protesters

Human rights, democracy

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 terror group, as it did in June, because of “moral cowardice.”

She said other Western countries have “refuse[d] to stand up for moral values and their countries and civilizations” and that is “all the reason to vote for those who will protect democracies and freedoms in Canada.”

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.

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 “nominally pro-Israel” until her time at the University of Southern California as an undergrad student. “I didn’t realize how much people passionately hate Israel and Jews until I went to university,” she said.

Her first time “really seeing this visceral, irrational obsession with the Jewish state, which really is an obsession with Jews,” was during an Israel Apartheid Week, held by Students for Justice in Palestine. She said she was “irritated” by the “lies they spread across campus.” She joined Students for Israel in response to “this obsessive hatred towards Israel.”

“I always joke that Students for Justice in Palestine – the best thing they ever did was make me the biggest Zionist in the world,” said Schrader. “I 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.”

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 “really fighting the same evil,” she said.

photo - American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4 — American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

In 2024, Schrader founded the Israeli Iranian Women’s Alliance (IIWA) to promote women’s advancement and democratic values.

She said Iran’s human rights violations have gotten worse. “There are more restrictions and gender apartheid than we have ever seen before.” She added: “The world is not paying attention because of everything else that’s been going on.”

Ghamari said Canada has been “courting the Hamas votes,” meaning immigrants from countries with “fundamentally different values than Canada.”

Schrader added that “the left overestimates the values of these voters” and “they are against the West – whether it’s a right or left government – so courting them is a fundamental mistake.”

“One of the best ways to support Iranians is to support our king,” Ghamari said of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi – son of the late, deposed shah – who visited Israel in April 2023. “He is the one true voice of the Iranian people. He has 90% support,” she said.

A way to battle the anti-Israel forces is to build connections with like-minded allies, said Douglass-Williams. “They want the outreach just as much as the Jewish community.”

Ghamari seconded that: “All your support gave me the motivation to speak out and speak up.”

Sadia’s advice to win hearts and minds was to “multiply the voices” on social media.

Douglass-Williams alerted the audience that Venezuela has now sold a million hectares of land to the Iranian regime. “The IDF says they are developing weapons there that could reach America and Israel,” she said.

The Dec. 4 talk was organized by the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, OneGlobalVoice, Allied Voices for Israel, Tafsik, and Canadians for Israel.

In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Independent, Schrader said the new Trump administration will be “excellent” on cracking down on Iran. She believes that moral-minded countries need to “de-recognize” the Islamic regime and ramp up sanctions. “It’s going to be a tall order,” she said of countries who have economic ties.

As for the wave of anti-Israel protests, they are primarily concerned with “support for terrorist organizations and an attempt to infiltrate and undermine Western values and the West,” Schrader told the JI.

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’s civil war, she said. The Islamic regime’s “vast majority of the victims” are Arab and Muslim, but again, these protesters are silent.

Law enforcement, she believes, is to blame for allowing “multiple antisemitic assaults and attacks,” because “there’s zero accountability for these crimes that are being committed with a racist, hateful, pro-terror agenda.”

“You have to deter it, or it will only grow,” said Schrader. “And we see that happening. It’s a year after Oct. 7 and, I would argue, that it’s worse.”

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.

Pride despite facing hatred

Ben Freeman (photo by Pat Johnson)

A couple of dozen loud and aggressive protesters accosted people arriving to an event at Hillel House at the University of British Columbia March 13. One masked woman raced up and screamed into the faces of those arriving. Another shoved her phone, presumably filming, into the faces of those trying to enter. Marchers, carrying communist banners and flags, screamed “You are on the wrong side of history!”

Inside, a packed audience listened to gay, Jewish, Scottish writer and activist Ben Freeman contextualize the state of world Jewry since Oct. 7. The author of Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People and Reclaiming our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride, in conversation with Vancouver media personality Shane Foxman, spoke while, throughout the entire presentation, the dull roar of protesters screaming provided background.

“We need to understand very, very clearly that we have done nothing to deserve that rabble outside,” Freeman said. “It is not our fault. This is their problem and not ours. Jew-hatred is a non-Jewish problem. We need our non-Jewish friends and allies to set up on the task of dismantling it. We have other work to do.”

