October 15, 2018: Solidarity from federal leaders

By Michael Regenstreif

How rare is it to see the leaders of the federal Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic, and Green parties come together quickly to take a common stand on an issue?

But that is what happened just before Rosh Hashanah when two Liberal MPs – Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal) and Michael Levitt (York Centre) – were subjected to an antisemitic tweet from prominent anti-Israel activist Dimitri Lascaris.

In his tweet, Lascaris, chair of the board of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, tweeted that Housefather and Levitt, who are both Jewish, “are more devoted to apartheid Israel than to their own Prime Minister and their own colleagues in the Liberal caucus.”

As Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel pointed out in a statement on September 9, Lascaris’ tweet suggests the two MPs are disloyal to Canada, “a textbook example of antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA),” the definition of antisemitism that has been adopted by many governments and organizations in democratic countries.

Among the examples of antisemitism cited in the IHRA definition is, “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”

“Vile antisemitic smears like this are completely unacceptable, and should always be called out. Thank you @LevittMichael and @AHousefather for standing up to this and for everything you do for your communities and our country,” tweeted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Official Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer tweeted: “It’s shameful to see two MPs subjected to such antisemitism, accused of dual loyalties, simply because they’re Jewish & support Israel. The entire [Conservative Party] caucus & I stand w/ our colleagues across the aisle, proudly supportive of all Jewish Canadians.”

“Antisemitism has no place in Canada. I know what it’s like to experience racism & discrimination, and to have my loyalty to Canada questioned. @LevittMichael and @AHousefather, I stand with you today,” tweeted NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

And, from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May: “Just saw the attack on you both. So unacceptable. Your loyalty to Canada is unquestioned. See you soon. Sending love. @AHousefather @LevittMichael.”

I was particularly pleased to see May standing in solidarity with the other leaders, as Lascaris was a Green Party candidate and justice critic in the party’s shadow cabinet in the 2015 federal election. He also led the pro-BDS campaign within the party in 2016 – a campaign that led May to briefly consider her future as party leader.

As Fogel also pointed out, some of those seeking to demonize and delegitimize the State of Israel “through BDS and other toxic forms of advocacy, are becoming bolder and more aggressive. They are letting the veil slip on the false distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism … some of them openly seeking to undermine our rights as Jewish Canadians to be accepted as equals in Canadian politics, democracy, and civil society… It is a powerful statement to have federal party leaders unite, despite their many other differences, in defence of our community when we are targeted for antisemitism.”

As encouraged as I was to see the federal leaders come together in a united stance against antisemitism just before Rosh Hashanah, I was also concerned, at about the same time, to learn that Premier Doug Ford’s new Progressive Conservative government had ordered the dismantling of four sub-committees of Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate – including a sub-committee charged with developing provincial strategies to combat antisemitism – apparently as an austerity measure. The other affected sub-committees were charged with fighting racism directed at Blacks, Indigenous people and Muslims.

August 22, 2016: Green Party vote puts Elizabeth May in difficult position

By Michael Regenstreif

Elizabeth May may or may not (pun intended) be the leader of the Green Party of Canada by the time you read this issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.

May – the party’s long-time leader and the only federal MP ever elected under its banner – was put in an awkward, difficult and, in my opinion, unsustainable position at the party’s convention this month in Ottawa when it voted to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel despite May’s fierce and often-stated opposition to the movement.

In June, when it emerged that the proposal to support BDS had been put forth for the convention, May told many media outlets – including the Bulletin – that she would oppose the proposal at the convention.

And May, who was supported by 93.6 per cent of the Green Party membership in a leadership review earlier this year, did stand firmly against BDS at the convention, noting she believes the BDS movement is “polarizing, ineffective, and unhelpful in the quest for peace and security for the peoples of the Middle East,” adding, “I will continue to express personal opposition to BDS.”

May’s position is untenable because the Green Party membership – or at least the majority of voting delegates at its national convention – knowing her strong feelings on the BDS issue, put her in the position of having to represent a party platform containing a policy with which she fundamentally disagrees.

And, indeed, May now says the Green Party’s BDS vote calls into question whether she can stay on as party leader. In a revealing CBC radio interview that was scheduled to air August 13 on “The House,” but posted online in advance, May said she was “heartbroken” and would spend an upcoming vacation thinking about whether she can continue as leader and consulting with her family about her future.

May added that representing her constituents – she is MP for the West Coast riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands – was a much higher priority for her than being leader of the Green Party and that a decision to step down might come very soon.

“I would say, as of this minute, I think I’d have real difficulties going not just to an election but through the next month,” May said. “There are a lot of issues I want to be talking about with Canadians, and this,” referring to BDS, “isn’t one of them.”

This past February, the House of Commons passed a resolution condemning the BDS movement against Israel. The resolution was supported by the governing Liberals and the Conservatives, now the official Opposition, while the NDP voted against. May, herself, did not show up for the vote in the House.

In the debate preceding the vote, NDP members and May spoke against the motion, saying the motion itself was an attack on freedom of speech and dissent while stressing their opposition to BDS and their support for a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

May is absolutely correct in recognizing BDS as “polarizing, ineffective, and unhelpful” in the quest for a solution to the conflict. For one thing, it puts 100 per cent of the onus for the lack of progress in the peace process on Israel and completely absolves the Palestinians of any responsibility.

