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Anti-Zionism offers many disillusioned undergraduates a one-size-fits-all solution
- 08 February 2023
- 10:03 pm
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- 08 February 2023
- 10:03 pm
Swastika graffiti at the University of Toronto (Photo: FSWC)
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Anti-Israel activism, even in its most extreme forms, is nothing new in Canada.
The Palestinian cause first captured Canadian student audiences in the 1960s, reaching its apotheosis in the early 2000s. Although the 2020 Abraham Accords are inciting anti-Zionist backlash today, so did the 1990s Oslo Accords. In fact, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), Masar Badil, and similar youth-oriented organizations formed in the early 2000s because their leaders rejected any and all negotiations with Israel.
This is what makes them extremists and not bonafide Palestinian human rights activists. With the new political climate, groups like SPHR are becoming more extreme, shifting away from bigoted boycotts to unvarnished calls for violence.
But until recently, Palestinian nationalism was an Arab nationalist cause, not a globalized class intifada. Although Marxists called it a class struggle (against “Jewish capitalism”) the issue-linkage mostly stopped there. Now, to appeal to a wider audience, SPHR—with branches at the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, McGill University, and more—conflates Palestine with everything from climate change to Indigenous rights.
This apocalyptic messaging seems contrived for COVID-19’s student cohort: anti-Zionism offers a one-size-fits-all solution to the many disillusioned undergraduates who felt (or still feel) powerless against the world’s unending geopolitical crises.
When students see SPHR affiliated with causes like indigenous rights, they do not question its social justice platitudes. But real human rights organizations do not champion violent extremists, invite terrorists to speak at their universities, or associate with genocidal regimes. SPHR does all of those things.
Over the last two years, the group regularly rallied for “martyrs” in Gaza, alluding to Hamas, which openly calls for a second holocaust. In 2017, the UBC section gained notoriety for allegedly distributing Hamas-linked keffiyeh scarves for fundraising purposes. Four years earlier, the same branch made national headlines for inviting Leila Khaled—who participated in the 1969 TWA Flight 840 plane-hijacking as a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member—to speak at the institution.
Earlier this year, SPHR UBC provided cover for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Gaza-based faction responsible for October’s rocket attacks as well as numerous assaults on Israeli civilians. The club omitted these inconvenient truths: instead, it warned UBC that Israel was “besieging” the city of Nablus in the West Bank. In fact, Israel was uprooting the “Lion’s Den,” a PIJ-affiliated terrorist cell. SPHR called these gunmen “resistance fighters” acting in “self-defense.”
The claim is preposterous—people who attack Israeli civilians are not defending themselves—but many people undoubtedly believed it.
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Although SPHR itself largely avoids conflict, in 2003 the Concordia University chapter instigated a now-infamous riot against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu, who was set to speak there. Several people were hurt before police arrived. Following this, the school sanctioned the student union and temporarily restricted all campus political activity.
As SPHR escalates its rhetoric, another incident is growing more likely. This summer, the McGill branch participated in a panel with rockstar-turned-anti-Zionist pundit Roger Waters and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute (CFPI), a think tank in support of progressive politics. The singer’s presence was controversial on its own, but Samidoun—a Palestinian-Canadian advocacy firm—also sponsored the event. This is problematic because, according to B’nai Brith Canada, alleged Palestinian terrorist (and Vancouver resident) Khaled Barakat uses the NGO as a proxy for the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Although these allegations have not been proven, the PFLP, a U.S designated terrorist organization, cites Barakat as a leader. Meanwhile, his wife, Charlotte Kates, is Samidoun’s CEO. The Israeli government considers Samidoun a threat in its own right, warning that it fundraises for terrorist activity, among other offenses.
It remains unclear just how involved Samidoun is with anti-Zionist student groups. But students should beware that, at a minimum, university students are echoing terrorists’ diatribes and laundering their antisemitism with social justice rhetoric. Above all, groups like SPHR are not advocating for human rights: they are using misinformation to steer young Jews away from Israel.
It is a sad truth that, the closer the Jewish State comes to peace with its neighbors, the more aggressive its foes become. This dialectic only feeds bitterness on all sides, amplifying cynicism and perpetuating the conflict.
Jonah Fried is a fourth-year history student at McGill University and a 2021-2023 CAMERA Fellow.
Jonah Fried is a fourth-year history student at McGill University and a 2021-2023 CAMERA Fellow.
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
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