Jews, of course, fight antisemitism, he said, but it is up to non-Jews to defeat it.

“This [protest] is not a commentary on Israel or Zionism,” he said. “This is an expression of Jew-hatred. We need to understand that.”

It is not only Jew-haters who try to separate diaspora Jews from Israel, said Freeman. Many Jews fall into the trap as well. The accusation of dual loyalty is a tool to dissuade Jews from expressing their natural connection to the land of Israel, he said.

“The canard of dual loyalty has led some Jews to say, ‘No, no, no, no, I’m not connected to Israel. I’m an American or I’m British or I’m Canadian’ or whatever the case may be,” Freeman said. “The reality is we are the diaspora. That word gives us a really incredible clue to the aspects of our identity. If we are in the diaspora, Israel is our home. You can be Canadian and Jewish, you don’t need to choose. That is what the non-Jewish world tries to make us do. They try to make us choose. Are you Canadian or are you Jewish? That’s the message that we get, you have to choose. But you don’t.”

He recounted a conversation with his dermatologist, a Briton of Pakistani descent, who said he was “going home” to Pakistan on vacation.

“I said, oh, wonderful, were you born there? And he said, no, I was born here,” recalled Freeman. “And I thought, yes! You get it. And he’s allowed [to visit what he calls home], but somehow we are told we are not allowed.”

Freeman argued succinctly that it’s time Jews stopped fearing accusations of divided loyalties.

“I do have dual loyalty,” he said. “Suck it.”

In addition to refusing to succumb to false accusations, Freeman argued that Jews need to set boundaries on personal and professional relationships.

“After Oct. 7, I spoke to Jewish friends who were in relationships with non-Jewish people and they said, oh, it’s hard, because my partner isn’t sure how they feel about Israel,” Freeman said. “My jaw kind of hit the floor. We have to have bottom lines. We have to have boundaries. There should be conversations we are willing to have and conversations we refuse to have. Each of us will make those ourselves but recognizing that Israel has a right to exist, Israel has a right to defend itself, that should be a bottom line. And I think I would encourage all Jews, whether it’s in romantic relationships, whether it’s in friendships, to be able to prioritize yourself, to be able to centre yourself and create those boundaries. We are not accepting half-assed empathy or friendship.”

Probably all Jews have had difficult conversations with friends and others in recent months, he said, and Freeman urges a little more resistance.

“I say to my friends in those situations – it’s a little bit arsey, to be honest, but I am so done with being a nice Jew – I say to them, let’s be really clear before we have a conversation about Israel: I know more about this than you do, so don’t come for me. Have some respect. Not only is this my work, but I’m a Jew. That should be respected. And then, I care more about this. My friends are people in the world who might see a headline, they might see a tweet by those bozos outside, and they get enraged and inflamed. They can’t point out which river or which sea. We care deeply, we think about it.”

photo - As author Ben Freeman spoke at Hillel House at the University of British Columbia, the dull roar of protesters provided background — As author Ben Freeman spoke at Hillel House at the University of British Columbia, the dull roar of protesters provided background. *(photo by Pat Johnson)*

Ignorance should be challenged and invitations to learn extended, he said. “But there will be those who are malicious,” he added. “There will be those who think that we are bad, evil Zionists, we’re colonizers, we’re white oppressors and we are murdering the Indigenous people, we are committing genocide. There are people who believe those things and, if they do, those people are not interested in a conversation, so we block them…. They’re not worth our time. They’re not worth our energy. We’re not dealing with those people.”

He admits, though, this can be easier said than done. All the hatred can get into one’s psyche.

“I’m the author of books about Jewish pride. I’m very proud to be Jewish. I love Israel,” said Freeman. “And there have been flickers of weakness in the past five months, when I have been weighed down by what is happening in the diaspora, what happened in Israel and what is said to me online and you do think, Are we the bad guys? What is happening? No. We are not. We have a right to be in that land. We have a right to defend ourselves. We need to make the world understand crystal clearly that you do not get to murder Jews and get away with it. Jewish blood is not cheap. We will defend ourselves and we have a country to do that. We lost our sovereignty.… We are not losing it again.”

Tight security ushered attendees out a back door and away from the still-chanting protesters circling the front of the building.

