[ZNet] Anti-Semitism in Canada

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Yesterday's article by Yves Engler on ZNet, about the way in which right-wing groups and the Canadian government use charges of anti-semitism to advance their own agenda:

Which Canadians suffer more discrimination: Those of African descent, Muslims, Latin Americans, South Asians, East Asians, Arabs, First Nations or Jews?

If you answer the latter, take your place alongside the Harper government and other sectors of the political elite that attack a largely historic form of oppression to advance a present day pro-imperial foreign-policy and anti-immigrant/anti-aboriginal domestic agenda.

Despite a loud chorus claiming otherwise, anti-Semitism is a mere fig leaf of its former oppressive character. Six decades ago "none is too many" was the order of the day in Ottawa, which rejected Jewish refugees escaping Nazi concentration camps. This hostile anti-semitic climate continued into the 1950s with institutions such as McGill University in Montreal imposing quotas on Jewish students. But Christianity's decline, combined with a rise in antiracist politics has significantly undercut anti-Semitism as a social force in Canada.

Today, Jews are largely seen as white people. Canada's Jewish community is well represented among institutions of influence in this country and there is very little in terms of structural racism against Jews (which is not to say there isn't significant cultural stereotyping, which must be challenged). But in an inversion of reality, the more anti-Semitism declines as a social force the more it concerns the political elite.

Why?

As a way to silence critics of Israel, of course. More generally, the Conservatives, supported by the Jewish establishment, allege anti-Semitism to advance a broadly pro-empire foreign-policy.

In April 2009, Harper explained: "we are very concerned that, around the world, anti-Semitism is growing in volume and acceptance." A month later, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister (formerly Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity) Jason Kenney told a European audience, "peaceful and pluralistic Canada sees signs that this evil [anti-Semitism] is newly resurgent." Then, in a statement bordering on Holocaust denial, he added, "I also very acutely understand the nature of the new anti-Semitism, and I think it's even more dangerous than the old European anti-Semitism."

There have been few similar proclamations about racism directed towards First Nations, Blacks or any other group in Canada. A Canadian Newsstand search for Jason Kenney Islamophobia; Jason Kenney racism against Blacks; Jason Kenney missing Native/Aboriginal women brings up nothing of substance. On the other hand, a search of Jason Kenney and anti-Semitism elicited dozens of articles, including many strong comments from the Minister.

The Conservatives, which get few Jewish votes but are close with its right-wing establishment, have used the politics of anti-Semitism to crowd out action regarding more oppressive forms of bigotry. Despite the fact that Muslims and Blacks are more likely to be targeted, "Jewish organizations have received 84 per cent of the funding announcements under a federal program that provides security for groups at risk of being attacked in hate crimes," reported the Canadian Press on Friday. "Forty-six of the 55 projects funded by Ottawa since February 2008 belonged to Jewish community groups."

At the level of international diplomacy the Harper government's cries of anti-Semitism are a transparent attempt to silence critics of Israeli crimes. But there is more to it. The accusations of anti-Semitism are a way to advance a broader right-wing foreign-policy agenda.

Beyond defending Israel, there are a number of recent instances where anti-Semitism has been used by Canadian politicians to advance 'white' or imperial policies. Last April, Virginie Levesque, a spokesperson for the Canadian Embassy in Venezuela, accused socialist oriented president Hugo Chavez of anti-Semitism. "The Canadian Embassy has encouraged and continues to encourage the Venezuelan government to follow through on its commitment to reject and combat anti-Semitism and to do its utmost to ensure the security of the Jewish community and its religious and cultural centers."

That same month, two Liberal MPs presented a petition to the House of Commons claiming an increase in state-backed anti-Semitism in Venezuela. Former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said Venezuela has seen a "delegitimization from the president on down of the Jewish people and Israel." These unsubstantiated accusations of anti-Semitism are designed to further demonize a government that threatens North American capitalist/geopolitical interests.

Additionally, Canada was the first country to withdraw from last April's World Conference against Racism in Geneva. Defending Israel was part of the Harper government's motivation for pulling out of the conference; they also had little interest in discussing the dispossession of First Nations, colonialism or the African slave trade. An "anti-Semitic anti-West hate fest dressed up as anti-racism conference" is how one unnamed Canadian official described the meeting.

