National

Hamas a “net disaster”

Author and human rights advocate Raheel Raza spoke with Gaza-born American writer and peace advocate Ahmad Fouad Khatib in a June 28 online briefing presented by HR Canada Charitable Organization. (screenshot)

A Gaza-born American writer and peace advocate told a Canadian audience that Hamas has been a “net disaster” for Palestinians and that much of the Western pro-Palestinian movement has become detached from the needs of the people it claims to defend.

Ahmad Fouad Khatib, who was raised in Gaza and now lives in Washington, DC, said genuine advocacy for Palestinians must combine criticism of Israeli policies with an honest examination of Hamas, Palestinian political failures and an international aid system that has sustained Gaza without helping it develop accountable institutions.

Khatib spoke in a June 28 online briefing presented by HR Canada Charitable Organization, which carries out research and public education activities to combat antisemitism and anti-Jewish discrimination. HR Canada was founded in 2019, and is a separate legal entity from HonestReporting Canada, which operates as an independent, grassroots organization promoting fairness and accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel, the Middle East, and issues related to and affecting Canadian Jews. The discussion was moderated by author and human rights advocate Raheel Raza. It examined Hamas, Palestinian political culture, Western activism, antisemitism and the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Khatib said the central challenge facing Gaza is not simply reconstruction after the current conflict, but the creation of a political and economic future in which Hamas no longer controls the territory or its people.

“Hamas is mainly now holding two million Gazans hostage,” he said.

Khatib argued that Hamas’s remaining military infrastructure no longer represents the same immediate threat to Israel that it once did, but it continues to prevent meaningful recovery in Gaza. International donors, Arab governments and European states, he said, will be reluctant to invest seriously in rebuilding while Hamas retains its weapons, tunnels and political control.

Gaza, Khatib said, should not merely be rebuilt as it existed before the war. It must be “reimagined.”

“If we don’t solve Gaza, there’s no peace,” he said. “If Gaza doesn’t become a role model for effective Palestinian self-governance, if we don’t de-radicalize, if we don’t rejuvenate and reinvigorate Gaza to show what the West Bank can and should look like under Palestinian leadership, there’s no two-state solution.”

Khatib’s criticism of Hamas is rooted in both personal experience and profound loss. He said 34 members of his immediate and extended family have been killed in the war and both of his childhood homes have been destroyed. One of his brothers remains in Gaza and works with a major British medical and humanitarian organization.

He described conditions in the territory as catastrophic. Large portions of the population have been displaced, many people are living in tents or crowded into the homes of others, and residents face shortages of clean water, sanitation, privacy, education and medical care.

“No one is thriving, no one is healing, no one is recovering, no one is moving forward,” he said.

Khatib nevertheless rejected the contention that acknowledging Palestinian suffering requires silence about Hamas. Oct. 7, he said, was a choice, not an unavoidable response to Israeli policy. He argued that Hamas has repeatedly diverted Palestinian resources, undermined opportunities for state-building and used violence in ways that predictably brought further devastation upon Gaza.

“Any way you slice and dice Hamas, it has been a net disaster for the Palestinian people,” he said.

Khatib left Gaza in July 2005, about a month before Israel removed its settlements and military presence from inside the territory under the disengagement plan of then-prime minister Ariel Sharon. Khatib was 15 and traveled to the United States through a US State Department exchange program intended to build connections between Americans and young people from Muslim-majority countries after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He lived with a host mother in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended an American high school. When he attempted to return to Gaza in 2006, Hamas’s abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit contributed to border closures that left him stranded in Egypt for three months.

With assistance from American human rights activists, including Jewish supporters and a Holocaust survivor, he returned to the United States and applied for political asylum. His asylum interview took place on the day Hamas completed its violent takeover of Gaza.

Khatib said he grew up in a devout Muslim family and was exposed early to the terror organization’s efforts to shape Gaza’s religious and social culture. As a child, he attended part of a summer camp that he later recognized as being dominated by Hamas activists. Even then, he said, he was repelled by its propaganda. He argued that Hamas did not simply promote a political program. It reshaped language and social expectations, making resistance an unquestionable virtue while turning peace into a synonym for cowardice, surrender or betrayal.

The consequences, he said, extended beyond Gaza. Hamas attacks during the Oslo peace process and later from Gaza contributed to the rightward movement of Israeli politics and strengthened Israeli politicians who argued that Palestinian independence would create an additional security threat, he said.

Khatib characterized Israel’s 2005 withdrawal as a missed opportunity for Palestinians to demonstrate that Gaza could succeed without a permanent Israeli military presence. Instead, Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian election and seized exclusive control the following year.

Gaza received vast international humanitarian assistance over the next two decades, he said, but Hamas was able to govern without assuming normal responsibility for public services because the United Nations, foreign donors and humanitarian organizations took on much of the burden of caring for the population. This produced what Khatib called a perverse incentive system: Hamas could prioritize weapons and warfare while outsiders repeatedly paid to repair the damage after each conflict.

He criticized Western activists who reduce Palestinian advocacy to opposition to Israel and refuse to acknowledge Palestinian agency. A credible pro-Palestinian framework, he said, must define a positive political objective rather than rely on demands to destroy or dismantle Israel. Calls to eliminate the “Zionist entity,” he argued, are not policy proposals and offer Israelis no reason to engage.

“Destroying Israel is not a goal,” he said. “That’s rhetoric. That’s hate.”

Authentic Palestinian advocacy should promote governance, economic opportunity, institution-building and political renewal, he said. It must also recognize that approximately nine million Israelis regard the country as their home and are not going to disappear.

Khatib said there is little organized space in the Palestinian diaspora for people who support Palestinian rights while rejecting Hamas and seeking engagement with mainstream Israelis and Zionists. Palestinians who question dominant activist narratives may face social exclusion, accusations of betrayal and pressure from their families or communities. He said people frequently contact him privately to express support for his arguments but are afraid to state similar views publicly.