טרודו מבקר את ישראל ומפגינים תומכי פלסטינים יוצאים נגדו

ראש ממשלת קנדה, ג’סטין טרודו, מתח ביקורת קשה על פעילות צה”ל ברצועת עזה וטען כי הרג נשים, ילדים ותינוקות חייב להיפסק. טרודו קרא לממשלת ישראל לנהוג באיפוק מרבי. העולם צופה, בטלוויזיה וברשתות החברתיות. אנחנו שומעים עדויות של רופאים, בני משפחה, ניצולים, ילדים שאיבדו את הוריהם, הוסיף עוד אמר טרודו במסיבת עיתונאים שקיים לפני מספר ימים במחוז קולומביה הבריטית

מאז מתקפת הטרור בשבעה בחודש אוקטובר קנדה הבהירה כי לישראל יש את הזכות להגן על עצמה מפני חמאס. במסיבת עיתונאים טרודו אף הפציר בארגון הטרור להפסיק להשתמש באזרחים חפים מפשע בעזה כמגן אנושי, כלשונו. ובמקביל על חמאס לשחרר את החטופים המוחזקים בשבי החמאס זה חודשיים ימים. עם זאת, ראש ממשלת קנדה כאמור לא חסך ביקורת על התקיפות הקשות נמשכות של ישראל ברצועת עזה

העולם עד להרג הזה של נשים, של ילדים, של תינוקות. זה חייב להיפסק לדברי טרודו. הוא קרא לאחרונה לא פעם להפסקה הומניטרית משמעותית. וזאת כדי לאפשר את שחרור החטופים ולספק סיוע הומניטרי לאזרחים ברצועת עזה, כך שניתן לתת מענה לצרכים אזרחיים. ראש הממשלה, בנימין נתניהו מיהר לגנות את דבריו של טרודו, וצייץ ברשת החברתית טוויטר: לא ישראל תוקפת בכוונה אזרחים, אלא חמאס שערף ראשים, שרף וביצע טבח באזרחים, בזוועות הקשות ביותר שבוצעו נגד יהודים מאז השואה

לדברי נתניהו, בעוד ישראל עושה הכל כדי להרחיק אזרחים מאזורי התקיפות, חמאס עושה הכל כדי לשמור עליהם שם. ישראל מספקת לאזרחים בעזה מסדרונות הומניטריים ואזורים בטוחים, בעוד חמאס מונע מהם לעזוב באיומי אקדח. נתניהו סיכם את דבריו: החמאס, ולא ישראל, הוא שצריך להיות מואשם על ביצוע פשע מלחמה כפול והוא פגיעה באזרחים תוך הסתתרות מאחורי אזרחים. על כוחות הציוויליזציה לתמוך בישראל בהשמדת הברבריות של חמאס. טרודו ציין כי קרוב לארבע מאות אזרחים קנדיים ובני משפחותיהם פונו כבר מעזה

בדברי הביקורת שלו על ישראל מצטרף איפוא טרודו לנשיאה של צרפת, עמנואל מקרון, שאמר בראיון לרשת הטלוויזיה הבריטית הבי.בי.סי. כי על ישראל להפסיק להרוג נשים וילדים ברצועת עזה. ביקורתו של של מקרון עוררה סערה קשה וזכתה אף לגינויים פומביים רבים מחברי הממשלה בישראל בראשות נתניהו שהעיר, כי המדינה לא צריכה הטפות מוסר מאף אחד

חבר קבינט המלחמה של ממשלת ישראל השר בני גנץ שוחח עם טרודו לאור דבריו, עדכן אותו בהתפתחויות במלחמה והדגיש בפניו את המשך השימוש של חמאס בתושבי עזה כמגן אנושי. בשיחה ציין טרודו את תמיכתו ארוכת השנים בישראל, זכותה להגן על עצמה וכן את הצורך לפעול להשבת החטופים באופן מיידי. טרודו הוסיף כי המשך הסיוע ההומניטרי לתושבי הרצועה הוא בעל חשיבות לשמירה על אפשרות לעתיד טוב יותר לאזור כולו

