Pro-Israel activist Eylon Levy speaks with an audience member before his Oct. 30 talk at Schara Tzedeck, which was presented by StandWithUs Canada. <\/i>(photo by Pat Johnson)<\/i><\/p>\n
The terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7 attacks were products of schools paid for in part by the Canadian government, according to Eylon Levy, a former Israeli government spokesperson who addressed an audience at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Oct. 7 terrorists all went to Canadian-funded schools,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is outrageous. It\u2019s disgusting. You need to hold [the Canadian government] accountable and say there are consequences.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Most schools in Gaza are run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is funded by UN member-states, including Canada.<\/p>\n Levy spoke here Oct. 30 as part of a cross-Canada tour sponsored by StandWithUs Canada, a pro-Israel educational organization focused on campuses.<\/p>\n Levy said Israel\u2019s recent announcement that it was banning UNRWA from operating in Israel was the right move because the agency exists to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem, not resolve it, to keep the Israeli-Arab conflict alive, to indoctrinate Palestinian children and to provide the financial safety net terrorists need to engage in violent attacks like Oct. 7.<\/p>\n Israel has been widely condemned for the imminent ban, which came after Israel repeatedly informed the UN that UNRWA\u2019s staff includes known terrorists, some of whose names were provided to the UN by Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just don\u2019t care,\u201d Levy said of the UN\u2019s response that terrorists are on their payroll. \u201cNow they claim UNRWA is irreplaceable. Well, you should have thought about that when Israel gave you the evidence that it is riddled with terrorism and you chose to deny that it was a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Israeli authorities, 12 UNRWA staff members actively participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, with allegations that more than 30 additional UNRWA workers were involved in activities such as facilitating hostage-taking and looting. Israel\u2019s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has alleged that, of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza, at least 12% are affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.<\/p>\n In conversation with Michael Sachs, Western regional director for Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Levy said many people are inverting right and wrong when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war and they are trying to sway young people especially.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe world is trying to tell them that the cause of their generation, the great cause of this century, is the fight for Palestine, which means the destruction of the state of Israel,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n Contesting these messages is tough, he said, especially when the agencies that represent the moral high-ground are on the wrong side.<\/p>\n Levy recalled a debate he had against broadcaster Mehdi Hasan.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew he was going to come on the stage and say, \u2018Well, the UN agrees with me, Oxfam agrees with me, Save the Children agrees with me, Red Cross agrees with me. How is it possible the whole world is wrong and you are right?\u2019\u201d Levy said. \u201cThat\u2019s Jewish history: the courage to look around and say, \u2018You\u2019re all crazy. This isn\u2019t right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Levy noted that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement on social media mourning the death of Muhammad Abu Atawi, who was killed by the Israel Defence Forces.<\/p>\n Atawi was an employee of UNRWA but, according to Israel, he was also a Hamas terrorist who led the attack on the bomb shelter near the Nova music festival, in which Hersh Goldberg-Polin and others were sheltering.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a leader I\u2019m supposed to take seriously?\u201d Levy asked. \u201cThe Red Cross that hasn\u2019t lifted a finger to try to save the hostages is an organization that I am meant to take seriously? The NGOs that wouldn\u2019t even shed crocodile tears on Oct. 7, that never tried to do any sort of campaign for the hostages, they are the ones I am meant to take seriously?\u201d<\/p>\n Young people and other activists in the West who insist they are anti-Zionist and not antisemitic are deluding themselves, Levy suggested.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are expressing a hatred and a prejudice against the same people,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that they believe that they hate the same people that their grandparents hated but it\u2019s a complete coincidence shows a tragic lack of self-awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting the pro-Israel message out is especially challenging on social media, said Levy, but Jews and their allies can\u2019t give up the battle.<\/p>\n Social media is problematic at the best of times \u2013 even when it is not a platform controlled by the Chinese regime, as TikTok is \u2013 because it maximizes engagement by provoking outrage and amplifies the most extreme viewpoints.