Criticism of Hamas, he added, remains taboo in parts of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian diaspora life. Since Oct. 7, he has seen some people move from a reluctance to condemn Hamas to open support for the organization.

“This is not a fringe position,” he said.

Khatib has also experienced hostility from pro-Palestinian activists at universities. Although he opposes West Bank settlements, supports Palestinian freedom and has condemned Israeli conduct in Gaza, he said activists have branded him a traitor because he also criticizes Hamas and supports dialogue with Zionists.

At one campus appearance, protesters followed him toward his vehicle and he required a police escort. At another, demonstrators depicted him as having been bought by Israel, using dollar signs in a manner he considered both anti-Palestinian and antisemitic.

The assumption that an independent-minded Palestinian must have been paid by Jews or Israel, he said, denies Palestinians intellectual diversity while reproducing traditional conspiracy theories about Jewish money and control.

Khatib said antizionism can, in theory, be distinguished from antisemitism as an intellectual position. In contemporary practice, however, it frequently serves as a shield for hostility toward Jews.

He drew a distinction between criticizing Israeli policies and demanding Israel’s elimination. Opposition to violent settlers or to statements by far-right Israeli ministers, he said, is legitimate political discourse. Holding Jewish communities abroad collectively responsible for Israeli actions is not.

He cited attacks on synagogues and Israeli diplomatic personnel, as well as rhetoric that treats such violence as an understandable consequence of events in the Middle East.

“That is antisemitic,” he said. “That is double standard. That is normalizing violence against Jewish communities because somehow what happened overseas, over there, 10,000 miles away, needs to come to our shores.”

Despite the obstacles, Khatib ended with a measure of optimism. He believes many Palestinians, freed from social pressure and fear of reprisal, would prefer peace, coexistence and economic security.

“The individual is smart, the group is dumb,” he said. “One-on-one, if left to their own devices, most Palestinians would choose peace.”

He said Gaza, the source of the Oct. 7 attacks and repeated regional conflict, could eventually become the place where a new political direction begins.

“I fully believe that Gaza can, and inshallah [God willing] will, be ground zero for the beginning of the end of the conflict and for true peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Money for the sciences

At the Weizmann Canada gala in Montreal on May 26, guests heard from Weizmann Institute professors Asaph Aharoni, left, and Ron Milo. Former CBC broadcaster Heather Hiscox hosted the event. (photo from Weizmann Canada)

On May 26, Weizmann Canada held a sold-out national gala in Montreal that raised $9 million net of expenses for scientific research on environmental sustainability.

Seeding Hope: The National Gala to Empower a Sustainable Tomorrow, presented by the Dr. Joseph Lebovic and Dr. Wolf Lebovic foundations, brought more than 300 Weizmann Canada supporters together from across the country. Held at Windsor Station, it was a celebration of research focused on climate change, alternative energy, food security and nutrition.

Speaking at the gala, Weizmann Canada chief executive officer Susan Stern expressed gratitude for the science and those who support it. This fundraising effort comes at a time when the climate crisis is accelerating, from extreme weather and biodiversity loss, to rising pollution and global food insecurity. The Weizmann Institute of Science has made environmental sustainability one of its priority areas of research.

The focus on environmental science at Weizmann began through the leadership of Canadians. Decades ago, Canadians funded early solar energy research that has now expanded into a multidisciplinary powerhouse of more than 60 labs dedicated to sustainability.

At the gala, guests were treated to an immersive, multi-sensory event in which the science took centre stage. They heard from professors Asaph Aharoni and Ron Milo.

In his lab, Milo has been able to genetically engineer bacteria that feed off carbon dioxide rather than sugar. He described how he is now developing new ways to use solar energy to fuel the fermentation process that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air, with the goal of improving the efficiency of food and fuel production.

Aharoni is focused on engineering plants and microbes to fight world hunger and malnutrition. His work looks for ways to improve crop nutrition and resistance to disease, drought and other harsh conditions. His discoveries have also led to environmentally sustainable alternatives to the harmful chemicals in food, textiles and other materials.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Aharoni. “We are doing all kinds of stuff that will make our world more sustainable, healthy and environmentally friendly.”

Former CBC broadcaster Heather Hiscox hosted the event and recognized Canadian visionaries whose generosity has had a global impact. There was a special tribute to the legacy of Tom and Mary Beck and their early support of environmental research at the Weizmann Institute.

Other honourees were Nathalie and Laurent Amar; Rochelle Rubinstein, representing the families of H&R; Darlene Switzer-Foster and Bill Foster, honouring the memory of Sam Switzer; and Linda Cherry Soudack, honouring the legacy of Sigmund (Siggy) Soudack. Danielle Bitton received the Marvelle Koffler Award for Women of Distinction in recognition of her exceptional dedication to community leadership and philanthropy.

Several West Coasters were in attendance, including Weizmann Canada’s Vancouver chapter president Moira Stillwell; Telus chief executive officer Victor Dodig; and former Vancouverites Cheryl Brownstein and Rick Schweiber.

– Courtesy Weizmann Canada

Responding to Carney

Panelists at the event Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada, left to right: Ben Mulroney (broadcaster), Natasha Pein (researcher), Simon Wolle (B’nai Brith Canada), Matthew Taub (Unapologetically Jewish) and Amir Epstein (Tafsik). (photo by Dave Gordon)

Two weeks after Mark Carney’s address on antisemitism at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, Jewish community members offered a counterweight – a gathering led by grassroots activists, journalists and elected officials, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Called Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada, the nearly four-hour meeting drew roughly 600 people to the city’s Chabad Flamingo synagogue on June 14. Organizers described it as an unprecedented gathering of local pro-Israel groups – many sharing a stage for the first time – aimed at confronting the question of what kind of leadership this moment demands, and what concrete steps the community must take.

