January 21, 2019: Irwin Cotler nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

By Michael Regenstreif

Irwin Cotler has been nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

A legendary professor of law at McGill University in Montreal, Cotler is a familiar figure in Ottawa from his 16-year stint from 1999 until 2015 as a Liberal MP and for his cabinet tenure as minister of justice and attorney general.

Cotler, who served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1980 to 1983, founded the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights after leaving Parliament and has been nominated for the Nobel for his life’s work as one of the world’s leading human rights activists – particularly as an international human rights lawyer acting on behalf of political prisoners.

Among the most notable “prisoners of conscience” that Cotler has fought for is Nelson Mandela, one of the world’s most inspirational figures, who went on to serve as South Africa’s first post-apartheid president. Another is Natan Sharansky, a Jewish leader in the Soviet Union who went on to serve as a member of Israel’s Knesset and cabinet minister – and who just recently retired after a long tenure as chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Sharansky is a vocal supporter of Cotler’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. In a letter of support to the Nobel committee, Sharansky refers to Cotler’s “tireless efforts on my behalf when I was a political prisoner in the former Soviet Union (1977-1986). By bringing my case, like that of many other such victims of injustice whose cases he championed, to the attention of the international community, Professor Cotler played a direct and central role in my release.”

Another supporter of Cotler’s nomination is Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the Egyptian founder of the Arab Human Rights Organization, who was arrested for treason and jailed in 2000 by the Mubarak regime, and who credits Cotler’s intervention in his case for helping to secure his acquittal in 2003.

Cotler has also been at forefront of the fight for justice for Jews who were expelled or forced to flee from Arab and Muslim countries in the years following the establishment of the State of Israel. In a 2007 interview, Cotler told me that Jewish refugees were expunged from the human rights agenda over the decades as well as from the agendas of any peace talks that have taken place.

He has also been a major figure in helping us understand what he refers to as a “new kind of antisemitism”: antisemitism that masquerades as anti-Zionism and targets “the collective Jew among the nations.”

Paul Martin, prime minister of Canada while Cotler was justice minister and attorney general, is another supporter of the Nobel nomination.

“I can personally attest to the fact that Professor Irwin Cotler is relentless in his campaign for human rights for all individuals. His efforts deserve to be encouraged and granting him the Nobel Peace Prize will have enormous benefit in the continuing fight for freedom and universal human rights,” wrote Martin in his letter to the Nobel Committee.

This was not the first time Cotler has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Searching the web, I found references to previous nominations in 2008, 2010 and 2016 and surely the Nobel jury has a difficult time in making its choice each year – last year there were 331 candidates – but Irwin Cotler would be a most worthy recipient.

December 10, 2018: We can’t be complacent as hate crimes increase

By Michael Regenstreif

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons on November 7 to offer Canada’s apology for turning away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany on board the MS St. Louis in 1939 – 254 of whom were ultimately murdered in the Holocaust after the ship returned to Europe – he offered a chilling statistic about antisemitism in today’s Canada:

“According to the most recent figures, 17 per cent of all hate crimes in Canada target Jewish people. Far higher per capita than any other group,” he said.

Trudeau noted manifestations of antisemitism including Holocaust denial, graffiti attacks on Jewish institutions, BDS-related intimidation on college and university campuses, and said, “Discrimination and violence against Jewish people in Canada and around the world continues at an alarming rate.”

While Trudeau’s apology was scheduled well in advance to take place just before the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria that signalled the start of the Holocaust, it also took place while Jewish communities around the world were in shock from the antisemitic Shabbat morning massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in which 11 worshippers were murdered – the single worst case of antisemitic violence in American history.

Trudeau pledged to bolster the Security Infrastructure Program so that synagogues and other places at risk for hate crimes are better protected.

“We must guard our communities and institutions against the kinds of evils that took hold in the hearts of so many more than 70 years ago, for they did not end with the war,” he said.

On November 29, three weeks after Trudeau spoke in Parliament, Statistics Canada released its report on police-reported hate crimes for 2017 and the figure for antsemitic hate crimes had actually worsened from the earlier statistic the prime minister quoted.

Hate crimes against Jews accounted for 18 per cent of all hate crimes reported to police in Canada in 2017 (while Jews represent only about one per cent of Canada’s population). Ontario and British Columbia were the provinces with the largest increases of hate crimes against Jews.

By contrast, hate crimes against Muslims accounted for 17 per cent of all hate crimes reported to police in Canada in 2017, while there are about three times as many Muslims than Jews in Canada. It must be noted that the single worst hate crime in Canada in 2017 was the massacre at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City when six worshippers mere murdered and 19 others were wounded.

Other groups that suffered from significant numbers of police-reported hate crimes in 2017 included Black Canadians (16 per cent) and the LGBTQ community (10 per cent).