בינתיים דווקא תומכי הפלסטינים יצאו נגד טרודו ומשטרת ונקובר נאלצה הגן עליו בפני המפגינים. טרודו הגיע למסעדה בוונקובר באחד הערבים האחרונים. קרוב לשלוש מאות מפגינים תומכי הפלסטינים ששמעו על כך הגיעו למקום וקיימו הפגנה מול המסעדה. משטרת ונקובר הגיעה למקום עם כמאה שוטרים. לדברי המשטרה שניים מהמוחים אף נעצרו, ואחד מהם חשוד שהיכה את אחד השוטרים שנזקק לטיפול רפואי. במשטרה מציינים עוד כי המפגינים התאספו ללא התראה מוקדמת ליד המסעדה, החזיקו דגלי פלסטין, וקראו שיש לבצע הפסקת אש מיידית ברצועת עזה. המפגינים צעקו לטרודו כי יש לו דם על הידיים

Not your parents’ Netanyahu

Lihi Shmuely of Israel Hofsheet and Ben Murane of the New Israel Fund of Canada. (photos from the organizations)

Binyamin Netanyahu is the longest-serving Israeli prime minister and should be a known quantity. The government he leads now, however, is unlike anything the country has seen in the past, according to a leading Israeli activist who participated in a cross-Canada speaking tour.

“This is different,” said Lihi Shmuely, deputy director of Israel Hofsheet. “This is completely new to us. This is a very extreme, radical government that we’ve never seen before.”

Israel Hofsheet (Israel Be Free) works to increase freedom and equality in the areas of religion and state, as well as Jewish pluralism in Israel, particularly focusing on civil options for marriage, gender equality, pluralistic Shabbat in the public realm and LGBTQ+ rights.

Even some voters who supported parties that are now in the governing coalition are expressing regret, she said. Many supported right-wing parties based on national security issues or a range of other policies.

“Now they understand that it comes as a whole package, that these people who promised national security … [are] not just racists but also chauvinists and homophobes and misogynistic people who are promoting legislation that will hurt the very core, the liberal and democratic core, of Israel,” said Shmuely.

She warned that people should take members of the new government seriously when they advance what appear to be extreme policy positions. To contextualize what is happening, she compared the reaction in the United States when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade, the precedent-setting reproductive rights case.

“We thought this was already set in stone, the Supreme Court has decided and that’s it,” Shmuely said. Returning to the Israeli situation, she warned that some people do not believe that the more extreme statements or policies – even the formally agreed-upon coalition agreements – will actually be codified in legislation or policy. “They will do what they say they’ll do. So, we need to take it very, very seriously.”

Evidence suggests many Israelis are taking it seriously. Rallies throughout the country against the range of legislation and proposals – most notably the subjugation of the Supreme Court to the elected Knesset, as well as women’s equality and LGBTQ+ rights, the status and rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, and encroachments of religion into the public sphere. People who have never been political in the past are getting involved and even attending the mass rallies that take place every weekend.

“We don’t have this privilege anymore, to say, I will not get involved,” Shmuely said, adding that Israelis are facing existential questions. “I feel like we are asking ourselves, what are we? Are we a Jewish state? Are we a democratic state? Are we a liberal democracy? Is there a contradiction between all of them? It feels like these days we are writing the rest of our history.”

Shmuely’s grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and, in recent months, has been saying, “This is not the country that I ran away from Europe for.”

While emphasizing urgency, Shmuely counters that it is not too late to alter course.

“I do think we are under terrible threat and I do think that it’s not too late,” said Shmuely. “It’s almost – but it’s not yet. We still have a lot to do.”

A major focus for opposition groups is this October’s municipal elections across Israel.

“These are sort of like the midterms in the States,” she said. Aside from this, municipal governments also have power to push back against national trends. For example, some municipalities have expanded transportation services to Shabbat.

Shmuely was supposed to be in Vancouver March 1 for a program at Or Shalom synagogue. However, she was stuck in Toronto after contracting COVID and appeared virtually. In person was Ben Murane, executive director of the New Israel Fund of Canada. His group supports civil society organizations in Israel that advance socioeconomic equality, religious freedom, civil and human rights, shared society and anti-racism efforts. Their Vancouver event was co-sponsored by Or Shalom, and the advocacy groups Peace Now and Ameinu.

