Monday, December 11, 2023

Anti-Palestinian Racism in Canada

After months of research and analysis, CJPME published a landmark study highlighting the widespread problem of anti-Palestinian racism (APR) in Canada.  Entitled, “Anti-Palestinian Racism in Canada: CJPME’s 2022 Report,” the report constitutes the first-ever, non-exhaustive study of APR in Canada, and exposes more than 500 examples of this form of racism in online written content from 2022.

Although the study focused exclusively on examples from 2022, the report acknowledges the huge uptick in incidents of anti-Palestinian racism in 2023. Since Oct. 7, countless people in Canada have been warned, suspended, investigated, or fired by their employers or academic institutions due to the expression of their views on Palestine. CJPME looks forward to publishing a study on anti-Palestinian racism in 2023 soon.

The full report can be accessed here (in pdf.)  The key findings and recommendations are presented below.  If you appreciate this type of work from CJPME, please consider supporting our work financially.

Key Findings

CJPME’s study identified examples of APR based on the ground-breaking description published in May 2022 by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA). The 507 examples identified were drawn exclusively from online written content from 2022, 67 percent coming from non-profit organizations, and 33 percent from media organizations.

Importantly, 70 percent of the examples were defamatory in nature, slandering Palestinians and their supporters as antisemitic, terrorist-sympathizers, and anti-democratic. CJPME also identified many examples of sources denying the indigeneity of Palestinians and justifying violence against Palestinians.

“Palestinians in Canada face a form of racism tied to their very existence, yet it is rarely recognized as such. On the contrary, anti-Palestinian racism is interwoven into the political and media landscape of Canadian society,” said Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. “While the current events in Gaza have brought more media attention to the issue of anti-Palestinian racism, this study shows how pervasive the problem is.”

Of the examples of anti-Palestinian racism where Palestinians were slandered as antisemitic, it was most common for this to be justified based on their 1) criticism of Israel, 2) being ‘anti-Israel’, or 3) being anti-Zionist. These results suggest that the conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel is a driving force behind anti-Palestinian racism. Definitions of antisemitism which engender this conflation, such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition (IHRA), should be recognized as purveyors of APR.

“Pro-Israel groups and right-wing media routinely engage in racist, anti-Palestinian tropes, seeking to build support for Israel by painting Palestinians and their supporters as antisemitic, antidemocratic, and as supporters of terrorism. This contributes to a climate of intolerance and violence towards Palestinians in Canada, and seeks to justify Israel’s acts of violence and annexation in Palestine,” explained Woodley.

Key Recommendations for the Public

The report urges all levels of government to take urgent action to address anti-Palestinian racism. Among other things, CJPME recommends that:

  • The federal government incorporate the problem of anti-Palestinian racism into its federal Anti-Racism Strategy;
  • Institutions at all levels replace IHRA with a definition that does not promote anti-Palestinian racism, such as the Jerusalem Declaration on antisemitism;
  • Institutions incorporate the issue of anti-Palestinian racism into anti-racism awareness programs.

Key Recommendations for Palestine Solidarity Activists

  • Don’t be silent, don’t submit; get the necessary help when victimized by APR.  Anyone who is a victim of APR must rally the support of their community to oppose it publicly and vigorously. Such individuals should also engage support from organizations like CJPME, and get legal help when necessary.
  • Prioritize the campaign against APR. For the Palestinian solidarity movement, there are campaigns that may garner more immediate attention (like BDS, or divestment campaigns), but a successful APR campaign will pay huge dividends in the long-term. For example, Palestinians and their allies should work to have APR incorporated into their institutional EDI frameworks. When employees are successful in having APR recognized by their employer, this could help to protect them from being wrongfully dismissed based on social media posts in support of Palestine.
  • Promote and participate in events and activities around APR. Palestine solidarity activists should make sure they and their network have the knowledge and training they need to identify and self-report APR.
  • Centralize and normalize the reporting of APR incidents.  The self-reporting of anti-Palestinian racism should be consolidated in one well-known and well-publicized Website.
  • Develop a Canadian APR task force.  There are many organizations and individuals which have an interest in fighting APR.  Organizations should communicate and share ideas on combatting APR, and one or two key organizations with the capacity and expertise to lead on the issue should be endorsed.
CJPME’s mission is to enable Canadians of all backgrounds to promote justice, development and peace in the Middle East, and here at home in Canada. Read other articles by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, or visit Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East's website.


