CANADA

Delete the Smear Jagmeet, Tell Truth and Help Palestinians

by Yves Engler / February 19th, 2024

Jagmeet Singh’s refusal to delete a smear against internationalist, social justice, minded protesters encourages Israel’s genocide. Over 6,000 individuals have requested the NDP leader remove his anti-Palestinian slander, but Singh seems too scared of the fascistic, supremacist, genocide lobby to do what is right.

In a bid to deter Israel from slaughtering the 1.5 million Palestinians cloistered in Rafah thousands joined an emergency march in Toronto Monday evening. During the four-hour long march “Spiderman for Palestine” and another individual climbed atop scaffolding in front of a (closed) entrance to Mount Sinai Hospital to waive a Palestinian flag as they did at numerous other spots.

In response Canada’s genocide apparatus whipped up faux outrage that a public institution with Jewish roots was targeted. As he’s done in the past, Singh followed the apartheid lobby in smearing justice minded activists, claiming the march “targeted” the Toronto institution “because of its ties to the Jewish community.” But Singh’s statement is baseless, as is detailed in this article and this interview with a member of the Jews Against Genocide coalition.

Apparently, it doesn’t matter how many Palestinian children Israel kills. Singh remains committed to taking his cues from Canadian groups promoting the slaughter. It doesn’t matter how many Palestinian hospitals the apartheid lobby enables Israel to destroy. Singh acts like they are troubled by a Spider-Man costumed flag waiver outside a closed hospital entrance. Under the cover of opposing “antisemitism”, Singh continues to promote genocidal anti-Palestinianism.

Singh’s smear has, unsurprisingly, been cited by right wingers and Israeli nationalists to justify more racism and killing. In the National Post Chris Selley cited Singh’s endorsement of the Mount Sinai libel. So did the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs after Canada’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby questioned the Mount Sinai hoax. In a post calling for her ouster, CIJA cited Singh’s post echoing their baseless claim about the hospital. If CIJA’s attacks on Elghawaby lead to a bout of Islamophobia Singh will be partly to blame. Singh’s smear also contributed to an alleged hate crime with an individual calling the Toronto police to threaten to kill protesters for targeting the hospital.

Singh’s Mount Sinai libel illustrates the remarkable disconnect between the popular uprising and parliamentary social democracy. Over the past 20 weeks there have been hundreds of mass protests across the country yet I’m only aware of one MP attending a Palestine protest. NDP MP Matthew Green spoke during a march in Toronto on November 12. (Conversely, the PM, Deputy PM, ministers and MPs have attended far smaller and less numerous pro-genocide rallies.)

One reason MPs have not attended the demonstrations is out of a concern for being smeared (Green was forced to release a statement defending himself after speaking in Toronto). By besmirching Monday’s anti-genocide march Singh is making it even more difficult for MPs to attend protests (presumably he has privately warned NDP MPs against attending). The dearth of political participation reduces media coverage and the impact of the protests. It also enables the increasing criminalization of the protests. It’s no coincidence that after the remarkable smear against Monday’s demonstration the Toronto police threatened $10 000 fines to anyone leading chants on the moving truck at the front of Saturday’s march.

In Vancouver the city’s police department released a statement prior to Saturday’s demonstration calling on protesters not to obstruct hospitals. In effect, the smear (somewhat contradictorily) is being broadened into the notion that the anti-genocide marches are “targeting” hospitals.

(A prominent genocide campaigner in Vancouver, Bob Mackin, posted the police statement with a note that the city’s St Paul’s hospital — which has Catholic roots but may have Jewish staff — is 1.3km from the announced starting point of the march. He followed that up with a post noting the protesters passed the central intersection of Burrard and Robson, meaning “The VPD request to avoid impeding routes used to access the hospital fell upon deaf ears.”)

According to social media company’s data, 2.4 million viewed Singh’s anti-genocide smear on X. That is far more interaction than his usual posts with the comments and quote tweets overwhelmingly hostile. In addition, as mentioned above, 6,000 individuals have emailed Singh requesting he delete his post.

His lack of action demonstrates how much he, and other politicians, fear the apartheid lobby’s reaction. Removing his post would draw into question their big “antisemitism” lie tactic. It would help disable the power of the lie to intimidate.

Millions of Canadians oppose the smears based on lies and the justifications for genocide that go along with them and would cheer Singh deleting the post. He should embrace the truth and do what’s right.

Please take a minute to email Singh and all the NDP MPs to demand he remove his anti-Palestinian post.

Yves Engler is the author of 12 books. His latest book is Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People's History of the Canadian Military . Read other articles by Yves.