{"id":45552,"date":"2024-12-13T01:51:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T09:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=45552"},"modified":"2024-12-12T12:16:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T20:16:39","slug":"human-rights-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2024\/12\/13\/human-rights-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Human rights, democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left to right: Haleema Sadia, Emily Schrader, Christine Douglass-Williams and Goldie Ghamari formed the panel of the Dec. 4 event in Toronto called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran. (photo by Dave Gordon)<\/i><\/p>\n

American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader believes it took years for Canada to designate the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps a terror group, as it did in June, because of \u201cmoral cowardice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She said other Western countries have \u201crefuse[d] to stand up for moral values and their countries and civilizations\u201d and that is \u201call the reason to vote for those who will protect democracies and freedoms in Canada.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Schrader spoke in Toronto at the Lodzer Centre on Dec. 4. She was part of a panel with cofounder of TAG TV Haleema Sadia, Iranian-born Ottawa-area Member of Provincial Parliament Goldie Ghamari, and journalist Christine Douglass-Williams, in a talk called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran.<\/p>\n

Schrader is an anchor on ILTV in Israel, co-hosts a panel show on Jewish News Syndicate, and is a contributor to ynetnews.com. In her opening remarks, she spoke of growing up \u201cnominally pro-Israel\u201d until her time at the University of Southern California as an undergrad student. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much people passionately hate\u00a0<\/span>Israel and Jews until I went to university,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her first time \u201creally seeing this visceral, irrational obsession with the Jewish state, which really is an obsession with Jews,\u201d was during an Israel Apartheid Week, held by Students for Justice in Palestine. She said she was \u201cirritated\u201d by the \u201clies they spread across campus.\u201d She joined Students for Israel in response to \u201cthis obsessive hatred towards Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always joke that Students for Justice in Palestine \u2013 the best thing they ever did was make me the biggest Zionist in the world,\u201d said Schrader. \u201cI would not be Israeli today if it was not for Students for Justice in Palestine. So, I guess I have them to thank for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only after making aliyah that Schrader became aware of the historical connection between Iranians and Jews, going back to Cyrus the Great (circa 590 – 529 BCE), who allowed the Jewish exiles to return to the Holy Land. Iranians and Israelis are \u201creally fighting the same evil,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4. (photo by Dave Gordon)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2024, Schrader founded the Israeli Iranian Women\u2019s Alliance (IIWA) to promote women\u2019s advancement and democratic values.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She said Iran\u2019s human rights violations have gotten worse. \u201cThere are more restrictions and gender apartheid than we have ever seen before.\u201d She added: \u201cThe world is not paying attention because of everything else that\u2019s been going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghamari said Canada has been \u201ccourting the Hamas votes,\u201d meaning immigrants from countries with \u201cfundamentally different values than Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schrader added that \u201cthe left overestimates the values of these voters\u201d and \u201cthey are against the West \u2013 whether it\u2019s a right or left government \u2013 so courting them is a fundamental mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best ways to support Iranians is to support our king,\u201d Ghamari said of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi \u2013 son of the late, deposed shah \u2013 who visited Israel in April 2023. \u201cHe is the one true voice of the Iranian people. He has 90% support,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A way to battle the anti-Israel forces is to build connections with like-minded allies, said Douglass-Williams. \u201cThey want the outreach just as much as the Jewish community.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ghamari seconded that: \u201cAll your support gave me the motivation to speak out and speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadia\u2019s advice to win hearts and minds was to \u201cmultiply the voices\u201d on social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Douglass-Williams alerted the audience that Venezuela has now sold a million hectares of land to the Iranian regime. \u201cThe IDF says they are developing weapons there that could reach America and Israel,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dec. 4 talk was organized by the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, OneGlobalVoice, Allied Voices for Israel, Tafsik, and Canadians for Israel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Independent<\/i>, Schrader said the new Trump administration will be \u201cexcellent\u201d on cracking down on Iran. She believes that moral-minded countries need to \u201cde-recognize\u201d the Islamic regime and ramp up sanctions. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tall order,\u201d she said of countries who have economic ties. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the wave of anti-Israel protests, they are primarily concerned with \u201csupport for terrorist organizations and an attempt to infiltrate and undermine Western values and the West,\u201d Schrader told the JI<\/i>.<\/p>\n

If they cared about Palestinians, she said, they would protest the estimated 4,000 Palestinians killed in Syria by the Assad regime during that country\u2019s civil war, she said. The Islamic regime\u2019s \u201cvast majority of the victims\u201d are Arab and Muslim, but again, these protesters are silent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Law enforcement, she believes, is to blame for allowing \u201cmultiple antisemitic assaults and attacks,\u201d because \u201cthere\u2019s zero accountability for these crimes that are being committed with a racist, hateful, pro-terror agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to deter it, or it will only grow,\u201d said Schrader. \u201cAnd we see that happening. It\u2019s a year after Oct. 7 and, I would argue, that it\u2019s worse.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dave Gordon<\/b> is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left to right: Haleema Sadia, Emily Schrader, Christine Douglass-Williams and Goldie Ghamari formed the panel of the Dec. 4 event in Toronto called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran. (photo by Dave Gordon) American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader believes it took years for Canada to designate the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[801,3157,23675,22724,23677,23676,1122,2462,23678,4330,2251,23674,9958,1774,3021],"class_list":["post-45552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-antisemitism","tag-canada","tag-christine-douglass-williams","tag-emily-schrader","tag-goldie-ghamari","tag-haleema-sadia","tag-human-rights","tag-iran","tag-islamic-revolution-guard-corps","tag-israel","tag-law","tag-oppression","tag-protesters","tag-terrorism","tag-women"],"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\/45552","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=45552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}