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to win the social media battle,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we can\u2019t afford not to fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n If the only thing that people see on social media are anti-Israel messages, what conclusion will people come to? he asked.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what if their friend, the person they know is a good, decent person, stands up and presents a contrary view?\u201d said Levy. \u201cThen at least you\u2019ve made that person think this is complicated and there\u2019s a case to be made on the other side. So, it requires all of us to be there, to fight the fight, to be as loud and vocal and produce as much stuff as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n That battle of ideas also needs to be taken offline, he said.<\/p>\n It is further complicated, he added, because the Israeli government has effectively given up communicating to the world.<\/p>\n Levy, who was born in England to Israeli parents and made aliyah as a lone soldier, was effectively conscripted to serve as an English-language spokesperson at the beginning of the war. He was fired after a social media spat with Britain\u2019s then-foreign secretary David Cameron. Levy cofounded the Israeli Citizen Spokespersons\u2019 Office, which tries to fill the information gap he said the Israeli government has left.<\/p>\n Pro-Israel voices in the West need to change tack, according to Levy. Rather than being on the defensive and explaining Israel\u2019s actions, Canadians and others should be calling out governments and NGOs.<\/p>\n \u201cOther people owe us answers,\u201d he said. \u201cUNRWA owes us answers. The Red Cross owes us answers. The UN owes us answers. I think we have to go on the offensive and demand those answers from other people instead of constantly trying to defend ourselves and say, \u2018I can explain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Levy dismisses calls for a ceasefire. The war needs to end in the defeat of Hamas \u2013 and it\u2019s all over but the surrender, he argued.<\/p>\n \u201cHamas has lost,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s game over.\u201d<\/p>\n But Hamas needs the world to help it understand that fact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is, when international actors step in to demand a ceasefire, as opposed to Hamas\u2019s surrender, they tell Hamas to keep fighting,\u201d he said. With Hamas on its knees, \u201cIt\u2019s outrageous that some countries are trying to get it back up on its feet.\u201d<\/p>\n Hezbollah has also been largely eliminated, according to Levy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll of its top leadership are dead,\u201d he said. \u201cThe infrastructure along the border has been destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n Iran, of course, remains unbowed, even in the face of the damage Israel has inflicted on its proxies.<\/p>\n Levy said one outcome from the current crisis is that Jewish communities have come together. In Israel, individuals instantly mobilized on Oct. 7 to do whatever they could and, in the diaspora, Jews have united as they rarely have before.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sense of responsibility, that sense of solidarity, being there for each other and having each other\u2019s backs, I find incredibly inspiring,\u201d he said. \u201cThat awakening of responsibility and self-reliance and leadership in Jewish communities around the world has been an inspiration to people in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesse Primerano, executive director of StandWithUs Canada, which brought Levy to Vancouver, said his group has 106 interns and fellows on campuses across Canada this year \u2013 an increase over past years and a happy surprise for Primerano. He was afraid for the organization\u2019s programs this year, he said, concerned that they wouldn\u2019t be able to recruit students to stand for Israel on campuses. The opposite happened.<\/p>\n \u201cNumbers skyrocketed,\u201d he said. \u201cThe truth is that they are not scared. They are empowered. They are emboldened \u2026 and they are so brave and ready to stand up.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n SWU has also hired more staff across Canada, including a full-time position in Vancouver funded by the Diamond Foundation.<\/p>\n Three students from Vancouver-area campuses who are part of the SWU Emerson Fellowship program spoke to the audience, drawing ovations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pro-Israel activist Eylon Levy speaks with an audience member before his Oct. 30 talk at Schara Tzedeck, which was presented by StandWithUs Canada. (photo by Pat Johnson) The terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7 attacks were products of schools paid for in part by the Canadian government, according to Eylon Levy, a former Israeli government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329,4],"tags":[801,23626,23627,4330,22729,6002,4869,1774,228,2806],"class_list":["post-45407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-local","tag-antisemitism","tag-eylon-levy","tag-friends-of-the-simon-wiesenthal-centre","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-social-media","tag-standwithus","tag-terrorism","tag-united-nations","tag-unrwa"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}