Organized by Yalla, partner groups included Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, B’nai Brith Canada, Chai Tech and Tafsik. Jewish panelists included Matthew Taub of Unapologetically Jewish, Amir Epstein of Tafsik, Jesse Brown of Canadaland and Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman. Non-Jewish allies who spoke included broadcaster Ben Mulroney, educator Ali Siadatan, Juno News reporter Melanie Bennet, former MP Kevin Vuong and Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca.

The central message was that the community can no longer rely on vague reassurances, symbolic gestures or reactive fundraising alone. Speakers argued that the real work now must be proactive: building stronger Jewish identity, demanding governmental accountability, creating civic pressure and abandoning what several described as a culture of managed decline.

photo - MP Melissa Lantsman (Conservative, Thornhill) addresses a June 14 gathering in Toronto that was held in response to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s June 1 speech on antisemitism — MP Melissa Lantsman (Conservative, Thornhill) addresses a June 14 gathering in Toronto that was held in response to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s June 1 speech on antisemitism. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

For Lantsman, the answer begins outside politics. She argued that what this moment demands is “a renewed Jewish identity,” adding that “before lobbying, before the press releases, before the next emergency appeal or the fundraising, more Jewish life is actually what’s necessary.” In her telling, public advocacy will only be durable if it is rooted in private conviction, education and continuity.

She also urged the audience to move outward, into politics and public life, “not as a supplicant” but as citizens who vote, donate, organize and remember. Politicians who abandon the Jewish community, she said, should feel it “at the ballot box,” because “this isn’t a Jewish problem, it’s a Canada problem.”

The insistence on moving from rhetoric to measurable action was sharpened by strategy consultant Maureen Leshem in her remarks. Drawing on conversations with intelligence officials, police, community leaders and counterterrorism experts, she said she had concluded that the community is “dangerously unprepared for what’s currently happening, and even less prepared for what lies ahead.”

Leshem argued that the community must rethink “everything, from our leadership choices, to how we spend our money, to how we work together.” Too often, she said, Jewish institutions and donors are stuck in “reaction mode,” raising funds to mitigate threats rather than forcing governments and public agencies to do the jobs they are already obligated to do.

A shooting at a Jewish institution, she said, is not mere vandalism or mischief but “targeted, potentially lethal violence against the Jewish community that demands the full weight of a national security response.” When Jewish families and institutions are expected to fund their own protection, she warned, the result is “a private tax on Jewish existence,” which risks normalizing public failure.

Leshem’s call to action was blunt: enough slogans. “Do not get up here and tell us that antisemitism is unacceptable. We know,” she said. Instead, leaders should explain what they are going to do, what laws they are demanding, what institutions they are pressuring and what risks they are willing to take.

Daniel Warner, co-founder of Yalla, said that, after Carney’s speech and subsequent committee appointments, it “became pretty clear that we’re going to have to take this into our own hands,” both as individuals and as organizations.

Warner said too many people he knows have already left Canada, but he rejected emigration as an answer. “Plan B is not leaving. Plan B is fighting back,” he said, urging attendees to stand up for themselves in new ways and to use their voices “as if their future here depended on it.”

The point, he said, is not simply to denounce antisemitism but to demonstrate Jewish life confidently and publicly in places where falsehoods about Jews are spreading most effectively.

Unapologetically Jewish’s Taub observed that, since Oct. 7, dozens of Jewish organizations have sprung up, but real coordination remains uneven. “Suppressing what others have to say is not unity, that is division,” he said, arguing that calling out institutional mistakes should be understood as honesty rather than disloyalty.

Taub accused parts of the organized community of applying temporary remedies to a crisis. “They are throwing Tylenol at cancer, and it’s not working,” he said, after arguing that some Jewish organizations have spent more energy lobbying internal critics than lobbying governments on behalf of the community.

Bennet addressed what she sees as the nature of the threat itself. Discussing themes she observed at a Muslim Association of Canada convention, she warned of a “destructive anti-Western ideology” in which Jews are often the first target but not the only one. “You guys feel it the strongest,” she said, but the larger struggle, in her view, is the attempt to reshape institutions and public life more broadly. Beware, she said, of “jihadis in Armani suits,” referring to the public propaganda face of Islamist terrorists.

Vuong, another ally, framed the issue in similarly expansive terms. He said his support was motivated not only by solidarity but by “self-preservation,” because “the people who hate you hate me as well,” adding that the old warning holds: what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.

Independent of the conference, several of Canada’s national Jewish organizations also have responded to Carney’s remarks.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Jewish federations across Canada, for example, issued an open letter reading, in part: “Instead of urgent, concrete measures, the government announced an advisory council, tasked first with further evaluating a crisis that has already been studied extensively, and which includes individuals who are not suited to lead government action on antisemitism. For many Jewish Canadians, this felt like the rug being pulled out from under us.”

“This was an opportunity for the prime minister to meet the moment,” said Simon Wolle, B’nai Brith Canada’s chief executive officer, in a release. (Wolle also spoke at the Toronto gathering.) “Instead, Canadians heard a speech that described the problem more than it confronted it. The Jewish community did not require another acknowledgment that antisemitism is raging across the country, we needed a plan proportional to the scale of the crisis.

“Canada is not facing an antisemitism awareness problem. Canada has an antisemitism problem,” he said. “The country has been poisoned with Jew-hatred and we need a remedy.”

The Jewish Independent reached out to other national Jewish organizations, as well.

“Carney is correct to note the rise of antisemitism is tied to larger trends of conspiracism, polarization and hate worldwide,” said Vancouver-based Maytal Kowalski, JSpace Canada’s executive director. “It is important to recognize this, not to universalize or trivialize antisemitism, but, in fact, the opposite – to fight it at its root and along with allies.” She said including “allies and leaders from different minority communities” is important if the work is to happen “holistically.”