Murane highlighted what he sees as recent positive developments.

“We couldn’t have anticipated that every Saturday there would be 100,000 protesters coming out – 300,000 last weekend,” he said. Security officials, business leaders, the heads of universities, lawyers, the press council and others who might previously have remained silent on contentious issues are speaking out, said Murane, and high-tech businesses are giving employees time off to attend protests.

“We couldn’t have anticipated that, in the past few weeks, major Diaspora voices who, between you and me, are usually the ones arguing against criticism of Israel, would be coming out saying, please criticize the government of Israel,” he said. “The Jewish Federations of North America issued a very surprising and precedent-breaking statement against the court override. You see individuals like [former Canadian justice minister] Irwin Cotler coming out, you see [former head of the Anti-Defamation League] Abraham Foxman and, for whatever it’s worth, Alan Dershowitz also saying something.”

He cited the resignation of Avi Maoz from cabinet last week as a positive outcome, partly due to public opposition. Maoz is head of the far-right Noam party, which advocates against equality for women and LGBTQ+ people. He resigned from cabinet, though not from the governing coalition, when he realized that Netanyahu was unlikely to implement numerous of his priorities.

“Avi Maoz came in with very bold intentions and then met all of this intense resistance and found that his agenda is not going to be as easily advanced,” he said. The rest of the coalition realized, according to Murane, that it would cost a great deal of political capital for the government to allow Maoz to get his way. “We are seeing them say, Avi, you’re not going to get everything you want, and he quits in a huff.… This is evidence that some of this is actually working, that it may appear a pyrrhic victory, but these are the dribs and drabs of what impact looks like in these moments.”

The role of groups like his and its partners on the ground in Israel is eternal vigilance, Murane said.

“Part of the role of civil society is to let nothing go unchallenged. Nothing,” he said. “Even if our odds of actually completely forestalling it are slim, part of the victory is to make an atrocious thing merely bad and to make the political powers that are advancing these initiatives expend a great deal of political capital in order to get what they want, by making them waste time and energy.”

Murane addressed the extraordinary violence that took place in the Palestinian village of Huwara Feb. 26, where rampaging Jewish settlers engaged in what has been called by some a “pogrom” that left one person dead, almost 400 wounded, and homes and businesses set afire. The attack was revenge for a terror attack the same day, in which Israeli brothers Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, were murdered.

“We’ve seen settler violence,” said Murane. “It’s been on the increase. It’s a real thing. It’s a fact of life for Palestinians from the territories. But to have dozens of settlers go into a village with impunity and commit the violence they committed, that is a new thing.”

He said civil society organizations must draw as much attention as possible to such incidents, including promoting the use of body cameras for police and wider availability of video cameras for civilians.

Incidents like these cloud the reality of evolving Israeli views on Arab-Jewish political cooperation, he said. Over the last several election cycles, opinion polls have indicated a steep increase in the proportion of Israelis who support Arab-Jewish political cooperation, from about 30% a couple of years ago to a majority today. The inclusion of an Arab political party in the last coalition government was groundbreaking.

“That’s a huge change in Israeli society that, a year ago, we didn’t even imagine it was possible,” Murane said. In the 2022 election, he said, “unless you are voting for the right-wing, you are implicitly voting for more Jewish-Arab political partnership.”

Or Shalom’s Rabbi Hannah Dresner introduced the event.

“I think it’s an important time for me to acknowledge that the democracy that I imagine as part of that beautiful place that I called Israel through my whole growing up and adulthood is really a selective democracy, a democracy for some and not for all,” she said. “That is a very important aspect of my concern at the moment – not just what happens with the loss of democracy but what is that democracy and how can it be a democracy that serves all who live in the land of Israel?”

Rallying in Rishon Le-Tzion

Protesters in Rishon Le-Tzion Demonstrating against judicial reform February 25, 2023. (photo by Hayden)

It was a valuable experience to attend a protest rally in Rishon Le-Tzion. Several hundred people gathered in a city square to express concerns about the dramatic changes being initiated by the new Israeli government. The rally was more poignant, given that it was held in a square that commemorates people from this city who have died in combat.

