I wish to share with my friends and colleagues my level of distress, overwhelming sadness and yes, anger over the recent events in Israel and how some have responded to them.
Others have forcefully condemned Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel in words more powerful than I can muster. My observations relate to the world's response to this massacre.
For Jews, the most distressing observation relates to the celebration of evil. Hundreds of people in Canada (and of course, so many thousands throughout the world) have joined Hamas in glorifying and justifying their brutalities. In Canada, this celebration has been supported by a number of radicalized student unions and usually met with equivocation by university administrations. This obscenity signals the scourge of anti-Semitism at its worst, and the triumph of misinformation and uncritical thinking.
Those who wish to dialogue in our schools and universities are often shouted down or intimidated. Many Jewish students do not feel safe in their educational institutions. Confirmation bias and the repetition of “big lies” have closed minds to the nuanced and difficult issues that truly exist in the Middle East.
One of those lies has to be called out. Hamas’ unspeakable atrocities have nothing to do with legitimate grievances about far-right Israeli politicians or the quality of life of innocent Palestinians, or the conduct of settlers. Ironically, such grievances have been championed by many Israelis, as the two state solution has been. However, it has become more and more difficult for Israelis to embrace a two state solution. After all, earlier peace processes were met with waves of Hamas suicide bombers. And the unilateral return by Israel of Gaza (including Israel’s forcible removal of Jewish settlers in Gaza) merely provided terrorists with a revitalized platform from which to constantly attack Israel.
Hamas has no interest in anything other than the destruction of Israel, and the killing of "infidel" Jews. Chants of "gas the Jews" in Australia, and “from river to sea” (the slogan of jihadists) here and around the world, elevated numbers of hate crimes against Jews and their institutions worldwide, and the obscene proposition that Israel alone is responsible for recent events are so disheartening to Jews, especially those who mistakenly felt secure in their place in Western society.
I have proudly counted myself as a "progressive lefty" on social issues for my entire adult life. But many members of the progressive left, with some notable exceptions, have hijacked the movement. Their double standard on Israel is appalling. They are unencumbered by and apparently uninterested in the truth. They accept uncritically any denunciation of Israel without context or nuance. For example, they describe Gazans as living in an open cage, ignoring the many opportunities Gazans had to partner with Israel in making Gaza bloom, opting instead to be led by a terrorist government. Why don’t they denounce the fact that Hamas deliberately shields its attacks behind women and children? Why don't they demand the return of all the hostages to meet the requirements of international law? Why don't they even acknowledge that Hamas' attack now prevents thousands of Gazans from working in Israel -- an extraordinary gesture for an Israeli society at war with its terrorist neighbouring government?
This is not a new story. Those of us who have been fighting anti-Semitism and racism and discrimination of all forms for our entire adult lives have seen the double standard applied to Israel and the masquerading of anti-Semitism as anti-Zionism. In Toronto, we saw radicalized LGBTQ Pride participants march against so-called Israeli apartheid, the ultimate hypocrisy when Israel was (and remains) the only country in the region where LGBTQ community members, including those in the military, can openly self-identify without fear of death or persecution.
To be clear, Israel can and should be subject to criticism — indeed robust criticism — when its government includes undesirables or when it fails to adequately protect the rights of everyone, including Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Incidentally, the latter consist of 21% of Israel's population, serve in many important capacities in Israel, including its judiciary, and are represented, if they choose to be, by political parties. The leading Israeli Arab party joined a previous coalition government. Its leadership has strongly condemned Hamas and voiced its support for Israel.
The demonization of the region’s only democracy can only be described as farcical. Equally farcical is the failure to call out Hamas for its brutal treatment of its own people throughout its regime, a regime that would undoubtedly kill, imprison or otherwise suppress members of the progressive left who attempted to exercise freedom of speech in Gaza -- unless their speech was merely vitriol against Israel.
For many years, I had hoped that the Palestinians would vote for peace, rather than war. I too have supported a two state solution but who is Israel's partner in such a solution? The so-called moderate, Mr. Abbas, is on record as blaming the Jews for their own holocaust. As recently as two months ago, he asserted that Hitler did not kill Jews because they were Jewish, but because they were moneylenders! (Even some Palestinian intellectuals rejected this falsehood.) His government has continued to compensate terrorists who kill Jews (the “pay to slay” policy) and paid families of deceased terrorists out of a "Martyrs Fund". At the same time, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and other jihadists are waging a holy war against Israel and Jews. They and Hezbollah are proxies who do the bidding of Iran, a rogue nation also committed to Israel’s destruction.
And what of the media’s role? When Hamas reported that Israel had bombed a hospital, killing 500 innocents, look how quickly many mainstream media outlets rushed to judgment. Even when the overwhelming evidence supported, instead, Islamic Jihad’s role in killing its own people, Israel haters continue to advance a false narrative, inciting worldwide violence and incitement to violence, instead of calling out Hamas for deliberately misrepresenting (yet again) how Palestinians had died. And look at how so many people, sometimes borne out of ignorance alone rather than malevolence, now call for an immediate unconditional ceasefire without acknowledging the obvious existential dilemma this poses for Israel, as if any other country could tolerate the status quo after its citizens had been massacred by a still empowered neighbouring government of terrorists.
I also observe the eagerness of so many to create a false moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, choosing not to even describe Hamas mass murderers as terrorists. They equate Hamas killers who deliberately sought out civilians, women and children for torture, rape and execution, with the IDF who attack military targets strategically placed by Hamas in areas exposing civilians to death and injury. A staggering number of people deny Hamas’ atrocities altogether or say they are exaggerated, compelling Israel to produce gruesome videos and forensic pathology reports at great emotional cost to the victims’ families.
For those who postulate a moral equivalence, ask yourself this question (as one podcaster recently did). What if the IDF hid behind civilians to inhibit Hamas from attacking its soldiers? To even pose the question is to expose the hypocrisy of a claim of moral equivalence. Even the most strident critics of Israel know that Israel would never do this. They also know that it wouldn't work anyway -- Hamas would be all too happy to slaughter defenseless civilians, including the elderly and children. Hamas employs this cowardly, despicable strategy because it knows, despite its disinformation campaign to the contrary, that the IDF is highly motivated to minimize civilian casualties. Hamas also cynically revels in Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries because this furthers its ability to demonize Israel.
It is time for Canadians to support its Jewish community in times of its greatest need. It is equally important to support those Palestinian and Islamic voices who reject violence but crave peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Our Canadian values require no less.
This post was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse on October 25, 2023.
About The Author
Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.
Comments