Gabriella Goliger, national chair of Canadian Friends of Peace Now, said “Israel” was missing from the prime minister’s remarks. “He could have emphasized that he recognizes diaspora Jews’ emotional ties to Israel, that Canada is a friend to Israel,” she said, while also stressing that Canadian Jews “must not be held accountable for Israeli policy” and that there is “a huge difference between legitimate peaceful protest against Israeli actions, and using protest as a smokescreen for antisemitism.”

For the full reactions and recommendations of CIJA, B’nai Brith and JSpace, visit their respective websites.

Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.

Legal help for students

StandWithUs Canada executive director Jesse Primerano and lawyer Anita Bromberg, director of the organization’s new legal department. (photos from SWU)

StandWithUs Canada has just launched a new legal department to help students navigate the climate on Canadian campuses.

StandWithUs Canada is an educational organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, challenge misinformation and fight antisemitism within schools and communities. While the organization has always helped students navigate legal challenges, up to now, according to executive director Jesse Primerano, the organization has had to outsource cases to volunteer lawyers on a case-by-case basis. Cases have included incidents of human rights complaint violations by, for example, a university or a student union. With a staff lawyer leading a new department, StandWithUs aims to have greater reach in the legal realm.

Anita Bromberg is a lawyer with extensive practice experience in human rights and constitutional law, including religious freedom, censorship and freedom of speech cases. She has done research and teaching, worked with B’nai Brith Canada as a human rights officer and legal counsel, and served as executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. She has argued before the Supreme Court of Canada.

After Oct. 7, 2023, Bromberg rededicated herself to the Jewish community and fighting antisemitism, heading the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation.

“I hope that, in my position, I will bring that expertise and connections and networking to StandWithUs,” Bromberg told the Independent. “And, most importantly, to me, is to find a way to bring our community together so that we are a lean, mean fighting machine that parallels the type of support that we’re seeing the anti-Israel crowd getting.”

Anti-Israel organizations have lawyers on call, according to Bromberg and Primerano, and Jewish students and their allies need parallel defences.

Students are being confronted on campus, including in classrooms, with aggressive harassment not only from student activists but from professors and faculty advisors, said Bromberg.

In addition to being harassed, students are being doxxed – having their personal information, like home addresses, made public – and access to public spaces like tables and room rentals on campus is being denied to Jewish students based on their political views, said Primerano. Jewish students are being silenced, he said, based on justifications that events, for example, cannot go forward for their own protection, based on security concerns.

“They need legal support to understand what they can do to defend themselves against a machine that’s trying to take them down,” said Primerano.

Launching the legal department has been a longtime goal of StandWithUs Canada, said Primerano.

“It required not only funding, but it required us to make sure the rest of our infrastructure was immaculate,” he said.

Legal avenues are often the only option for students who feel harmed by the actions of an institution or its representatives, he said.

“At the end of the day, very little holds universities to account outside of the law itself,” Primerano said. “That is the one thing that they say that they respect.”

The new legal department, with a single employee, is just the beginning, he maintained. The organization envisions a future with multiple lawyers and several staff members, collaborating with lawyers across the country.

“We’re not planning to solve this problem on our own,” said Primerano. “We’re looking to build a network of pro bono lawyers across Canada who are willing to support us here and there.”

The goal, ultimately, is to make sure that students have somebody they can call that is specifically focused on their issues. From there, StandWithUs might engage with community partners as appropriate, such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and others.

“Our goal is to build a real network,” he said. “Our fundamental belief is that the community is stronger when we work together, but we also know that the university students need a point of contact, and all we’re trying to establish here for them is a point of contact with expertise and reliability that can then utilize the rest of the infrastructure that exists, especially with Anita being based in Toronto, to speak to lawyers in Vancouver and say, ‘You’ve already been having these conversations. Let’s work together to make sure that we can effect a change.’”

Bromberg’s deep roots in the Jewish community and legal experience mean she can hit the ground running on complex issues.

“I think that was one reason why I got the nod for this position,” said Bromberg, “because I’ve been in the community, I’ve networked with pretty much every organization and I’ve always adopted a cooperative measure. I think that the unity in the community is probably the most important thing that we have to develop.”

Students can access a reporting tool through the StandWithUs website (standwithus.com) and social media.

“The goal is not entirely reactive,” Primerano added. “Anita will also be developing resources, workshops, webinars and ways for students and community members at large to be aware of what their rights are and how they can defend them.… We’re also trying proactively to help people get a better understanding of what they’re entitled to as Canadian citizens.”

Sharing her testimony

Consolee Nishimwe, a Rwanda-born author, motivational speaker and survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi, spoke from New York on April 21 to an online audience as part of the In Conversation with a Survivor series hosted by Toronto’s Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

Every year, between April and July, Rwandan communities around the world commemorate the tragic events of 1994 in a period known as Kwibuka, the Kinyarwanda word for “remember.” April 7 is International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, a time set aside to remember the victims, honour the survivors and reflect on the importance of preserving truth and memory.

From April 7 to July 19, 1994, 800,000 Tutsi, moderate Hutu and Twa were murdered by Hutu militias. According to the United Nations, between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during this period of extreme violence.

photo - Consolee Nishimwe spoke to an online audience April 21 as part the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s In Conversation with a Survivor series — Consolee Nishimwe spoke to an online audience April 21 as part the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s In Conversation with a Survivor series. *(photo from Consolee Nishimwe)*

“As a survivor, it’s not very easy to talk about it because what happened to us was painful. It’s not easy for any survivor to share their personal experience of what they have endured,” Nishimwe said.

“Even though it’s been many years, it still lives within us. For me, when I share, I always think about those who are not ready yet to share their testimonies, and I carry them within me.”

