Several people have requested that the Independent<\/i> print the full text of my remarks. We have not done this for other speakers over the past five months, and this issue is jam-packed with news around related topics of allegations of antisemitism in the province so there is not space to run the entire speech. However, we have posted it on the paper\u2019s website<\/a>, with apologies to the dozens of speakers whose words have not been shared in their entirety over the past five months. Insider privilege, undoubtedly.<\/p>\n Even though the audience at these vigils is overwhelmingly Jewish, I felt my message should be aimed at non-Jewish people.<\/p>\n I\u2019m also angry, and I decided to let that show. In addressing those gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery, where the weekly rallies for the Israeli hostages are held, I observed that I was standing on the same steps where, days after the pogrom of Oct. 7, people stood and celebrated murder, rape, beheadings and kidnappings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe mourn,\u201d I said, \u201cWe grieve every single innocent life lost. We do not celebrate dead innocents. Neither do we tally up bodies in a grotesque competition where the side with the most dead wins moral victory.\u201d<\/p>\n I warned that it is not only Jews and Israelis who are threatened by the behaviours of anti-Israel activists.<\/p>\n \u201cThe violence, coercion, intimidation and racism these people embody is a threat to Canada \u2026 to our civility, our peace, our multiculturalism and political discourse,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n Maybe, I suggested, there are Canadians who don\u2019t care if the Jewish people lose their country.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when they wake up and see that Canadians have lost ours \u2026 Jewish Canadians and their allies will be asking: Where were you? Where were you when we were standing up for the values that Israelis and Canadians share? Where were you when we demanded \u2018bring them home\u2019? Because, if you are not standing with Israelis against extremism \u2026 you are emboldening extremism in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not about choosing between Israelis and Palestinians,\u201d I said. \u201cUnlike the extremists, we want peace for everyone. This is about choosing between civilization and barbarism. And we need to ask every Canadian:\u00a0 <\/span>Which side are you on?\u201d<\/p>\n Before I spoke, Kedem shared comments made the night before at the weekly rally in Tel Aviv, with relatives of living and dead hostages urging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to do everything in his power to negotiate their release.<\/p>\n Kedem told the crowd that former cabinet minister Selina Robinson was to address the rally but security concerns prevented her from attending.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very, very sad moment for us that we can\u2019t have a Jewish representative walk the streets of Vancouver in 2024,\u201d said Kedem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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