While the case can certainly be made that certain policies of the current Israeli government stand in the way of progress toward a solution, there are also policies and actions – including incitement to violence and glorification of terrorists – of the Palestinian Authority which, perhaps, do even more damage to the pursuit of peace.

At least Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps calling for direct negotiations with no preconditions between Israel and the Palestinians, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas keeps refusing to even come to the negotiating table.

And let us not forget the Palestinians have walked away, refusing further negotiations, when offered peace agreements by previous Israeli governments.

And let us also not forget that Gaza is governed by Hamas, a terrorist group that rejects peace and compromise with Israel.

Groups that advocate for peace between Israel and the Palestinians – for example Peace Now, J Street, the New Israel Fund, etc. – reject BDS as a tactic for the same reasons cited by May: the tactic is “polarizing, ineffective, and unhelpful.”

While some BDS advocates sincerely believe that BDS is simply a tactic to push Israel toward a peace settlement with the Palestinians (May said she thought that was what motivated its support in the Green Party), the reality is that support for BDS comes primarily from anti-Zionist individuals and groups seeking to delegitimize the State of Israel as the Jewish homeland.

And that brings us to the issue of antisemitism. As renowned human rights activist Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister of Canada, has pointed out, there is a “new antisemitism,” in which Israel is targeted as “the collective Jew” among the nations.

BDS, which singles out Israel, is an aspect of the new antisemitism. It is a tactic not meant to bring the sides together; it is meant, as May points out, to polarize them, to drive them further apart.

Even U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a harsh critic of the current Israeli government, rejects BDS and points to its inherent antisemitism.

So, what will happen with Elizabeth May? Will she stay on as leader or resign? Will she stay in the party or cross the floor? Could a post in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet be in her future?

And, if she does resign as party leader, will there be a future for the Green Part of Canada.

March 7, 2016: Parliament votes to condemn anti-Israel BDS movement

By Michael Regenstreif

Two votes were held on February 22 – one in Ottawa in the House of Commons and the other at McGill University in Montreal – on the issue of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

The Commons voted on a motion, put forward the week before by Conservative MPs Tony Clement and Michelle Rempel, which read, “That, given Canada and Israel share a long history of friendship as well as economic and diplomatic relations, the House reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which promotes the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel, and call upon the government to condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and abroad.”

Clement led off the House debate on February 18, calling BDS a form of discrimination, “just like boycotts that have targeted Jews throughout history.”

It quickly emerged in the debate that the Liberal government would support the motion.

“The world will win nothing for boycotting Israel but depriving itself of the talents of its inventiveness,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion said, adding, “We must fight antisemitism in all its forms,” signalling the government’s recognition that there is – as former justice minister Irwin Cotler points out – a “new antisemitism,” in which Israel is targeted as “the collective Jew” among the nations.

In the lengthy debate, Liberal and Conservative MPs rose to support the motion, while NDP MPs and Green Party leader Elizabeth May spoke against the motion because they said it was an attack on freedom of speech and dissent. At the same time, though, the NDP and May stressed their opposition to BDS and their support for a two-state solution.

Among the most eloquent voices in the debate were new Jewish MPs Michael Levitt (York Centre) and Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal).

“BDS is about intolerance. It is a broader movement to demonize and delegitimize Israel and collectively punish all Israelis by holding Israel alone responsible for the Arab-Israeli conflict,” said Levitt.

Housefather gave a speech on the history of antisemitism in Canada and explained how the BDS movement has taken its place in that history. Housefather also showed how the elimination of the State of Israel as a Jewish state was one of the BDS movement’s actual goals.

The motion passed easily by a vote of 229-51. The Bloc Québécois joined the NDP in opposing the motion.

Of Ottawa’s MPs, the motion was supported by Andrew Leslie (Orléans) and Pierre Poilievre (Carleton). Anita Vandenbeld (Ottawa West-Nepean), my own MP, abstained.

For some reason or another, the rest of Ottawa’s MPs were not in the House to vote on the motion. These included Catherine McKenna (Ottawa Centre), who, as a Cabinet member would have voted in favour, had she been present; Mauril Bélanger, who is facing serious health issues; Karen McCrimmon (Kanata-Carleton); Chandra Arya (Nepean); and David McGuinty (Ottawa South).

A few hours later, an assembly of the Student Society of McGill University voted 512-357 to support BDS. The assembly attracted less than three per cent of McGill’s 30,000 undergraduate students. The assembly result then needed to be ratified by an online vote open to all McGill undergrads. The results of that vote were not yet known when we went to press.

And, true to the motion passed that day in Parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a statement in reaction to the McGill vote: “The BDS movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses. As a @McGillU alum, I’m disappointed. #EnoughIsEnough”

As a side note, there was a recent Jerusalem Post report – quickly withdrawn because it was incorrect – that Israeli pop singer Achinoam Nini, a.k.a Noa, who is headlining the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration, supports BDS.

But, following the report, the Jewish National Fund of Canada withdrew its sponsorship of the event saying, “The entertainer that has been hired does not reflect, nor correspond to the mandate and values of the Jewish National Fund of Canada.”

However, the Embassy of Israel in Ottawa and the Consulate General of Israel in Toronto have stepped in and will sponsor the event.