The daughter of schoolteachers in the western part of Rwanda, Nishimwe described her childhood as a happy one, with a large coterie of friends and family nearby. Nonetheless, life for the Tutsi was never easy, said Nishimwe, who was 14 years old when the genocide started.

In elementary school, teachers humiliated Tutsi students by having them stand up before the class to identify themselves as Tutsi. Later, the RTLM radio station and Rwandan newspapers would broadcast and publish propaganda aimed at dehumanizing Tutsi.

On April 6, 1994, a missile shot down a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, both of whom were Hutu. The Tutsi were blamed generally for the assassinations, RTLM radio said all Tutsi must be killed, and widespread violence ensued.

“It was very scary for all of us where we lived in our villages. As Tutsi, we had to run to seek refuge mostly with the Hutu, our neighbours, the people who were around us, the people we grew up with – my parents used to teach some of their children – and the people we went to church with,” Nishimwe said. “You never knew who was going to be kind. You never knew who was going to help because everyone changed, completely changed.”

On the run, with roadblocks all around managed by Hutu with clubs and machetes ready to kill Tutsi, her family – Nishimwe, her parents, three brothers and a sister – like other Tutsi, hid in the bushes and sought refuge in what they hoped would be friendly Hutu homes, not knowing how long they would be able to stay or if their hosts might turn on them. The potential consequences for harbouring Tutsi were severe.

Eventually, Nishimwe’s father thought it best that he separate from the family. Killers would find him on April 15, 1994. Shortly afterwards, her three brothers were also murdered.

Nishimwe, her mother and sister were captured by Hutu. While in captivity, Nishimwe was brutally raped and considers it a “miracle” that she survived.

Nishimwe talks of her mother as a true hero.

“She went back to teach [after the genocide]. She was able to remind my sister and me, and all of us around her, that we should never carry hatred within us, which was not going to be easy because of the pain we carry within ourselves. I’m grateful for her,” Nishimwe said.

“Going back to school, there was a lot of trauma and nightmares. But I had friends who had lost their entire families. I have friends who don’t even have anybody in their family. I’m one of the few survivors, at least, who has a parent.”

After moving to the United States in 2001, Nishimwe went to therapy. With that help, she began writing about her experiences, which, she said, enabled her to find some means of expressing what she had endured.

“It helped me to start journaling every painful experience that I’ve gone through and allowed me also to find words. Because, sometimes, when you have gone through extreme trauma, you don’t even have words to describe the pain you carry within yourself,” she said.

In 2012, Nishimwe published Tested to the Limit: A Genocide Survivor’s Story of Pain, Resilience and Hope, an account of her experiences during the 1994 events and her life afterwards.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Art chosen for new museum

From a specific vantage point, the dispersed lines of Nicolas Baier’s Candelabra – winner of the Montreal Holocaust Museum’s public art competition for its new building – create the shape of a sphere. (photo from MHM)

The Montreal Holocaust Museum (MHM) has selected Montreal-based artist Nicolas Baier as the winner of its public art competition for its new museum opening in 2027.

Baier’s artwork, Candelabra, will be installed on the museum’s rooftop terraces. The sculpture is a luminous, constellation-like network of polished stainless-steel lines and points of light set against the Montreal sky. The work is reminiscent of countless survivor stories about imprisonment in ghettos and concentration camps, where the only form of escape was looking to the night sky. Inspired by the human impulse to connect stars into meaningful patterns, the piece reflects bonds built between individuals, communities and generations.

Rather than reproducing traditional constellations, Baier has created a new network based on astronomical data from the sky above Montreal. From a specific vantage point on the terrace, the dispersed lines create the shape of a sphere, evoking our shared planet and humanity.

photo - Nicolas Baier’s Candelabra — Nicolas Baier’s Candelabra. *(photo from MHM)*

In a museum dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, Candelabra speaks to the fragility and resilience of human connection. The Holocaust was marked by the systematic destruction of Jewish life, the devastation of whole communities and the severing of social bonds. At a time when antisemitism and other forms of hate are on the rise, the sculpture serves as a reminder that societies are shaped by the networks we build and protect, and that, even in darkness, light endures.

The competition was held in accordance with Quebec’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics, which mandates that approximately one percent of the construction budget of public buildings be dedicated to the commissioning of a work of art.

The selection committee was composed of Marie-Blanche Fourcade (head of collections and exhibitions at the MHM); Adrian Sheppard (user representative); Renée Daoust (architect); Suzelle Levasseur (visual arts specialist); Stéphanie L’Heureux (ministry representative); Martha Townsend (visual arts specialist); and Helen Malkin (observer, chair and consultant for the new MHM).

“Nicolas Baier’s proposal moved us because it expresses the importance of human connection,” said Rachel Gropper, Holocaust survivor and co-president of the museum. “In a place devoted to memory and education, this work reminds us that each individual life matters, and that together we have the responsibility to uphold compassion and hope.”

To contribute to the MHM’s building campaign, Give Voice, go to museeholocauste.ca/en/give-voice.

– Courtesy Montreal Holocaust Museum

Call for digital literacy

The federal government must develop a comprehensive national digital literacy program aimed at protecting young people from a wide range of online harms, because current efforts are fragmented and insufficient, according to B’nai Brith Canada.

The national advocacy group is proposing a major national project on this front, something that emerged after B’nai Brith’s appearance before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage last December. The committee was studying the impact of social media on young people.

In its submission, B’nai Brith focused on the risks of online extremism and radicalization. However, testimony before the committee revealed a much broader problem.

“We heard compelling testimony … from those confronting the impact of exploitation, sex exploitation, financial exploitation, misinformation, disinformation, really the gamut of online harms,” said Richard Robertson, the organization’s director of research and advocacy.

In response, B’nai Brith launched a campaign in late 2025 calling on Ottawa to fund and implement a national youth digital literacy program. The goal is to consolidate existing resources and ensure they reach young people across the country.