Claiming the conference was anti-Semitic was the only politically palatable justification for withdrawing. In fact, Israel was barely on the agenda as Naomi Klein describes in this month's Harper's Magazine. She points out how pro-Israel groups effectively undermined extensive efforts by (largely) black activists to force the international community to define colonialism and the slave trade as crimes against humanity. "Perhaps the best way to describe the convergence of interests in Geneva is to say that pro Israel groups succeeded in convincing 10 governments to boycott a conference that they never wanted to come to anyway."
It's particularly ironic that the Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister has been the most fervent proponent of anti-Semitism politics. Claims of anti-Semitism do not in any way challenge white supremacy, something a multiculturalism minister should take on.
Harper gave Jason Kenney, the most right wing member of his cabinet, the immigration and multiculturalism portfolio. Is that because the Conservative party's (anti-aboriginal, anti-immigrant) base opposes multiculturalism? Does the focus on claims of "racism" against white Jews simply offer a convenient cover for continued white supremacy?

Yves Engler is the author of the recently released The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy and other books. the book is available at blackbook.foreignpolicy.ca If you are interested in helping to organize an event as part of the second leg of a book tour in late September/October please contact: yvesengler@hotmail.com

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Confronting Heather Reisman

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Nice to see Heather Reisman challenged for her financial support for terrorist attacks on Arab peoples in the Middle East. Watch the video and see members of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid confronting her at a Ralph Nader book-signing, over her financial support for Jews who volunteer to go to Israel to suppress, harass, beat and kill Palestinians.

In 2005 Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, the majority owners of Chapters Indigo Bookstores, established a program called the HESEG Foundation for lone soldiers. HESEG offers grants of financial support to former 'lone soldiers' in the Israeli military to pursue post secondary education in Israel. It aims to distribute $3M per year to provide scholarships and other support to former 'lone soldiers'. Scholarships are to be granted based on need and "military achievement".

Let's break this down.

A "lone soldier" is someone not from Israel, who chooses to go to that country in order to join the armed forces. These are young Jews from the diaspora who have bought into Zionist colonialism so deeply that they are willing to volunteer and go to serve in the Israeli "Defense" Forces. As such, they operate on the frontline of genocide in the Middle East, taking part in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The fact that Reisman and Schwartz can openly encourage Jewish youth to travel across continents in order to fight against Arab people is testimony not only to their own moral bankruptcy, but also to Canada's complicity in the oppression of the Palestinian people. Just as the Canadian State has participated in the economic blockade of Hamas and the criminalization of Hezbollah - both opponents, albeit reactionary ones, of Israeli aggression - so it gives a wink and a nod to programmes intended to aid and abet Israeli militarism.

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid has reiterated its demand that Chapters Indigo should be boycotted until Reisman and Schwartz publicly announce that they will cut all financial ties to Heseg. In regards to this recent action they state, "Reisman's refusal to answer the questions posed to her is absolutely unacceptable and indicates her culpability in Israeli apartheid. Her vocal support for Israeli war crimes will continue to be challenged whenever she appears publicly in Canada."

On June 9th 2007, Chapters Indigo stores will be picketed across Canada as part of the national campaign against their ties with Israeli apartheid. These pickets are part of the international week of action commemorating 40 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

To get involved email endapartheid@riseup.net

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Escaping israel

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i wanted to write something about this, but as it stands i am really fucking tired and not sure i’m up to it...

nevertheless...

You see, there’s this CBC article which came out last Friday about how since 2000 three thousand “Israelis” have sought refugee status in Canada. The way the article – itself based on a report in the Israeli media – put it is that they were seeking refuge due to “spousal abuse and Palestinian violence”.

Which is not a formulation you see everyday in the bourgeois malestream media.

This strikes me as meaning that these people want to get out of the ultrapatriarchal racist Israeli state because, well, they don’t like what zionism means. Because if to Palestinians zionism means dispossession, exile, even genocide – to Jews zionism means Israel. It means that the state of war and the warfare State are to replace whatever Jewish culture or just plain humanity preceded one’s “aliyah”.