While Canada is one of the world’s most enlightened and highly educated countries, it is clear that antisemitism and other forms of irrational hatred have not disappeared in the decades since the Holocaust and civil rights movement – that the situation continues to worsen.

In response to the latest figures from Statistics Canada, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel released a statement expressing alarm about the “spike in hate crimes against the Jewish community and other groups in Canada. It is disturbing to think an antisemitic hate crime takes place every 24 hours in our country. History demonstrates that those who target Jews and other minorities pose a threat to society as a whole. All Canadians should be vigilant in standing against hate.”

The CIJA statement went on to call on the federal government to expand the Security Infrastructure Program to cover training costs; to develop a national strategy to combat online hate; and to increase the capacity of law enforcement agencies to combat hate crimes – including enhancing measures against hate speech.

CIJA began a campaign on the first night of Chanukah urging members of the Jewish community to contact the federal government in support of those proposals. It is important that we must not be complacent.

Update to previous column

My November 26 column (written on November 16) discussed the fragility of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition after former defence minister Avigdor Liberman took his Yisrael Beiteinu party out of the coalition with several other ministers and parties threatening to follow suit. The other parties – most notably Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home – backed down, thus preserving the coalition’s slim majority, now at 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, for the time being.

November 26, 2018: Is a sea change imminent in Israeli politics?

By Michael Regenstreif

As I write this column – on November 16 – Israel’s coalition government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, appears to be on the verge of collapse.

The latest crisis for the coalition began on November 14 when defence minister Avigdor Liberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, resigned his post in protest over the cabinet’s decision to accept a ceasefire with the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip after a round of fighting that saw close to 500 rockets fired at southern Israel in a 25-hour period.

The fighting saw one Israeli military officer – identified only as Lt.-Col. M. – killed during an Israel Defense Forces raid into Gaza. Ironically, the only civilian killed in Israel was Mahmoud Abu Asbah, a Palestinian from the West Bank who was in Ashkelon with a permit to work in Israel. However, there was significant damage and numerous injuries – some of them serious – to Israelis from the rockets.

Many residents in Israel’s south objected to the ceasefire, but Netanyahu defended it.

“At these moments, leadership is not to do the easy thing; leadership is to do the right thing, even if it is difficult. Leadership is sometimes facing criticism when you know confidential and sensitive information that you cannot share with the citizens of Israel, and in this case with the residents of the south, whom I love and appreciate greatly,” said the prime minister, who assumed the role of defence minister himself.

Netanyahu also serves as Israel’s foreign minister – so one person now holds a monopoly on three of the most important and demanding positions in Israel’s government.

Liberman was one of four cabinet ministers who opposed the ceasefire. The others were Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home party, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of Jewish Home, and Environmental Protection Minister Zeev Elkin of Likud.

As he resigned from cabinet, Liberman pulled Yisrael Beiteinu’s five Knesset members from the coalition leaving Netanyahu with a slim 61-seat majority.

After the resignation, Bennett demanded he be appointed defence minister and reportedly threatened to pull Jewish Home’s eight Knesset seats from the coalition if the demand was not met. That would leave the coalition in minority status with just 53 seats.

As I write, I’ve just seen reports that Netanyahu concluded a meeting with Bennett and rejected his demand for the defence ministry.

While that would seem to set the stage for a collapse of the coalition, Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying he “has confidence in the sense of responsibility of cabinet ministers not to make the historic error of toppling a right-wing government.”

But that remains to be seen. Israeli coalitions are usually fractious and often fall before the end of a four-year mandate. Even before the Netanyahu-Bennett meeting, Justice Minister Shaked, also of Jewish Home, said, “This week will decide whether we’re headed to elections or whether the cabinet will continue until November 2019,” presumably in reference to Bennett’s demand for the defence portfolio.

There are also reports that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, leader of the Kulanu party which holds 10 seats, and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, leader of the Shas party which holds seven seats, are calling for new elections – although neither, at least so far, has threatened to quit the coalition.

So, as I mentioned in my opening paragraph, Netanyahu’s coalition appears to be on the verge of collapse. By the time you read this column, we might well know whether early elections will be called in Israel. If not by then, then probably soon after.

And complicating the scenario are three corruption investigations into Netanyahu recently completed by Israeli police. We do know that police have recommended that he be indicted in at least two of the cases. News reports last month suggested Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was likely to decide on whether to proceed with indictments in the first four months of 2019.

The Israeli public opinion polls I saw about a month ago indicated Likud was on track to win the most Knesset seats in the next election. But that was before the latest Gaza skirmishes and the ceasefire that seems to be leading toward the coalition’s collapse – and before Netanyahu’s possible indictment on corruption charges.

Will the coming months bring a sea change to Israeli politics and government? Stay tuned!