Robertson stressed that the issue extends beyond education policy and requires a coordinated national response.

“We don’t believe this is a curriculum issue. We don’t believe that this is an education issue. This is a national issue,” he said, adding that the problem “transcends provincial borders.”

The proposed program would bring together existing tools and expertise developed by various organizations and make them more accessible and impactful. Rather than building entirely new materials, the focus would be on refining and distributing what already exists.

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada. (photo from BBC)

“There’s a lot of great resources out there … what we need to do is ensure that those resources are getting to our youth,” Robertson said.

The campaign is also calling for federal funding – potentially through the next federal budget – to support both the development and promotion of the program. B’nai Brith envisions using the same channels that already reach young people, including social media and other digital platforms.

Campaigns targeting specific demographics “are not novel to our society,” Robertson noted, and similar strategies could be used to deliver digital literacy content effectively.

The organization has begun developing a framework for the proposed program and is seeking to collaborate with experts in Canada and internationally. Early endorsements have come from groups including the Canadian School Libraries Association and the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University.

While some jurisdictions, including Australia, have restricted young people’s access to social media, B’nai Brith argues that education remains essential regardless of regulatory approaches.

“You can try to restrict their access … but they will find their ways to interact with it,” Robertson said. He added that online harms extend beyond social media to video games, forums and other platforms that are difficult to regulate.

The organization’s position is that education should complement – not replace – regulatory efforts. B’nai Brith has been engaging with government on digital regulation and plans to participate in an upcoming parliamentary study on artificial intelligence.

Robertson said his group has received a positive initial response from policymakers and is hopeful that funding could be included in the next federal budget, either through new allocations or existing programs.

Beyond federal action, B’nai Brith is also encouraging provincial governments to take steps, particularly within school systems.

“We do an excellent job of … making sure [youth are] literate with technology,” Robertson said. “We need to make sure that their use of technology is a positive experience by also devoting attention to the dangers.”

B’nai Brith is seeking support from civil society organizations and individual Canadians as well, as it builds momentum for the initiative.

The campaign comes as concerns continue to grow about the impact of digital spaces on young people. For B’nai Brith Canada, the urgency is clear: online risks are evolving quickly, and a coordinated national response is needed to help youth navigate them safely.

Shooting response

Jewish leaders and public officials across the Greater Toronto Area are warning that a series of shootings targeting synagogues has pushed antisemitism into a far more dangerous phase, prompting urgent calls for action from police, governments and civil society. Community organizations said the attacks were not isolated acts of vandalism but part of a broader climate of escalating hatred that has left many Jewish families feeling exposed, shaken and abandoned.

Groups including CIJA and UJA Federation said symbolic condemnations are no longer enough, arguing that officials must respond with stronger enforcement, more visible protection and a clearer strategy for confronting extremist incitement before more serious violence occurs. Their message was that when shots are fired at houses of worship, the issue is no longer only about one community’s fears, but about whether public institutions are willing to defend basic safety and democratic order.

Prime Minister Mark Carney described the attacks as “criminal antisemitic assaults” and said federal agencies would support investigators in identifying and prosecuting those responsible. Other civic leaders publicly denounced the shootings as an attack on the right of Jewish Canadians to gather in safety. Together, the reactions reflected a growing consensus that these recent events are not just alarming, but a national test of whether repeated anti-Jewish violence will finally trigger a more serious response.

Tackling antizionism head on

Adam Louis-Klein was deep in the Amazon on Oct. 7, 2023 – three months into fieldwork with an Indigenous community, living without any internet or phone contact. Two days later, in a local town, he reconnected with the outside world and saw the news. Then he saw something else: how people in his professional orbit were responding to the atrocities perpetrated against Israelis.

“I spoke up and said I stood in solidarity with Israelis, and spoke up against the bigotry I was already seeing, and I was quickly, basically purged,” he told the Independent.

photo - Adam Louis-Klein — Adam Louis-Klein *(photo by Adam Louis-Klein)*

Louis-Klein, a McGill University PhD candidate who now lives in New York state, describes a swift loss of “all my social and professional contacts.” But that didn’t stop him from expressing his views. He felt an obligation, he said, to offer a Jewish voice that speaks the same language as the academy and the left, especially in response to antizionism.

“As I wrote more about it, I think my understanding of antizionism got sharper and sharper,” he said. “I got more focused on antizionism itself as an ideology, not just antisemitism.”

That shift – treating antizionism as something that should be named and confronted directly, rather than in the context of its relationship with antisemitism – has become central to his work. In his view, focusing on antisemitism as the lens can become a rhetorical trap, positioning antizionism as a respectable political position.

His ideas went viral.

“I was posting on Facebook and people kind of liked the little mini-essays I wrote,” he said. He launched a blog at the Times of Israel, then began writing for other outlets. “One thing led to another.”

The visibility has accelerated in recent months, he said. Movement Against Antizionism (MAAZ), the organization he founded and leads, has also caught on rapidly.

People found his Times of Israel blog and were on the lookout for voices explicitly naming and confronting antizionism, he said. The people he works with have helped refine his language. Looking back at his writing over a short span, he said, “I already see a kind of progression whereby I get sharper at naming antizionism and making that the focus.”

The backlash was instantaneous.

“People tried to shut me down,” he said. “There were fake complaints against me … they would call my advisor, they would call the anthropology department to try and get me expelled.” He said he was removed from WhatsApp groups, a book club he organized collapsed, a presentation he organized on the Soviet roots of antizionist rhetoric was canceled without explanation.

He described a hardened ideological environment.

“I was told that no one would discuss with me whether it’s a genocide,” he said. “The genocide libel was not something that could be discussed.”

While the university environment may be a hotbed of antizionism generally, anthropology is particularly hostile, he said.

