Canada's Criminalization of My Jewish Identity
Canada's Criminalization of My Jewish Identity
Codifying so-called "Anti-Palestinian Racism" in Canada is harming Jewish Canadians and infringing on our rights, liberties, and safety.
Please consider supporting our mission to help everyone better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world. A gift of any amount helps keep our platform free of advertising and accessible to all.
This is a guest essay written by Shauna Small.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Share this essay using the link: https://www.futureofjewish.com/p/the-criminalization-of-my-jewish-identity
I am a proud Jewish Zionist living in the Diaspora.
This is the core fabric of my identity, woven into my heart with 3,000 years of history.
My ancestors and I are indigenous to the beautiful Land of Israel that people read about in their Scriptures, and that I feel with every ounce of my being.
I beam with pride, together with the international Jewish community, each time Israel accomplishes another miracle that brings light unto all nations. I also cry collectively with my people when evil brings death upon one of our own.
Together we pray, using our indigenous language — Hebrew — and turn our faces toward our beautiful Jerusalem in prayer, as it is written in our customs from thousands of years ago. Together, we claim “next year in Jerusalem” at the end of every Passover seder as we collectively yearn for the day of our return to our Homeland.
That day however, may now have come for Jewish Canadians, who are faced with an unprecedented rise in antisemitism.
As we watch in horror how the documented horrors of October 7th, 2023 — horrors perpetrated against our babies, children, elderly, women, and men — are set aside as hoaxes or irrelevant to the history of antisemitism and “anti-Zionism,” we may not be paying close enough attention to the misguided efforts to change policy in boardrooms across Canada, and in our legislature.
‘Anti-Palestinian Racism’
The new drive to introduce “Anti-Palestinian Racism” to “equity and inclusivity strategies” throughout this country and within our Canadian government must be a wake-up call. The current application of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” within school boards, without a legal definition of what constitutes this form of racism, is actually abhorrent.
So what is “Anti-Palestinian Racism”? And how is it being defined?
Well, it is basically anything that may be perceived to be anti-Palestinian, no matter how distorted “pro-Palestinian” has become. So, Zionism is “Anti-Palestinian Racism,” and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism is to be considered racist against Palestinians too.
The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association released a framework for “Anti-Palestinian Racism” in a 42-page document that seeks to outline how “Anti-Palestinian Racism” is manifested and systemically embedded in Canada:
“Anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives.”
“Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including: denying the Nakba and justifying violence against Palestinians; failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine; erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians; excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies; defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values.”1
I honestly never understood the concept of “gaslighting” until I read through this document. All the experiences that Jewish people have been faced with throughout Canada for over a decade and especially since October 7th are allegedly being faced by Palestinians in Canada too.
Yet, their allegations of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” are not backed up with any data. According to this document, “There currently is no reporting mechanism or formal data collection for Anti-Palestinian Racism in Canada.”
So the allegations of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” are not investigated and are being legitimized based on anecdotal stories.
Example: Pointing out Jewish indigeneity in Israel is considered ‘Anti-Palestinian Racism.’
The Jewish People are indigenous to the land of Israel.
According to the United Nations, common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands along with a shared culture constitutes indigenuity.2
The Jewish People all share some common DNA. Our relationship to one another and to our indigenous home is actually written in our genetics according to recent genetic research.3
Furthermore, our indigeneity has been documented in texts for over 3,000 years. The People of Israel and our narratives are told in Biblical and more modern day texts. The “Children of Israel” are even referred to in the Quran since our history obviously predates Islam. Jerusalem as our capital is mentioned over 600 times in the Old Testament but not ever mentioned in the Quran.
If this is not enough evidence, then one can look at the archaeological evidence of our people that have been recovered throughout Israel. Antisemites like to blame Jews for killing Christ in Jerusalem, but will then say that we are new arrivals to the land.
Well, which is it? Did we allegedly kill Christ 2,000 years ago? Or did we just arrive 100 years ago?
We did not kill Jesus, and he was Jewish too, living and preaching in the land of his forefathers. We can feel our history in every grain of sand as we walk throughout Israel.
But now, apparently, proclaiming our history and indigeneity to Israel would make the Jewish people guilty of “Anti-Palestinian Racism.” When we question the Palestinian narrative and present the evidence of our history, we are apparently complicit in “traumatizing the Palestinian people by denying their truth.”
