Here is a copy of the Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) submission to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism. It
is well worth reading and should be distributed widely. See note below also regarding how to make a submission to the
Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism. See also: Objections
to criminalizing the CPCCA definition of anti-Semitism
August 25, 2009
Independent Jewish Voices
(Canada)submission to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
represents Canadian Jews who share a strong commitment to social justice and universal
human rights. We especially promote justice, ethics, and humanity in Israel and Palestine,
as well as in Canada. IJV offers a range of Jewish perspectives which differ from those of
the Canadian Jewish Congress, B’nai Brith, the Canada-Israel Committee, and the Canadian
Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, all of which encourage the view that Judaism and
uncritical support for Israeli policies and practices are synonymous. IJV has chapters in
seven cities across Canada (Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and
Vancouver) and members in many other Canadian cities.
As Jews, we take true anti-Semitism—that is, discrimination and
attacks on Jews and Judaism—very seriously. However, we reject the false assumptions on
which the CPCCA and its efforts are based:
Despite protestations to the contrary,
the CPCCA conflates legitimate criticism of Israel with
anti-Semitism: The CPCCA claims that its purpose is not "really about limiting
legitimate criticism of the State of Israel." However its web site says that
"calls for the destruction of the State of Israel are inherently antisemitic."
IJV believes that this statement is part of an organized attempt on the part of
partisans of Israel to conflate the call for the dismantling of repressive Israeli
institutions and ending repressive Israeli practices regarding Palestinians with the
physical destruction of the Jewish population of Israel.
The London Declaration states "We are alarmed at the
resurrection of the old language of prejudice and its modern manifestations – in
rhetoric and political action – against Jews, Jewish belief and practice and the State
of Israel." This is another conflation of criticism of Israel with prejudice against
Jews. Our organization is actively involved in the former, while we are adamantly opposed
to the latter. There is a fundamental difference between the two.
Independent Jewish Voices includes a broad spectrum of opinion on
this issue, ranging from strongly Zionist to strongly anti-Zionist. This diversity of
views enriches and deepens our understanding. As Jews, we hold that free speech
includes the right of all people to openly discuss their views on all matters
related to the political reality in Israel, including whether or not they should support
an ethnocratic state which privileges Jews by imposing brutal discrimination and deploys
indiscriminate violence against its indigenous population as well as against
its neighbours.
The CPCCA asserts without foundation that "the extent and
severity of antisemitism is widely regarded as at its worst level since the end of the
Second World War
." There is no evidence of any significant rise in
anti-Semitism in Canada or elsewhere. In fact, as Globe and Mail columnist Michael
Valpy reported in March 2004, an extensive survey on anti-Semitic attitudes by the
Canadian Jewish Congress and the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy found
very low levels of anti-Semitism. We find it very revealing that the CJC chose not
to publish this survey and put off our requests for copies of the results.
Similarly, the Anti-Defamation League’s 2002 survey of U.S. anti-Semitic
attitudes found an almost steady decline in the proportion of Americans who are
anti-Semitic from 29% in 1964, to 20% in 1992, to 12% in 1998, with a slight rise to 17%
in 2002—just after the massacre that Israeli forces carried out at the
Palestinian city of Jenin. The 2002 ADL survey found that the majority of Americans hold
highly positive attitudes toward Jews, and that it was concerns over Israeli
war crimes that were generating anti-Semitic attitudes.1
Even these studies are flawed, however, because they confuse
individual prejudice with institutionally oppressive anti-Semitism. As Jason Kunin points
out, "it's important to distinguish between prejudice and oppression. Prejudice is
simply an opinion based on limited information or stereotypes. Everyone has prejudices. We
all have some opinions based on incomplete information….Prejudice can exist at both an ideological
level (e.g. "white people are ignorant and mean") and at an individual
level (e.g. "I won't vote for that white politician"), but unless that prejudice
can also translate into institutional practices that marginalize or exclude, then
that prejudice is not oppression but merely a prejudice. Given the current reality of
global white supremacy, neither of the examples I have given above have the potential to
oppress." On that basis, he concludes, "Anti-Semitism, pervasive and deadly only
a couple generations ago, is no longer a form of oppression."2
What is unprecedented is not the level of anti-Semitism in the
world, but rather the rising level of international outrage over Israel’s actions. To
reiterate, this is not anti-Semitism, but rather a legitimate, growing
expression of concern and moral outrage.
According to the drafters of this initiative, there is a pressing
need to respond to what they characterize as the "new anti-Semitism," in which
"anti-Zionism is being used as a cover for anti-Semitism." IJV believes that it
is legitimate for critics of Israel’s behaviour to describe it as a system of apartheid
and to deny the legitimacy of any state that engages in such practices. This is not
anti-Semitism of any kind, new or old.