Early anthropology was connected to colonial infrastructures and later efforts to reckon with that legacy have put “settler-colonialism” at the centre of the discipline, Louis-Klein said. In his telling, the field has “swallowed wholesale” a narrative in which “Israelis are these evil white settlers.” He no longer sees a future in the discipline. “It’s not a field that Jews who do not profess loyalty to the antizionist movement … can exist in at this point,” he said.

Louis-Klein, who grew up mostly in Seattle and who spent time in Whistler growing up, holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Yale University, a master’s in philosophy from the New School, a master’s in anthropology from the University of Chicago, and is nearing completion of his PhD at McGill.

With academic doors closing in front of him, he sees a new possibility: the creation of a serious intellectual space for the study of antizionism itself.

“There is now a movement to try and create an academic space for critical studies of antizionism,” he said, adding that he wants to “provide an intellectual framework for treating antizionism as an objective study, as something that we can critically understand, break down, trace its genealogy, understand how it functions in the present as its own phenomenon.”

In his view, the public conversation must change for practical reasons, not just academic ones.

“We cannot fight anti-Jewish violence today without naming and opposing antizionism,” he said. “The vast majority of anti-Jewish violence is directly motivated by antizionism.”

Even attacks rooted in “more classical” right-wing antisemitism now unfold within “the overall hysteria that has been created by antizionism since Oct. 7 and the genocide libel,” he said. Besides, he argued, as a strategy, equating antizionism and antisemitism is failing.

“Calling antizionism antisemitism is also not working,” he said. “We’re assuming that if we just say it’s antisemitic, a number of institutional levers will set into place Holocaust memory, and it’ll shut it down.”

But that’s not happening, he said, “because antizionism doesn’t look like classical antisemitism.”

Instead, he thinks people need to be taught what antizionism is.

“You can’t just say it’s antisemitic,” he said. “You have to explain to people what antizionism is as an ideology, and you have to stop treating it as political critique.”

He draws a distinction between debating Zionism and describing antizionism as a social phenomenon.

“Talking about antizionism also doesn’t mean … explaining how Zionism is actually good. It goes far beyond that. It means explaining how antizionism is a hate movement,” he said.

“It’s a mob movement,” he added. “There are lynch mobs … people who hunt down Zionists and try and shame and humiliate them.… They vandalize buildings, they smash windows.”

MAAZ delivers training in different sectors, including education, business, arts and journalism, designed to help people understand antizionism and “to fight back and to give people a language.”

“We really think naming and labeling is the way to defeat it,” he said.

Louis-Klein described teaching people to “maintain boundaries,” and to label recurring accusations – “colonizer libel, apartheid libel, genocide libel” – as antizionist so that Jews and allies stop feeling obligated to defend their legitimacy and instead “hold antizionism to account.”

The organization also includes legal thinking, with scholar Rona Kaufman developing a legal concept of antizionist discrimination.

Beyond training, MAAZ emphasizes public education. Louis-Klein encourages people to explore the organization’s website (movementagainstantizionism.org), which he describes as “kind of like a museum … a curation where you enter inside of the whole history of antizionism and its different forms and the different libels.”

He emphasized a point he sees as essential for long-term success: expanding beyond the Jewish community.

“Having non-Jewish people who can get behind that … will just be the key,” he said. “That will be the thing that catapults it to the next stage.”

New bill targets hate crimes

At rallies held across Canada after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and during the Israel-Hamas war, there were protesters holding antisemitic signs and hollering antisemitic slogans. Bill C-9 would amend the Criminal Code to strengthen existing hate-related offences. (photo from Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism)

Parliament resumed last month after its winter break and one of the bills on the agenda for the new session could have significant repercussions for Jewish Canadians.

While Jewish organizations welcome most components of the proposed legislation, the most important message that its passage would send is that political leaders take hate crimes seriously, according to Jewish organizational spokespeople who were interviewed by the Independent.

Bill C-9 would amend the Criminal Code to strengthen existing hate-related offences. But legal experts and advocacy agencies admit there is no quick fix for the explosion of antisemitic rhetoric and violence in Canada and around the world.

The proposed legislation, which is now in committee stage, would create new offences for intimidation and for intentional obstruction of access to religious or cultural institutions, schools, daycares, seniors residences and cemeteries. It would also create a new hate-crime offence tied to crimes motivated by “hatred,” add a definition of “hatred” and create an offence related to publicly displaying certain hate or terrorist symbols in ways that promote hatred. If passed, the law would remove the requirement of provincial attorneys general to approve police-laid charges and instead place that decision on Crown prosecutors.

In a rare joint statement in December, five national organizations – the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, B’nai Brith Canada, the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism, and Canadian Women Against Antisemitism – welcomed the bill. They also called for additional steps, including increased funding for community security and closing gaps in the country’s anti-terror laws. The statement further called for existing laws to be more vigorously and consistently enforced.

Despite the advocacy of community voices, and existing and proposed legislation, many Canadian Jews feel that antisemitic rhetoric and acts are getting worse, not better, and that few of the actions taken to stanch them are having the desired outcomes.

In British Columbia, for example, Vancouver police recommended charges against Charlotte Kates, a Vancouver resident who publicly called the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks “brave and heroic” and who led a rally in chants of “Long live October 7.” The recommendation has been on the desk of BC’s attorney general for more than 18 months. In an interview with the Independent late last year, Premier David Eby committed to providing an update on the case. Despite repeated follow-ups, the premier’s office has not yet responded with an explanation as to why no action has been forthcoming.

The Independent interviewed leaders in Jewish advocacy organizations, and a clear consensus emerged that expressions of political will may be as important as any particular piece of existing or new legislation.

While many people may feel things are on a downward trajectory, Dylan Hanley, senior vice-president, public affairs, for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, noted some areas of progress. For example, though the situation on Canadian university campuses is not perfect, he said, there have been improvements in terms of how administrations respond to problems.