When we denounce a Palestinian narrative of the “Nakba” by presenting an alternate narrative, backed with reputable evidence that resulted in the Declaration of Independence of the sovereign State of Israel, we, by this definition, will be racist.
Our children will be silenced throughout this country in combating the new face of antisemitism which is taking the form of the erasure of our history. The chants of genocide that we hear in our streets to “Free Palestine From the River to the Sea” (which means to annihilate the State of Israel which is situated between that river and sea) would no longer be considered antisemitism, since it is an expression of their identity and justified as “Palestinian poetry” that acknowledges their “resistance.”
Notably, when we ask for evidence of a state that was ever named “Palestine” in the past (there was never a sovereign territory called Palestine), or try to present the facts of 3,500 years of Jewish habitation on that land, it would be considered “Anti-Palestinian Racism.”
The truth and reality that there has never been an independent state of Palestine (no less that Palestinian nationalism as a movement took off in the late 1960s) will no longer matter.
Fighting antisemitism is ‘Anti-Palestinian Racism.’
According to the framework of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” set out by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, the suspension of Javier Davila, a Toronto District School Board teacher and equity coach constitutes “Anti-Palestinian Racism.”
His actions that involved the circulation of an antisemitic document to teachers throughout the Board is irrelevant, since that document included the Palestinian narrative, so it is considered “Anti-Palestinian Racism” to disallow it.
Never mind that the document included antisemitic rhetoric, denied Israel’s right to exist, shared links to recognized terrorist organizations, and vilified the State of Israel.
Yet, he is seen as the victim of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” — and the Jewish and Israeli staff and students who were targeted by this document are irrelevant, the antisemitism they faced designed to be ignored.
Jewish pride is ‘Anti-Palestinian Racism.’
The call for the annihilation of the State of Israel is referred to as “freedom of expression” within the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association’s document.
In Canada, we have laws against hate speech and incitement of violence; therefore this framework of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” contravenes the laws we uphold in this country, for example this excerpt from the Association’s 42-page document:
“Abroad, defenders of the state of Israel uphold and justify Israel’s treatment of Palestinians by targeting its detractors. Over time, the efficacy of this defence of Israel has resulted in the othering, racialization, stereotyping, dehumanization and discrimination of Palestinians and advocates in Canada and elsewhere.”
“It also has led to the ‘Palestine Exception’, where rights upheld for other individuals and groups are routinely denied to Palestinians and advocates i.e. freedom of expression or freedom of association.”
Last week, Jewish Canadians proudly waved our Israeli flags through the streets of Toronto during our annual Walk With Israel, which brought more than 50,000 participants out. This solidarity with our Homeland is being twisted into an evil expression of “Anti-Palestinian Racism.”
Today we see our flag regularly burnt at anti-Israel rallies; we see it taken off any displays within schools throughout the country since it is considered “controversial”; and we see it disallowed in professional sports arenas such as the Scotiabank Arena, where Toronto’s NBA and NHL teams play their home games.
What’s more, Jewish students are regularly harassed, bullied, excluded, and assaulted. They feel unsafe sharing their faith or connection to their ancestral homeland.
Social media is flooded with viral, antisemitic hate, but instead of addressing this unimaginable rise in antisemitism, the government and school boards across Canada are choosing to focus their attention on implementing strategies to address “Anti-Palestinian Racism” that would in fact further marginalize and victimize the Jewish community.
Again, it makes countering antisemitism a form of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” itself. It is a strange mix of Orwellian and Kafkaesque, if not just utterly preposterous.
A Distortion of Reality
Whenever a Palestinian individual or an ally chooses to commit crimes according to Canadian law, such as incitement of violence or hate speech, condemnation of those actions could be classified as “Anti-Palestinian Racism.”
The swarms of anti-Israel activists who chose to show up to the Walk With Israel with their keffiyehs wrapped around their faces, were “only expressing their identity.” It doesn’t matter that they harassed people, intentionally bumped into them to intimidate, or that they made violent hand signals and hateful speech.
If we criticize those actions then, according to this new proposed policy, we are guilty of “Anti-Palestinian Racism.”
Take this example of “Anti-Palestinian Racism,” found in the aforementioned document: A Palestinian woman, Rasmea Odeh, was deported to Jordan from the United States in August 2017. It is apparently irrelevant that she lied on her immigration papers when moving to the United States. (Lying on your immigration form is a deportable offense.)