The CPCCA alleges that Canadian Jewish students are particularly
ridiculed and intimidated for being Jewish
. For example, its press release claims "Jewish students
are being threatened and intimidated to the point that they are not able to express
themselves, or are even fearful to wear a Jewish skull cap or star around their
necks." IJV has co-sponsored and participated in a broad range of activities critical
of Israeli abuses of Palestinian rights, including Israel Apartheid Week events, tours
conducted by the Palestinian Human Rights organization Al Haq, locally-based tours of the
Palestinian town of Bi’lin, and demonstrations against the horrific Israeli
assault on the people of Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. In all those events,
pro-Israeli Jewish students as well as Jews generally were welcomed and their
comments treated respectfully. By contrast, YouTube has captured a number of incidents
in which pro-Israel students barged into demonstrations critical of Israel or mounted
provocative counter demonstrations, using the heated arguments with Palestinians and their
supporters that their interventions generated as evidence that they were being
"intimidated and threatened."3 These were not cases of Jews being
attacked for their Judaism, but Palestinians and their supporters arguing back forcefully
against belligerent Zionist students trying to suppress their freedom of speech.
Unlike those organizations which seek to stifle open debate about
this and related subjects by labelling those who oppose their views as anti-Semitic
and seek to punish them for expressing them, IJV actively promotes the rights of all
individuals to express themselves freely and without threat of sanction.
By launching such an inquiry, the CPCCA implies that existing
human rights mechanisms are not sufficient to address actual incidents of anti-Semitism in
Canada
. The Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith have been
trying for years to broaden the definition of "hate crimes" to include criticism
of Israel. So far, thankfully, they have been unsuccessful. The CPCCA is just the latest
in this attempt to attack free speech and silence criticism of the Israeli government’s
oppressive and illegal policies. It is our view that Canada’s existing human
rights commissions and criminal code are more than sufficient to deal with actual
incidents of anti-Semitism.
The CPCCA implies that those critical of Israeli policies are
calling for "the destruction of the State of Israel and its inhabitants."
This tendentious position holds that because of the Holocaust,
Jews must have a Jewish state in order to be secure, and that anyone who is
critical of the Jewish state and its behaviour must therefore support the destruction of
the Jewish people. This is nothing more than classic fear-mongering, designed to divert
attention from illegal and unethical policies carried out by the Israeli government.
Thankfully, it is carrying less and less weight over time, thanks to its overuse by
apologists for Israel.
To be critical of Israeli policies or even to challenge the
legitimacy of the existence of a Jewish state is not equivalent to calling for the physical
destruction of the State, or advocating genocide against Israeli citizens. By far the
strongest military power in the region, Israel is in no danger of physical destruction.
All of its neighbours, with the exception of Iraq, have recognized the state of Israel,
and the two main Palestinian political factions, Fatah and Hamas have also recognized the
state of Israel Fatah explicitly and Hamas implicitly.
Contrary to the Coalition’s contention that there is a new,
virulent form of anti-Semitism spreading across the world, w
hat is new is the unprecedented level of organizing,
particularly on campuses, in response to Israel and its actions. Of particular importance
with respect to this issue has been the rise of the organization known as the Coalition Against
Israeli Apartheid, which engages in the kinds of activities that the members of
the CPCCA appear determined to stamp out. CAIA’s purpose is to focus attention on the
plight of Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to
generate action to combat what it characterizes as the system of apartheid that exists
there. Discussion about and disagreement over the appropriateness of the term
"apartheid" as a descriptor for Israel and the regime that it has created in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories is completely legitimate. Our organization has endorsed
CAIA and has members who have actively participated in it. We categorically reject any
attempt to describe the activities of CAIA as anti-Semitic and draw the Coalition’s
attention to CAIA’s basis of unity, which contains the explicit statement that "We
oppose all forms of racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism." [Emphasis
added.]
The CPCCA ignores the far greater incidence of hate crimes and
discrimination
imposed on racialized people in Canada and particularly the
racial profiling policies, as well as discrimination against and stereotyping of Muslims,
Arabs and Palestinians that is being actively promoted by the governments of Canada,
Israel and other western countries in the name of national security. In Canada, Muslims
and Arabs have been subjected to official no fly lists, intrusive surveillance,
extraordinary rendition and torture when they travel abroad, and imprisoned without
charges under Security Certificates at home. As the case of Suaad Hagi Mohamud
demonstrates, the Canadian government treats our Muslim citizens in a clearly
discriminatory manner, often failing to provide them with the same kinds of protections
that other Canadians expect as a matter of course when they are abroad.
Largely as a result of the grotesquely ill-conceived "war on
terror," racist abuse of and discrimination against Canadian Muslims and Arabs is
increasing dramatically. An extensive inquiry into the experiences of Muslim students
conducted by the Canadian Federation of Students in 2007 found that many had experienced
serious and frequent harassment and abuse both on and off campus.
4
There is no similar evidence for the CPCCA’s claim that anti-Semitism is on the rise in
Canada.
In summary, it is our view that what is really involved here despite
repeated disavowals is an attempt to label criticism of Israel and its behaviour as well
as organized efforts to change them as anti-Semitism and to criminalize both.
This Coalition is an illegitimate endeavour. We condemn it for what
it is: an effort to whitewash Israeli behaviour and to protect it from both scrutiny and
organized opposition.
Signed:
Diana Ralph
Sid Shniad
Co-chairs