It enables genocide and undercuts civil liberties yet few challenge Canada’s anti-Palestinian terror list.
In a Wednesday Montreal Gazette column calling for a series of repressive measures, the leader of Montreal’s Jewish Federation and a Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs vice-president wrote, “the incoming Quebec government should explicitly add federally recognized terrorist organizations to the provincial registry of criminal entities. This measure would expand the tools available to law enforcement, putting an end to the open display of terrorist imagery in our streets.”
As they promote state terror against Palestinians, Canadian Zionist groups have become ever more obsessed with denouncing and criminalizing “terrorism”. In its most recent lobbying report CIJA said it was seeking “Continued support for revocation of citizenship in cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, terrorism… strengthened screening to bar entry and deny citizenship to individuals who pose security threats or have ties to extremist or terrorist organizations … standalone immigration consequences for expressing support for listed terrorist entities, even in the absence of criminal convictions.”
The call for “standalone immigration consequences” suggests CIJA wants the government to adopt legislation allowing it to revoke an individual’s citizenship if they say, “the Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoners Solidarity Network has done important work in opposing Canadian complicity in genocide.” And it wouldn’t even require a criminal conviction, but simply a decision by (I presume) an immigration official.
The push to revoke citizenship is a racist dog whistle since those born in the country can’t have their citizenship revoked. CIJA is effectively promoting the idea that Muslims and Brown people are importing antisemitism/extremist/terrorism. On Friday the National Post employed “terrorism” to take a more frontal attack against immigration, publishing “Multiculturalism draws terror groups to recruit in Canada: academic.”
Recently CIJA succeeded in expanding the scope of Canada’s terrorism law. Under the newly implemented Combatting Hate Act one can go to jail for up to a decade for flying the flag of Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoners Solidarity Network or any other group on Canada’s terror list at a protest against Benjamin Netanyahu in front of a community centre.
Over 10 percent of Canada’s terror list is made up of organizations headquartered in a long-occupied land representing one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population. Representing much of Palestinian political life, ten of the oppressed nation’s organizations are listed (Hamas, Palestine Liberation Front, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, Abdallah Azzam Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Abu Nidal Organization, Asbat Al-Ansar, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Al-Sabirin Movement for Supporting Palestine.). There are also at least two Canadian-based groups (Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy) that have been added to the terror list for supporting Palestinians. A half dozen other groups (Hezbollah, Ansar Allah, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, etc.) have been added to the terror list in large part at the behest of the Zionist lobby for challenging Israeli domination of the region.
Currently, CIJA is urging the federal government to add Palestine Action Canada, Kata’ib Hezbollah and Masar Badil to Canada’s ever-growing list of banned terrorist organizations. If they succeed with these organizations, they will no doubt push to expand their target list.
In a sign of just how absurd Zionists have become with their rhetoric around terrorism, Matthew Taub of Unapologetically Jewish recently linked grassroots activist group Just Peace Advocates (JPA) to “terror” for pressing the Canada Revenue Agency to uphold Canada’s Income Tax Act. During a press conference on Parliament Hill three weeks ago, Taub said the advocacy organization has ties to the grassroots Vancouver based Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoners Network, which the Justin Trudeau government outrageously listed as a terrorist organization two years ago (Samidoun was listed for allegedly having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). Taub also suggested JPA has ties to Hamas.
The reason for Taub’s outburst was JPA’s research and activism on genocidal Jewish supremacist charities. Several groups JPA has submitted information about have had their charitable status revoked and two dozen others are being audited for violating the Income Tax Act. To the Zionist mind helping save taxpayers money is “terrorism”.
Canada’s terrorist designations are highly politicized. For example, Israeli forces have killed vastly more civilians, and destroyed far more civilian infrastructure, than Palestinian militants. Yet Canada hasn’t designated Israel’s military or security services, or any Israeli involved in three years of genocide against Palestinians, as a ‘terrorist entity’.
In July the Toronto Police turned to Canada’s civil-liberties-violating, post-9/11 terror law to charge a prominent Palestinian activist. In a major escalation of the Toronto Police Service’s anti-Palestinian repression, they charged Ahmad Hajahmad Jarrar with “Participating in or Contributing to Activities of a Terrorist Group” for (purportedly) offering rhetorical support for Hamas’ armed resistance to Israeli colonial rule.
Last month, 50 groups endorsed a public letter, challenging the charges against Hajahmad. But more established Palestine groups like Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, National Council of Canadian Muslims and Independent Jewish Voices are not among the list.
Those groups largely avoid challenging Canada’s genocide promoting terror list. Ditto for politicians identifying with the Palestinian cause (NDP premier David Eby celebrated Samidoun’s listing while the federal party, including Vancouver-based Avi Lewis, stayed mum). This must end.
Silence about the terror list allows the Jewish supremacist lobby a free hand to beat Palestinians and their supporters with terror discourse. It’s past time to confront one of Canada’s most important forms of support for apartheid and genocide.
If you can, please assist Ahmad Hajahmad Jarrar’s legal fund.
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