Enough with the gaslighting. Enough with the defensiveness. Justice minded Canadians need to embrace protesting genocide-promoting Jewish institutions.
Recently, Liberal MP Ben Carr complained that people protested an Israel soldier’s talk at Winnipeg’s Asper Jewish Community Campus. Concurrently the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) jointly condemned a protest in that city against a planned visit by the Israeli consul to Vancouver’s JCC. Irrespective of whether there was an Israeli soldier or diplomat at these institutions they should be protested. And anti-genocide forces need to stop cowering to Zionist gaslighting, suggesting these are simply innocent community institutions, not enablers of Palestinian dispossession.
In his statement calling for “bubble legislation” that would suppress Canadians’ Charter enshrined right to assembly Carr bemoaned that a “Jewish school with minors and toddlers” was housed inside the building where the Winnipeg protests was held. But a brief search of Gray Academy’s website and Instagram makes clear the kindergarten to Grade 12 school engages in racist indoctrination. Its website has a section devoted to “Our Commitment to Israel”, which notes how “Gray Academy stands unequivocally and wholeheartedly with Israel. This is one of our key commitments.” Every day the youngsters sing Israel’s national anthem, do a Zionist prayer and view Israeli flags. Their Instagram account promoted a February “Support & Solidarity for Israel Rally” and an event to “honour Israel’s fallen soldiers.”
Of course all humanitarian Winnipeggers should be rallying to call for Gray Academy’s charitable foundation to lose its tax deduction status and for the school to end its genocidal indoctrination.
Rather than a reason not to protest in front of the Asper Jewish Campus its housing of Gray Academy is reason to do so. The Campus has also been the site of a recent “Israel Solidarity Rally” and includes the office of the local Jewish federation, which has sent millions of dollars to projects in Israel. Canada’s Jewish federations collectively operate the country’s main genocide lobby group CIJA.
The Vancouver statement claimed the protest in front of the city’s JCC was “collective punishment” against those with “no connection to broader geopolitical issues”. It added, “Ethno-cultural institutions must not be targeted, and the Jewish population should not be held responsible for the actions of any foreign government.” But Vancouver’s JCC includes an “Israeli Department” and is adorned with Israeli flags.
Enough with the gaslighting and Zionists constraining the parameters of discussion. Most of Canada’s Jewish institutions promote a supremacist colonial system and deserve to be protested.
Eighty years into the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and eighteen months into the holocaust in Gaza, any Jewish institution hosting an Israeli soldier or diplomat deserves to be protested at any time. A willingness to host such an event (almost by definition) demonstrates a deeply anti-Palestinian ideology that should be eradicated (a political dynamic that doesn’t necessarily hold for a public library or university).
A recent stickering kerfuffle at a baby store in Toronto highlights this point. The owner of Healthy Moms Market, Aviva Allen, called the cops and hyped the fact the stickers were posted on her store in the Junction neighbourhood. The stickers stated, “End the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and “Israel bombs hospitals schools women babies children”. One also labeled Benjamin Netanyahu a “cunt”.
As part of his promotion of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, Canadaland owner Jesse Brown posted, “A Jewish-owned baby store in Toronto, Healthy Moms Market, has been vandalized with hateful, scapegoating messages.” Based on the information in this post and an awareness of Brown’s genocidal Jewish supremacy I responded, “the store promotes the slaughter of Palestinian children. It’s good to see there are those opposed to killing kids who act on their principles.” (In hindsight I’m not certain the stickerer even “targeted” the store or was just stickering the neighbourhood, which they should be applauded for.)
Canadian Jewish News journalist Jonathan Rothman responded to my post with an article he wrote on the incident and the statement, “According to the shop owner, the store did not promote Israel on its social media etc. The Hebrew phrase on the door in the stylized Star of David is not for e.g. an Israeli flag.”
In fact, the store owner posted an Israeli flag to Instagram, claims Israel advocacy is important to her and wrote an odious 2021 Canadian Jewish News commentary headlined “When a supportive Facebook group for moms turns toxic over Israel”.
Even if there wasn’t public evidence of Allen’s genocidal Jewish supremacy, an individual/institution screeching antisemitism in response to anti-genocide stickers is (almost by definition) promoting Israel’s holocaust. An anti-racist individual/institution unfairly targeted somehow would stay mum to avoid boosting pro-genocide forces.
Enough with the gaslighting. An individual/institution that believed in equality wouldn’t be offended by anti-genocide stickers. Heck, they may even decide to keep them on their storefront.
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