Just as american settlerism took proletarians from europe and turned them into indian killers and slavemasters, or the loyal or terrified wives thereof. Just as the settlerism of new france and new england took poor and criminalized women and men of their “mother countries” and soldered them into the foundations of North American genocide.

And of course for Jewish women, just as for settler women in other colonial societies, even first class citizenship doesn’t protect you from the male violence of the warfare State. The privilege which may come from doing genocide against Palestinians won’t protect you from your father or husband or the perv down the street.

Nuthin new under the sun.

Little surprise that Alan Baker, the zionist state’s ambassador to canada, has denounced these refugee claimants as “harming Israel's image and representing it as a country whose citizens are persecuted.”

(i can just see him... “we don’t persecute citizens, just Palestinians!”... mind boggles at this point...)

More ominously, especially given the current Harper government’s outspoken support for aggressive zionism, is the israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that the department was aware of the number of Israelis seeking asylum in Canada, adding that “we have taken the matter up with the Canadians.”

Reminds me of when Jews were scrambling to get out of the dying Soviet Union, as anti-semitism crawled out from under its rock, and certain zionist canadians pressured the canadian State to refuse them entry, insisting that their “proper place” was in israel. Like it or not.

As thousands of Jews try to leave the israeli prison state, we can be sure that canadian zionists will join this chorus of denunciation. Because colonialism always depends on both the dispossession and violent genocide of the colonized – in this case the people of Palestine – and also on the settler population remaining united and complicit in their blood role.


...realizing of course that this is a slightly incoherent post. i’m tired. you get the idea, though...

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Thoughts on Yesterday's Montreal Demonstration Against Israeli Aggression

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At least two thousand people – possible many more than that – came out to protest Israeli aggression, marching through the drizzling rain in downtown Montreal yesterday. Media reports than “1,000” were there are bullshit, but i can’t be sure exactly how many there were, as this was the most densely packed demo i have ever been at – and like any densely packed material, it flowed slowly through the streets…

The demonstration was mainly made up of members of Montreal’s Arab communities, but not completely so – there were also many of the regulars from the anarchist scene, the Maoist RCP-OC had members interspersed in the crowd, and i noticed a few Trots, albeit without any of their regular calling cards (i.e. not a copy of The Militant or Socialist Worker to be found). But this was clearly a protest grounded in the Arab immigrant communities, i assume especially the Lebanese, as the latter form by far the largest Arab community in Montreal.

The level of politics seemed to toggle between anti-war sloganeering and nationalism, all with an obvious anti-zionist spin. There were so many flags – mainly Lebanese, some Palestinian, but also a number of Fleur-de-Lys and Maple Leafs – and most signs being the kind that simply called for an end to the killing, some taking a more direct aim at Israel, with signs like “Shame on You” or “End Israeli Apartheid”.

This makes sense given why people are out marching. This is not an abstract “maybe there’ll be a war” like the metropolitan peace movements in the 80s were protesting, nor is this a protest against somebody else’s predicament, like the various demonstrations against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The majority of these people were out protesting the destruction of their homeland, of the land where many still have family and friends, and they were protesting this while it was actually going on. In such a context falling back on simple “Stop the Violence” type sentiments makes sense.

As for nationalism – well, isn’t the appeal obvious when a country is being bombed so viciously? Children are being killed because they are Lebanese – so the defiant desire to (as one woman’s sign read) “Rally To Our Flag, Our Nation, Our Glory” isn’t tough to figure out.

Furthermore, people should notice that racist politicians and radio talk show hosts have already being playing the “real Canadian” card, implying that “dual citizen” Canadians are somehow less deserving of rights or respect than their pure bred neighbours. We heard this most disgustingly in bipartisan remarks made as Canada bungled its evacuation of Canadian citizens from Lebanon. In what could be a situation of literal life or death, with an estimated 40,000 Canadians in Lebanon, MP Garth Turner has argued that evacuees should be separated out depending on if they share Lebanese citizenship, with only the “pure” Canadians being the ones who should be saved, or at least the ones who should be saved first. (Of course, this is avoiding he truly painful fact that either evacuation amount to saving “our” citizens so that Israel can safely murder anyone who is left without causing too much of a diplomatic kerfuffle.)