Hanley also said credit should be given where due, and intelligence agencies and law enforcement have, crucially, prevented several potential disasters from happening in Canada. More must be done, however, including additional immigration screening around connections to terrorist groups, and maintaining vigilance around foreign interference in politics and civil society, he said.

Further investigation is required around possible foreign support for domestic agitators, said Hanley. Although there is no solid evidence, there has been much speculation about external funding of anti-Israel activities, especially given the apparent preparedness of domestic groups immediately after the 10/7 attacks, he said.

“Has anybody shown us the smoking gun?” Hanley asked. “No. Do we suspect at least that there are foreign funds going into some of these campaigns? Sure.”

Ensuring government support for community security is an ongoing issue, as funding is cyclical. But Hanley noted that, while this support is necessary, it is also a response to the problem, which requires leadership and action that gets at the root of the issue – radicalization combined with a major increase in antisemitism.

The proposed changes contained in Bill C-9 are largely a step in the right direction in his view, but Hanley says no single approach can eliminate the underlying problem of antisemitism and hatred.

“None of these things are silver bullets on their own,” he said. “And we don’t want to raise community expectations that there is a silver bullet here.”

The Jewish community is feeling very alone, he said, and is looking for someone to fix the problem. The consensus among all those interviewed for this story is that political leadership must set the tone.

“I think the biggest piece – and we deliver this message at every level of government in every interaction – is we need to see clear leadership on this,” Hanley said. “We need our leaders to come out and say, clearly, this isn’t OK. You can’t target communities in Canada because of anger or frustrations from conflicts going on overseas, and what starts with our community isn’t going to end with our community.”

photo - Even before Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitism was an increasing problem in Canada – this photo comes from a Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ post about Ontario’s 2022 election. A lack of political will at all levels of government is one reason the problem continues to worsen — Even before Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitism was an increasing problem in Canada – this photo comes from a Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ post about Ontario’s 2022 election. A lack of political will at all levels of government is one reason the problem continues to worsen. *(photo from cija.ca)*

Jewish Canadians are frustrated with what appears like constant buck-passing, he said.

“The university says, ‘Well, actually, this is the police’s job.’ The police say, ‘Well, you know, we haven’t gotten any political cover from the city.’ The city says it’s the province. The province says it’s the feds,” Hanley explained. “And then you go around in the circle again and the feds say, ‘We don’t get involved in law enforcement in individual cases.’”

Aron Csaplaros, BC regional manager for B’nai Brith Canada, echoed several of Hanley’s comments and lauded the Bill C-9 provision that would create a law that most Canadians probably think already exists.

“In Canada, we do not right now have a freestanding hate crime offence,” he said. Instead, the Criminal Code prohibits wilful promotion of hatred and public incitement of hatred. At present, acts motivated by hate are usually prosecuted under general offences like mischief or assault, while bias or hate can be treated only as an aggravating factor at sentencing.

With Bill C-9, prosecutors would be able to lay a specific hate-crime charge that makes bias or hatred part of the offence itself. This means that prosecutions can centre explicitly on antisemitic or hateful motivation, and sentencing may be more severe because the hate element would be built into the crime rather than treated as secondary.

Bill C-9 would also create a prohibition against harassing people outside religious institutions.

“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and protest,” said Csaplaros. “But, at the same time, those rights cannot come at the expense of the freedom of others.”

His views about the way things are handled – or not – are similar to Hanley’s.

“I think there’s a lot of passing the buck and finger-pointing going on between various levels of law enforcement and government,” said Csaplaros.

Like the other spokespeople the Independent interviewed, Csaplaros said he is not criticizing law enforcement.

“Law enforcement really needs to be empowered. They need to ensure that officers are using all of the resources available to them,” he said. “That means that all levels of government – federal, municipal, provincial – need to support law enforcement by ensuring clear directives and ensuring that they have the mandate.”

Officers on the frontline may need more awareness of the laws and the extent or limitations of those laws, he said. Crown prosecutors and the

judiciary might benefit from refreshers as well, he added.

Education is key, he said, not just for people at the frontline of law enforcement but for all Canadians. B’nai Brith is calling for a national digital literacy campaign so that all people, but especially young people, have the tools to be able to differentiate fact from fiction, disinformation from legitimate disagreement.

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy for Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said education is a core mandate of her organization. In this context, she has seen how the realities facing Jewish Canadians are questioned or discounted.

The centre educates a broad range of audiences, including law enforcement, government officials and civil society leaders. Almost invariably, she said, when trainers show statistics of antisemitic hate crimes, hands shoot up in the audience to contest the numbers, to question the methodologies or otherwise call into doubt the prevalence of attacks on Jews. Part of this, she believes, is due to the pervasiveness of the myth of the “powerful Jew.”

“This sort of racist understanding of the Jew has compromised the ability of the society to really understand that, in fact, we are the targets,” she said.

Even when people are not challenging the evidence, said Kirzner-Roberts, there seems to be a fundamental disconnect between approaches to antisemitism and reactions to other forms of racism.

“The response that we so often hear is, ‘Well, it’s a free country,’” she said. “This is not the kind of expression that you would get if the target were, in my opinion, anyone other than Jews.” This societal double standard is a challenge, she said.

Like the others interviewed, Kirzner-Roberts believes that leadership and political will are crucial to turning the tide. That includes legislation like Bill C-9 and also enforcement of existing laws. “There is a lot of legislation already that is being far underutilized,” she said.

Systemic issues, though, are addressed by leadership at the political level.

“We’re seeing a lack of political will across the board, and I’m talking here [about] cities, provinces and on the federal level,” said Kirzner-Roberts.

In addition to addressing the rise in hate-motivated crime and closing loopholes in existing laws, she said, Bill C-9 is important because it drives home the message of political will onto police and prosecutors.