Zionism isn’t Jewish supremacist colonialism. Jewish lobbying doesn’t influence Canadian support for Israel. An article discussing Jewish schools forcing four-year-olds to send letters to IOF soldiers is antisemitic. That’s the position of a purported ‘pro-Palestinian’ Jewish Canadian.
Recently, Ottawa activist Matthew Behrens labelled an article I wrote about a fine imposed on genocide promoting Hampstead mayor Jeremy Levi “a very calculated antisemitic slur”. The Ottawa activist claimed, “those who critique the white supremacist Israeli apartheid regime while employing never acceptable antisemitic tropes feed right into the hands of the far right and the Zionists.” He added that it was “a very calculated antisemitic slur, equating ‘Canada’s most Jewish municipality’ (who even thinks like this FFS?) with the unethical actions of its mayor who publicly supports the genocide.”
In terms of “who even thinks like this”, how about the mayor of Canada’s most Jewish municipality. Levi openly links his Israel advocacy with the Jewishness of Hampstead.
A year ago, Levi responded to a petition opposing the municipality flying the Israeli flag by disputing the petitioners’ claim that “almost 37% of the population of Hampstead is not Jewish” and “have no inherent association with Israel.” Levi messaged Statistic Canada to dispute their data and told the Suburban “we are over 90 percent Jewish in this town.”
But, Behrens wants us to believe Hampstead’s Jewishness is irrelevant to the inner Montreal suburb flying the Israeli flag, introducing fines for removing ‘hostage’ posters, pushing to move Canada’s embassy to Jerusalem, etc.
In fact, Hampstead is a wealthy, ethnically segregated enclave rife with genocide promoters. Pointing to Hampstead’s unique social characteristics ought to be a way to counter genocidal Jewish supremacists claiming victimhood. Instead of demonstrating the typical characteristics of a community discriminated against, the exclusive municipality highlights privilege and power. Hampstead’s unique social characteristics make a mockery of those promoting genocide while claiming to be victims. And we should shove it in the racist genocide promoters’ faces.
Behrens’ bid to deny Jewish complicity in genocide is part of a broader exculpatory politic that shapes far too much of the discussion on the left. He argues adamantly that Israel is based on white supremacy, calling those employing the term “Jewish supremacy” antisemitic. But as UK Palestinian doctor Rahmeh Aladwan recently posted, “There are one million Moroccan jews occupying Palestine. Half a million Yemeni jews. Half a million Iraqi jews. A quarter of a million Iranian jews. None of these people are White or European. What unites the occupiers in Palestine is their religion.”
A recent Guardian interview with an Israeli teenager highlights the absurdity of the white supremacist claim. At an event put on by Itamar Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party, she calls for the “settlement and annexation of Gaza” and to “kick out the Arabs… or we kill them.” To justify her position the teenager tells the Guardian, “Israel is a Jewish state. We should take it because God commanded us to take it.”
Many critics inside Palestine, including Jewish ones, name the system of apartheid “Jewish supremacy” as witnessed by the five-year-old B’Tselem report “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”.
Denying that Zionism is principally Jewish supremacist colonialism is deeply racist. As is widely understood in anti-racist circles, protecting a supremacist ideology/system from challenge is well … racism.
It’s interesting to note how Behrens is specific when discussing anti-Jewish racism but obfuscates the character of the supremacism/colonialism when its perpetrated by Jews. As an example of this racism, it’s common for pro-Palestinian Canadians to have invoked the word “antisemitism” more than the phrase “Jewish supremacy” during three years of genocide to cleanse non-Jews from Gaza.
The denialist politics Behrens promotes acts to insulate Jewish institutions from challenge regarding their deep complicity in Palestinian dispossession. In “Product of Zionist upbringing, mayor fined for racist comment” I pointed out that Levi attended an elementary school where pre-kindergarten students send letters to IOF soldiers. Montreal’s Solomon Schechter Academy, which receives 2/3 of its budget from the public purse, has four-year-olds write to genocidaire. I only learned of this outrage a week ago and to the best of my knowledge there hasn’t been a single rally at any of the dozen or so private Montreal Jewish schools that host Israeli soldiers or promote genocide. It’s no wonder if a pro-Palestinian Jewish activist’s response to an article revealing a school forcing four-year-olds to write IOF soldiers is to label it “antisemitic”.
As Israel kills in Gaza daily, locks down life in the West Bank, intervenes in Syria and destroys villages in Lebanon, it’s outrageous that many purported critics of the lawless genocidal Jewish supremacist state prioritize the feelings of Jewish Canadians. The racism is sickening.
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