She was a convicted terrorist serving a life sentence, who had been released from prison in Israel as part of a prisoner exchange with the terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. What was she convicted for? Placing two bombs at a supermarket and the British Consulate in Jerusalem, killing Israeli civilians.
But, her criminal and immoral actions are apparently irrelevant. It only matters that she is Palestinian and being held accountable for her actions. Accordingly, and apparently, this makes it a case of “Anti-Palestinian Racism.”
Israel is not anti-Palestinian.
Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East. It is a beautiful and inclusive country that thrives with a diverse population. There are almost 2 million Muslims who live and work alongside 7 million Jews.
Israel is not a perfect country, and anyone can freely criticize governmental decisions in Israel, like its citizens frequently do. However, when you judge Israel by different standards than the rest of the world, deny it the right to defend its borders, call for its elimination, or claim that rape of Israeli women is “justified,” you are revealing your antisemitic bias.
When you choose to use a fringe group of “anti-Zionist” Jews as representative of the Jewish voice, you are “tokenizing” Jews to somehow legitimize antisemitism.
When you choose to rename the map of Israel to “Palestine,” you are an antisemite. Israel is the Homeland of the Jewish People, and we can back that up with 3,500 years of history. We can also document our land purchases that legalize our right to the land. Our legal status as the National Homeland of the Jewish People can be verified in the Mandate for Palestine, a legal document that was unanimously adopted by the League of Nations in 1920.
In the aftermath of World War One, when the Ottoman Empire crumbled, several mandates were created and used to divide up land so that countries could declare their independence. This resulted in the establishment of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and also Israel. The Mandate for Palestine outlines the borders for the “reconstitution” of the Jewish Homeland in Palestine which the British occupied until 1948.
The United Nations itself voted in 1947 to create one Arab and one Jewish State in what was then Palestine. How many countries in the world were established with a vote at the UN? Very few. But yet this is determined to be an illegitimate state.
On May 14th, 1948, Israel finally declared its independence from Britain. The next day it was attacked by several Arab armies, and since that date it has faced many wars and countless terror attacks in the continued struggle to destroy it.
This is our history.
However, Israel continue to embrace life and contribute to improving the world. Some of the most incredible modern-day innovations have come from Israel. With each contributions, Jews around the world beam with collective pride because we are all Israel. It is not just a land to us; it is our people, our history, and our future.
The codification of “Anti-Palestinian Racism” would effectively legalize antisemitism. It vilifies Israel and any effort to support that state, seeks to have the fight against antisemitism become a zero-sum game, and vows to erase our history and connection to Israel.
Simply put, it contravenes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and seeks to silence Jewish voices.
Now is the time to open our eyes to the threats to our existence that are happening right here in front of us.
We cannot be silent.
“Anti-Palestinian Racism: Naming, Framing and Manifestations.” Arab Canadian Lawyers Association.
Martinez Cobo Study, 1982
“DNA study confirms geographical origin of Jews.” Medical Xpress.
 | A guest post by
|
Collective identities fall into one or several of the categories as outlined in the UN Genocide Convention: Race, Religion, Ethnicity, and Nationality.
According. to the charters of Hamas, the PA, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, "Palestinians" are Muslims — a religion.
"Palestinians" belong to the Umma, that is they are Arabs. Arabs are an ethnicity whose roots are located in Arabia.
"Palestinians" claim to be a nationality though this identity only came into existence in 1964. Furthermore, as there has never been any nation state called Palestine, the term Palestinian is spurious because it is not based on any actual national collective identity.
A race is a group of people that share a biological morphology such as skin colour, bone structure, facial features, etc. The only biological markers "Palestinians" have are those with Arabs. The claim of a distinct Palestinian race is a further example of Taquiyya, the right to lie to advance the religion (Surah Al-Baqarah - 190-196). It is also encouraged to advance territorial conquest during war (Hadith Sahih Muslim Book 32).
As a Jewish Canadian I will never succumb to legislation that promotes Palestinian lies. I will write and speak the truth about the Israel/Palestinian conflict as recorded and allow no one to stop me. This is a good opportunity for Pierre Poilievre, Trudeau's conservative opponent - to set the record straight. He's been speaking at various synagogues in Canada expressing support for Israel and vowing to tighten Canada's laws against terrorism and supporting terrorism. He stands a good chance of becoming Prime Minister in next year's election.