As a Canadian, I had mixed feelings about attending. Who am I to be here protesting, as I don’t pay taxes and haven’t served in the army? On the other hand, the changes proposed by the government are going to affect Jews around the world and not just in Israel. Also, having three grandchildren in Israel increases my interest in what happens.

Rishon Le-Tzion, established in 1882, is well known as one of the first cities to be established in modern Israel. Its name, translating as “first in Zion,” says it all. The first Israeli Hebrew school was established here. Baron Edmond de Rothschild established what evolved to be a thriving wine industry here. The city predates the establishment of Tel Aviv by 27 years.

The square itself commemorates the large number of Israelis from Rishon Le-Tzion who have died in combat. Engraved in a monument is a listing, year by year, of names of the deceased. Israel today is one of the most successful countries in the world. When you visualize the large number of names engraved on these walls, it is clear that Israel’s achievements did not come without major losses of life.

The rally itself consisted of many people waving large Israeli flags. There were people of all ages, including many children present.

One of the speakers, Meir Sheetrit, served as minister of several different portfolios in previous Likud governments. Sheetrit was so respected that his name was brought forth as a candidate for the presidency of Israel in 2014. As a Likudnik, he decried the changes taking place and asserted that the current government is deviating radically from the direction of previous Likud governments.

Another speaker was Yair Golan, who was a member of the Knesset and has served on government committees. He was a former general in the Israel army and, at one point, was considered for the position of army chief of staff. He said he values a democracy that is based on law and not on tyranny, a press that is free and not based on peoples’ whims and a government that will protect the rights of minorities.

Merav Michaeli, the leader of the Labour party, was in attendance. She circulated through the audience, but, according to the protocols of the demonstration, being a sitting member of the Knesset, she was not permitted to speak.

The audience was mainly attentive, though occasional side conversations took place. People frequently erupted with Boosha! (Shame) in reference to various proposed government changes. The slogan De-mo-cra-tia frequently reverberated through the audience.

Periodic references were made to the diminishing status of women, LGBTQ+ people and minorities, especially Arab minorities, with the thought that these groups will bear the brunt of the changes.

Jews of non-Orthodox denominations feel that their rights will be diminished under the new government. The Women of the Wall fear they will always be relegated to second-class citizens when they pray at the Kotel. Several of the new government ministers want to cancel the annual Gay Pride parades. Many Israelis and leaders of other countries think the new government will end the possibility of ever having a two-state solution.

Most of all, people are concerned about the future of Israel’s fiercely independent judiciary. In a bill recently introduced into the Knesset, the government will have the ultimate say in who is appointed to the courts. Also, the Knesset will have the ability with a simple majority to overrule decisions of the Supreme Court. Many people, including a large number of Canadian judges and lawyers, have spoken out against these changes.

I came to Israel with major concerns about the new government’s policies and directions. It was instructive to see that a large percentage of the Israeli population shares similar feelings.

The demonstration I attended was only one of many that took place that night. According to reports in the press, there were 40,000 demonstrators in Tel Aviv, 20,000 in Haifa, 2,000 in Beersheva and smaller rallies all over the country. Clearly, a large percentage of the Israeli population strongly objects to the proposed changes. Large demonstrations occur every Saturday night, but also at other times during the week. If public engagement is a sign of a functioning democracy, then Israel is a healthy society.

Will these protests make a difference? So far, the new government has been firm in its conviction that major new directions are needed and is not backing down.

Rallies such as the one in Rishon Le-Tzion raise many questions. Are rallies an effective way to advocate for change in a society? Do democratic governments need to respond to what people participating in rallies are advocating? Are the proposed changes going to lead to a better or worse Israel? Is it important for Diaspora Jews to express their opinions about what is happening in another country far away?

As a Canadian, I came back with a firm opinion about the latter question. Diaspora Jews, who can be greatly affected by what is happening in Israel, need to express their opinions about the changes that may affect them. People who support democratic systems should weigh in anywhere in the world when they perceive that democracy is threatened.

But it is up to Israelis themselves to answer the basic questions as to what type of electoral and judicial systems they prefer. For the sake of the Jewish Diaspora and the rest of the free world, we hope that they will make the right decisions.

Larry Barzelai is a semi-retired physician living in Vancouver. He’s always had strong ties with Israel through the Canadian Zionist Federation, CJPAC and the annual Public Speaking Contest. His main connection now is his three grandchildren who call Israel their home.

