No matter how many Israel kills, some self-described leftists continue to promote a supremacist colonial movement’s obvious ideological stick. But endorsing a unique form of Canadian assistance to a lawless supremacist state is anti-Palestinian.
Yesterday the Liberals abolished the special envoy to promote genocide. As I detailed in a widely circulated post, the demise of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism should be celebrated.
The antisemitism envoy should have been resisted from the get-go. Noted anti-Palestinian Irwin Cotler convinced Justin Trudeau to create the position in 2020 and used the position to promote apartheid. Cotler then selected former ambassador to Israel Deborah ‘I organize parties for Canadians fighting in IOF’ Lyons to replace him. Lyons used the envoy position to push racist, authoritarian positions in support of genocidal Zionism.
It’s a stain on Canada’s left that few spoke out against the special envoy. It’s even worse that some support spending public money on granting ideological cover to a lawless supremacist state committing genocide.
On X NDP leadership candidate Heather McPherson bemoaned the demise of the position, posting “Islamophobia and antisemitism are surging. Dismantling the envoy positions less than a year since Mark Carney promised to support them is a betrayal that sending [sic] a troubling signal to communities already under threat.” (The antisemitism envoy effectively led to the creation of the Islamophobia envoy position.)
Avi Lewis supporter Mathew Behrens echoed McPherson. The ‘anti-Zionist’ wrote, “this is terrible news and one more indication that Carney doesn’t care about human rights. While the antisemitism envoy was horrible, that doesn’t negate the need for someone to tackle the REAL (non-hasbara) antisemitism that equates Judaism with Zionism and uses tropes about concentrated wealth and media ownership and is a core piece of far right white supremacy and a handful of deluded lefties.”
Criticizing the abolition of the special envoy on the grounds that the position is required to combat “antisemitism that equates Judaism with Zionism” is a complete inversion of reality. That conflation is at the heart of the envoy’s logic and a reason to call for the abolition of the position.
Behrens’ obvious contradiction is illuminating. Leftists who complain about the conflation of “Judaism with Zionism” often do so in a power worshipping, anti-Palestinian, way. They effectively accept Israel supporters’ conflation — far and away the most common form — objecting only at perceived/real conflation among anti-apartheid and genocide forces.
An acceptance of Zionist framing is apparent in another one of Behrens’ points. He wants a special envoy for antisemitism, which may have abstract appeal, but on what conditions?
Does he want an antisemitism envoy before there’s a special envoy to combat anti-indigenous racism, cultural assimilation and land theft? Or how about a special envoy to combat anti-Blackness and to seek redress for racial slavery? Or a special envoy on anti-Palestinianism and the dangers of colonial Jewish supremacy? How about a special envoy to combat anti-Sikh bigotry? Or a special envoy to combat Hinduphobia? How about a special envoy to combat Sinophobia? Or a special envoy to combat anti-Haitianism in Canada and the western hemisphere?
If we look beyond the narrow race/ethnic/religion lens how about a special envoy for the unhoused? Or a special envoy to protect immigrant workers’ rights? Or a special envoy to protect pedestrians from private automobiles? Or a special envoy to protect women in the military?
In recent years the federal government has spent millions of dollars on an envoy to promote a lawless faraway supremacist state committing genocide. Future generations will have difficulty believing this took place.
We should unreservedly cheer its demise. Anything else is deeply anti-Palestinian.
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