war; it demanded that such a stand be firmly anti-Israel, quoting one student, Noor Zaaour, who theorized that “our universities are silent about this because there are international students or even students that may support the apartheid state of Israel.”

With nearly 20,000 students enrolled at MacEwan University, there is surely a wide diversity of opinions relating to the Israel-Hamas conflict. It is a stain on thousands of student’s reputation that David Slater represents their student body’s views.