Faux freedom fighters

Last week, a cluster of protesters, including at least two medical doctors, demonstrated on the lawn of the B.C. Legislature, reciting the now-boring litany of justifications for putting others at risk by refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Griping from anti-vaxxers has become routine online and, for the most unfortunate among us, in family discussions and among friends. Invoking high ideals of freedom and dredging up quotes from great people in history to reinforce their narrative, many anti-vaxxers claim victimhood, driven either by ignorance of science or obstinacy.

What happened at the legislature last week was more galling than other such incidents, however. On a spectrum from the fairly innocuous act of an individual making ignorant remarks on social media to the atrocious behaviour of impeding emergency vehicles and making a ruckus outside hospitals, this one fell somewhere in the middle.

The demonstration was organized by Common Ground, a free distribution magazine originally focused on natural health and wellness but which has lately gone down conspiracy rabbit holes. The most recent issue warns: “Parents – Protect your children.” The sage advice on how to protect your kids includes rejecting the advice of every legitimate medical professional in North America.

There is also a rambling, full-page open letter to B.C. Attorney-General David Eby from anti-gay activist Kari Simpson, who runs a group called Culture Guard, which seems determined to guard a culture that most of us would prefer to see vanish. A centrefold of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, along with multiple calls for the preservation of free speech, position conspiracy theorists as downtrodden voices of reason and goodness pluckily standing up to tyranny.

And here is where the Common Ground crowd goes particularly off course. The demonstration was specifically linked to the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials. The unsubtle messages at the protest were that modern medical experts and those who follow their advice are ideological descendants of the Nazis and those who refuse the vaccines are defenceless voices of righteousness and reason, equivalent to the victims of the Holocaust.

The demonstrators hanged in effigy Health Minister Adrian Dix, Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth and Premier John Horgan. The effigies were a nod to the fact that, as a result of the Nuremberg trials, nine Nazi doctors were hanged for their participation in medical experimentation and other atrocities. Common Ground is, and the protest was, rife with assertions that the vaccines are a form of human medical experimentation. As one doctor who addressed the crowd said, the anti-coronavirus vaccines are “the most dangerous injection in the history of vaccination.” Uh-huh.

The invocation of the Holocaust and Nazism has been a pandemic within a pandemic. People have donned yellow stars to portray their perceived victimization and have shamelessly exploited the language and imagery of that epoch.

In an era when cultural appropriation is a cancelable offence, it seems Jewish history remains the ethical equivalent of public domain. Note that the grievous historical experiences of other peoples with traumatic histories are rarely, if ever, trotted out in quite this way.

If privileged, sanctimonious North Americans wanted to find a reason for justifiable indignation, they wouldn’t have to pick at the scabs of Jewish trauma. They could look at the real tragedy and injustice in the world today: global inequality in vaccination status. While many Canadians now expect a third dose, there are 1.4 billion people in Africa and only 7.8% are double-vaxxed.

But why focus on genuine, contemporary atrocities when one can play a victim in the crudest historical reenactment of the Holocaust and, somehow, incredibly, face the mirror and see a freedom fighter?

גזענות ואפלייה גם בקנדה

בשבועות האחרונים מפגינים רבים יוצאים לרחובות בערים שונות ברחבי קנדה כדי למחות נגד הגעזנות והאפלייה בארה”ב, קנדה ובעולם כולו.
(רוני רחמני)

קנדה התמודדה בשבוע שעבר עם פרשה הקשורה להפעלת כוח מופרז על-ידי שוטרים נגד בני מיעוטים. ראש הממשלה הקנדי, ג’סטין טרודו, הביע זעזוע עמוק מסרטון וידאו שפורסם ברבים ובו נראים שוטרים עוצרים תוך שימוש באלימות, את הצ’יף של הקהילה האינדיאנית האנדבוריג’ינית במחוז אלבטרה.

