The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs wants the ability to campaign to revoke my wife and millions of other Canadians’ citizenship. And anyone who believes they wouldn’t seek to expel opponents of genocide, hasn’t been paying attention.
Historically, Canadian Jewish organizations were viewed as sympathetic to refugees and immigrants because there’s a history of Jewish expulsion. No more. As part of their defence of whatever crimes Israel commits, they now advocate against immigrants. The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation has called to deport non-citizens who back resistance to colonial rule while hardline Zionist influencers regularly post about deporting protesters.
In a major escalation of their anti-immigrant agenda, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has been lobbying government officials to expand the grounds by which Canadian citizenship can be revoked. According to filings with the federal lobbyist registry, the official advocacy agent of Canada’s Jewish federations expressed: “Continued support for revocation of citizenship in cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, terrorism, and extreme promotion of hate; strengthened screening to bar entry and deny citizenship to individuals who pose security threats or have ties to extremist or terrorist organizations; removal of individuals already in Canada who obtained status through false representation; establishment of a fast-track removal stream for high-risk individuals linked to foreign extremist organizations; accelerated removals for individuals convicted of violent crimes; and standalone immigration consequences for expressing support for listed terrorist entities, even in the absence of criminal convictions.”
Since March CIJA representatives have met staff from the Prime Minister’s Office and Public Safety Canada, as well as the director of CSIS and multiple MPs, to discuss stripping the citizenship of Israel critics.
Citizenship acquired by birth is permanent, which is unlikely to change since revoking a ‘Canadian-only’ citizens’ status would make them stateless. That would defy Canada’s obligations under the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As such, it is extremely unlikely CIJA is seeking or could win legislation that would allow them to target the citizenship of Canada-born individuals.
But some right-wing forces, including the Stephen Harper government, promote two-tiered citizenship. In 2014 the Conservatives adopted legislation that allowed for revoking citizenship of the eight million Canadians born elsewhere if they were convicted of terrorism, espionage or treason. Second-class citizenship legislation was largely repealed by the Justin Trudeau government, which argued “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”
Currently, only those born elsewhere can have their citizenship revoked for lying or fraud in acquiring said status. According to a federal government website on “Revoking citizenship”, “Your Canadian citizenship may be revoked (taken away) if you:
- Committed fraud
- Misrepresented yourself
- Knowingly hid information on an immigration or citizenship application.”
CIJA wants that to change.
In part, CIJA’s push to revoke citizenship is simply a racist dog whistle to smear anti-genocide protesters. They are promoting the idea that Muslims/Arabs/Brown people are importing antisemitism/extremism/terrorism.
But there’s also a more concrete aim. They want a new way to discipline/scare opponents of genocide and Israel’s endless crimes across the region.
CIJA’s pursuit of “standalone immigration consequences for expressing support for listed terrorist entities, even in the absence of criminal convictions” means they could press an immigration official to revoke someone’s citizenship without even requiring a criminal conviction. They could target someone for saying, “the Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoners Solidarity Network has done important work in opposing Canadian complicity in genocide.”
That statement is, of course, true. Listed as a terrorist organization two years ago, Vancouver based Samidoun organized demonstrations against genocide and played a substantial role in driving anti-Palestinian BC NDP MP Selina Robinson out of cabinet.
The main organization that got Samidoun listed, CIJA, is seeking to expand the list of entities one could lose their citizenship for “expressing support for”. In response to Palestine Action Canada claiming responsibility for vandalizing (mostly red paint) a Peterborough facility of Elbit owned arms firm GeoSpectrum Technologies, last week CIJA reiterated its call to designate Palestine Action Canada as a terrorist entity.
If they succed in getting Palestine Action Canada listed and convince the government to adopt their citizenship revocation proposal, CIJA and other advocates of genocide would go after someone who said, “Palestine Action Canada should be celebrated for seeking to disrupt the flow of arms to commit genocide.”
If CIJA succeeds in expanding the parameters under which people can lose their citizenship, they will use it against opponents of genocide. It would be an escalation of their efforts — often successful — to have opponents of genocide fired, jailed or suspended from school.
In the short term, it’s unlikely CIJA will succeed in their maximalist citizenship aims. But just the fact they are seeking this type of leverage demonstrates their authoritarian character.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs would definitely push to revoke the citizenship of thousands of Canadians to protect their belove genocidal Jewish supremacist state.
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