What Sort of “Caring” Do Zionist Medical Faculty at U of T Teach?

An exaggerated sense of self-importance and entitlement, hubris, chutzpah, racism while claiming victimhood and massively flawed thinking are the descriptors that come to mind when considering the 555 doctors at the U of T who signed an Open Statement to the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine (TFOM) from Jewish Physician Faculty.

The statement is an endorsement of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, which has been “catastrophic”, according to the WHO, for its healthcare system and killed 200 medical workers.

The opening declaration is: “We affirm the right of TFOM faculty to be openly Zionist and to support the right of Israel to exist and defend itself as a Jewish state and for those faculty to be free of public ostracism, recrimination, exclusion, and discrimination in the TFOM.”

In plain language, the doctors want to promote Israel’s slaughter in Gaza and not be challenged by (disproportionately) racialized and younger students and colleagues.

The statement effectively brands all criticism of Israel as antisemitic. It declares “that accusations against Israel as ‘apartheid’, ‘colonialist’, or ‘white supremacist’ or committing genocide are mendacious and aim to promote the argument that Israel should be dismantled as a Jewish state, making such accusations themselves antisemitic.” Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Al Haq, B’tselem and the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinians have all labeled Israel an apartheid state. Many Zionist pioneers described their aims as “colonial” and hundreds of experts in the field believe Israel is currently committing genocide in Gaza.

While framing themselves as victims, the letter threatens colleagues. “We believe that academic freedom is not absolute. In particular, leaders in academic medicine with power over learners and faculty, who in some cases are the sole leader responsible for thousands of learners and faculty, should not be issuing statements which collide with equity, diversity and inclusion for Jews or which make Jews feel unsafe and unwelcome in the TFOM and which are unrelated or unessential to their core academic role, research, and publishing of results.”

But it’s the many openly racist signatories who have authority over students, as Ghada Sasa’s followers showed on X. The new medical collective Combat Online Harassment concluded, “1 in 5 signatories to the University of Toronto medical school’s proud Zionist letter with active Twitter accounts have posted racist, hateful, or harmful materials!”

This includes Sandy Buchman justifying massacres against Palestinians since Gaza is a “sociopathic society full of murderers”. Another Zionist letter signatory Gideon Hirschfield liked a tweet threatening all Palestinians in Gaza with “immediate and complete destruction” and Dr. Leslie Shulman called for deporting darker skinned teenagers who protested against genocide in Toronto. “Expel. Them. Now. Reason…failure to show evidence of being human.”

Combat Online Harassment, a group of North American healthcare workers, says it was formed in response to “increasing amounts of racist anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic behavior from our colleagues. Simultaneously, we’ve observed an unsettling trend where physicians expressing pro-Palestinian views find themselves unjustly targeted with baseless accusations of antisemitism, resulting in detrimental consequences for their careers. Our work aims to highlight the double standard in the policing of voices; clearly racist and hateful views (ones we post), if coming from Zionists, face little to no repercussions.”

Jewish Zionist doctors have succeeded in punishing anti-genocide voices for making them “feel” uncomfortable. The most high-profile and egregious case is University of Ottawa doctor Yoni Freedhoff who targeted resident Yipeng Ge, leading to his suspension. Over 95,000 people have signed a petition calling for Ge to be reinstated. Toronto Star columnist Shree Paradkar noted, “Several Ontario doctors tell me they are being hauled up for supporting Palestinian rights including for signing a ‘don’t bomb hospitals’ petition. Higher-ups have told them there were complaints and accused them of making Jewish colleagues feel unsafe.”

The Zionist letter highlights the power dynamic in medicine and TFOM. A year ago I wrote about a big Israel lobby and media brouhaha over a ‘report’ on purported antisemitism at TFOM. It concluded: “As Black and Indigenous — and to a lesser extent Latin American, South Asian and Arab — communities struggle for positions within the elite institution, many Jewish and politically Zionist faculty members complain that expressing solidarity with Palestinians discriminates against them. Their pressure led to the appointment of a Special Adviser on Anti-Semitism who published a spurious ‘report’, which outside groups amplified and the dominant media covered widely. This reflects power, not oppression.”

When 555 Jewish doctors openly support Israel’s killing of 17,000 Palestinians this confirms that analysis.

And it makes one wonder what sort of education the ‘caring professions’ at U of T are receiving.

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.

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