בסרטון, שאורכו שתיים עשרה דקות, נראים השוטרים בין השאר מכים את האיש, אלן אדם, בראשו. טרודו ציין לאחר שצפה בסרט כי יש לו שאלות רציניות בנוגע למה שקרה. הוא הוסיף שהחקירה העצמאית חייבת להיות שקופה ולהיעשות כך שנקבל תשובות. בה בעת שכולם יודעים שזה לא מקרה בודד. לדברי טרודו יותר מדי קנדים שחורים וילידים אינם מרגישים בטוחים בסביבת שוטרים. זה בלתי מתקבל על הדעת והממשלה חייבת לשנות את המצב הזה.

המחלקה האחראית על חקירת שוטרים במשטרת אלברטה בודקת כעת את האירוע. המשטרה הגישה נגד אדם כתב אישום בגין התנגדות למעצר ותקיפת שוטר. לדברי עורך דינו של הצ’יף, העימות כולו החל בגלל שפג התוקף של לוחית רישוי של רכבו.

בשבועות האחרונים מפגינים רבים יוצאים לרחובות בערים שונות ברחבי קנדה כדי למחות נגד הגעזנות והאפלייה בארה”ב, קנדה ובעולם כולו.

קנדה מתנגדת לתוכנית הסיפוח של ממשלת ישראל

סוכנות הידיעות הפלסטינית הרשמית (וופא) דיווחה לאחרונה כי קנדה הבהירה לרשות הפלסטינית, כי מתנגדת לתוכנית הסיפוח הישראלית של השטחים הכבושים. זאת כיוון שהסיפוח עומד בסתירה לחוק הבינלאומי.

על פי הדיווח של סוכנות הידיעות הפלסטינית, עמדת קנדה נגד הסיפוח נמסרה בשיחה בין שר החוץ של קנדה, פיליפ שמפיין, לבין שר החוץ הפלסטיני, ריאד אל-מאליכי.

שר החוץ הקנדי ציין כי אם קנדה תיבחר לחברה זמנית במועצת הביטחון של האו”ם, היא לא תחריש אלא תשמיע את קולה כדי לשמור על השלום והיציבות במזרח התיכון. וכן תפעל מול ישראל והפלסטינים כדי להשכין שלום בין הצדדים. בהקשר זה, קרא שר החוץ הפלסטיני לקנדה להמשיך בלחץ על ישראל כדי לסכל את תוכנית סיפוח השטחים, כולל באמצעות איום בסנקציות נגדה.

ראש ממשלת קנדה, ג’סטין טרודו, אמר לא מכבר כי העביר מסר ברור להנהגה בישראל בנוגע לתוכנית סיפוח השטחים הכבושים בציינו, כי קנדה סבורה שמהלך זה עלול לעכב את האפשרות להגיע לשלום בר קיימא במזרח התיכון ועל כן היא מודאגת מאוד מכך.

קנדה האריכה את איסור כניסת אוניות נוסעים לשטחה עד לסוף חודש אוקטובר

ממשלת קנדה האריכה את האיסור על פעילות אניות תענוגות בשטחה עד השלושים ואחד באוקטובר שנה זו. זאת עקב מגיפת הקורונה העולמית. שר התחבורה, מארק גארנו, הודיע על הצעדים המעודכנים בנוגע לאוניות התענוגות וספינות הנוסעים, וציין כי הממשלה מחויבת להגן על אזרחי קנדה, במיוחד בתקופה מאתגרת זאת. מסיבה זו הוא הכריז על צעדים עדכניים עבור אוניות תענוגות ואניות נוסעים אחרות בקנדה, שכוללים איסור פעילות של אוניות תענוגות גדולות במים קנדיים עד סוף חודש אוקטובר שנה זו.

על פי התקנות, אוניות נוסעים המובילות מעל למאה איש על סיפונן עם מקומות לינה לא יורשו להיכנס למים הקנדיים כאמור עד סוף אוקטובר. בנוסף אוניות נוסעים עם יותר משניים עשר איש לא יורשו גם להיכנס למימי החופים בקנדה (הארקטי, נונאציאווט, נונאוויק ולברדור) גם כן עד סוף חודש אוקטובר.

מעבורות, מוניות מים ואוניות נוסעים חיוניות אחרות צריכות ליישם התקנות חדשות, שלפיהן הן יפעלו עם מספר מופחת של נוסעים. ובנוסף עליהן לנקוט באמצעים שונים להתגוננות מפני המגיפה.