So in a situation where people are not only under attack in Lebanon, but also face racist discrimination here in Canada – all the more reason why nationalist sentiments should come to the fore. While i don’t support it, i don’t necessarily oppose it, or at least not in the form i saw it expressing itself yesterday.

car flies canadian, quebecois, lebanese and palestinian flags at yesterday's demo

What is more problematic, though again very understandable in a sad kind of way, was the Canadian and Quebecois nationalism in evidence. I’m talking about the ones saying Harper has “betrayed” us, or that Canada should not turn its back on its past as noble peacekeeper, or the Quebec and Canadian flags … in other words the wrapping oneself in imperialist flags insisting that the “real Canadian” or “real Quebecois” national interests and values lie with the Lebanese victims of imperialism.

This fosters dangerous illusions.

Canada is a nation founded on settlerism and invasion, just like Israel. Anti-zionists are fond of describing Israeli policies as “apartheid”, pointing out the similarities with the draconian racial controls which existed in South Africa until 1991, but what some may forget is that South Africa itself was merely perfecting and sharpening the lessons learned from the colonial experience around the world, including Canada, which had its own “pass laws” for Indians – indeed, in 1902 a South African delegation visited this country to study these laws…

Nor is this ancient history. Check out the situation at Grassy Narrows. Check out the struggle people have had to wage outside of Caledonia, at Six Nations. This is the country where indigenous women comprise 2% of the population, but 46% of those in maximum security prisons. This is the country tuberculosis rated 17 times higher amongst indigenous people than settlers.

This is the country which claims the maple leaf, and this is the flag some people are holding up in opposition to the Israeli flag, as the “good country” which should be standing up against “the bad one”.

As radical leftists, what we have to point out is that Harper’s tacit support for Israel is not an aberration, nor is it a “scandal” or a “betrayal” – it is merely the logical and consistent expression of his right-wing politics on the world stage.

Opposing a progressive “Canadian” or “Quebecois” nationalism to zionism also muddies the waters as to what the latter is, and why we should oppose it. Unlike those who hold that zionism is “worst than the nazis” or “the most racist ideology ever” – opinions which are as ahistorical as they are anti-semitic – zionism is in fact nothing more or less than the ideology of turning the Jewish people into a new colonialist nation.

In this zionism is certainly racist, and certainly reactionary, and certainly must be opposed 100% - but it is also certainly in the same category as Canadian nationalism or American nationalism. Or even certain varieties of Quebecois nationalism. The idea that a group of people – call it a nation or an ethnic group or whatever – should take a piece of land, subjugate those who live there or force them to flee, and found a new nation on the bones of its victims is not one which was thought up by Theodor Herzl – he was merely trying to apply the lessons of European world conquest to his own people, hoping for a Jewish colonial State in the same way that England and France and Belgium and the other Euro-powers had set up “their” colonial states.

Opposing zionism while embracing Canadianism is a defensive move by a community which is currently under attack from the former, and realizes it may be able to defend itself with the latter. This is what i call “protective politics”, where people adopt symbols or claim values out of desperation, because they realize that this may be what it takes to save some lives.

However, embracing one form of colonialist nationalism in order to oppose another makes no sense as a political line for the left. For us, we must try to push the level of struggle beyond anti-zionism to anti-canadianism, to a more general and explicit and radical anti-colonialism.

For instance, rather than adopting the highly dubious “Star of David equals Swastika” imagery which was visible in some sections of the demonstration, i think it would make more sense to put forward a “Down with Canada – Down with Israel” or some such. (This is of course leaving out the stupid ambiguity of such imagery in general – for the Star of David is the symbol for all Jews, including those who are anti-zionist…)

The linkage of zionism with nazism is really just a way of saying “fuck you” to Israel’s most vocal supporters, most of whom are Jews and will obviously get upset by this amalgamation. But on a political level it does nothing to clarify the nature of this conflict or our reasons for opposing the zionist settler state – which should be because it is colonialist. It makes much more sense to connect our opposition to Israeli crimes to our opposition to Canadian crimes against the First Nations.

About which i guess i could write more, but this post is getting long enough… so you’ll have to wait til some other day…

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