Two Ottawa universities are going ahead next week with a controversial campaign that links Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of blacks in apartheid South Africa, despite facing objections by the province's MPPs.

Beginning March 1, both Carleton University and the University of Ottawa will host Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), an international event held annually in cities and campuses around the world. Other Canadian cities hosting IAW this year include Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal and Edmonton.

The weeklong series, which features lectures and discussions criticizing Israel's policies toward Palestinians, has faced criticism in the past. Groups like the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies have condemned the annual event as being anti-Semitic.

Ontario MPPs voted unanimously Thursday on a motion to denounce this year's IAW. Peter Shurman, the MPP who moved the resolution, said he had no issue with debating the Israel-Palestine conflict, but is concerned with the use of the word "apartheid," which he feels is inflammatory.

"My problem is the name," he said. "Israeli Apartheid Week is not dialogue, it's a monologue. The name is hateful, it is odious and that's not how things should be in my Ontario."

The decision to condemn the event is largely symbolic, however, and won't prevent it from happening.

Carleton graduate student Ben Saifer, a member of the campus's Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIS) group, said not all Jewish-Canadians are against IAW.

"Personally, I'm Jewish," he said. "Numerous members of [SAIS] are Jewish as well. Some students may be uncomfortable with the political material put that forward. But if you come to a university, you've got to be ready to be presented with material that challenges your existing beliefs."

Last year, SAIS to put up posters advertising the week that showed an Israeli helicopter firing a missile at a Palestinian child labelled "Gaza."

Both Carleton and the University of Ottawa removed the posters from their respective campuses but did not cancel the events.