Black youth activists in Toronto are blaming the “Jewish lobby” for the decision yesterday morning by border guards to deny entry into Canada to Malik Zulu Shabazz, a controversial black American lawyer and activist, who had been scheduled to address an afternoon protest rally at the Ontario legislature.

[ . . . ]

Mr. Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panthers, is a notorious figure in black activism in America. Based in Washington, he is a criminal defence lawyer, and helped to organize the Million Man March with Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.

He is also reported to have claimed Jews stayed home en masse from the World Trade Center on 9/11, and to have said, on the topic of police aggression, that “The only solution any time there is a funeral in the black community is a funeral in the police community.”

Ms. Anizor defended her choice of speaker yesterday.

“What’s to blame is the power of the Jewish lobby to influence politicians, to influence media, to influence whatever it took. Because it took one letter, one press release from B’nai Brith [a Jewish human rights group], and the firestorm began,” she said. “You guys [media] are all here because of what B’nai Brith told you… They’ve injected themselves, trying to dictate who the black community can and cannot hear.”

I’m a strong proponent of freedom of speech, and uncomfortable with technicalities being used to shut it down in any form – whether or not I agree with it. But it is my sincere hope and belief that the vast majority of the black community in Toronto has better taste and judgment than Ms. Anizor gives them credit for.

A homemade bomb exploded in front of a Jewish community centre last night, causing a scare but no injuries or damages.

The bomb went off in front of the door of the Ben Weider Community Centre on Westbury Ave. about 11 p.m., blackening the pavement outside without touching the building. A number of employees were inside at the time of the explosion, Montreal police Constable Marie-Claude Berard said.

The incident was caught on surveillance camera. Investigators are looking over the tapes and interviewing witnesses in hopes of obtaining a description of the suspect, Berard said.

For the moment, no notes or threats have been reported to lead police to label this a hate crime, though investigators are considering all possibilities, Berard said.

Thank G-d nobody was hurt. And I hope they catch the bastards and throw them in jail. But really, what else could it be but a hate crime?

One-sided and disproportionate criticism of Israel has the effect of inflaming anti-Semitism, Tony Comper, president and CEO of BMO Financial Group , warned Monday.

Comper singled out the recent censure of Israel by the Ontario leadership of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and Toronto Conference of the United church of Canada as examples.

“I profoundly disagree with this one-side take on who’s-to-blame-for-what in the Middle East, and find its solutions untenable,” Comper told leaders from the business and legal community at a meeting of the Canadian Club.

Sadly, the truth of Comper’s message will probably get lost, and the whole thing will get written off as another big-business-right versus workers-union-left issue. Anyway, Comper is retiring, so it’s kind of moot. Still, it’s refreshing once in a while to hear someone – anyone – tell the truth for a change.

The Orthodox Jewish boys’ school in Outremont already had enhanced its security, along with the other Jewish schools in the city, after the UTT incident. The attack was caught on video, though the assailant’s face wasn’t recognizable.

Several prominent people have already denounced the incident, including Quebec government representatives. The CJC is urging authorities to treat this as a hate crime, though police are still investigating and further evidence will surely be required to support this theory, obvious as it may seem on the surface.

Now, it seems that security will have to be upgraded even further, and additional funds will be needed to accomplish all this. Last time around, the community raised huge sums of money, and gifts poured in to rebuild the destroyed school library from people such as Russell Crowe, even. But this year, with such a priority being placed on rushing emergency funds to Israel, it may be tougher to address these needs at home, coming as they do at a time when schools are reopening and anxious parents have to worry not only about homework and extracurriculars, but about the safety of their children while in the classroom.

It’s sickening to me that, right here in Montreal, grade school children should require extra security. Children ought to be off limits. Period. But this hasn’t ever been the case in Israel, and it is no longer the case here at home.

If there was any justice in the world, the perpetrators of these disgusting crimes would be made to pay for the additional security requirements. But it doesn’t work that way. Instead, we’ll keep paying for more cameras and guards and security measures, while people keep committing hateful acts. I don’t particularly like to think about where this road leads.

Three Israeli backpackers were evicted from Fiji after a Muslim immigration officer ruled that they had humiliated Palestinians during their military service in the territories.

The three – Amit Ronen, Eldar Avracohen, and Nimrod Lahav – left Israel in February for a tour in Australia.

In July they decided to spend a week in Fiji. On July 13 they arrived at Fiji airport where a surprise awaited them.

“We gave our passports to the officer, and when she saw we are Israelis she asked for ID cards. We told her we don’t understand why we need ID cards and she responded shouting: ‘You know very well how to ask Palestinians for IDs and humiliate them for three years.”

That’s what Avracohen wrote in a complaint letter he sent to Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Nati Tamir.

The three were held at Fiji airport for six hours and officials rebuked their pleas to be allowed to make a phone call.

Armed policemen took them to a cell at the airport where they spent the night before being sent back to Australia.

Catch that? A night in jail with no phone call, for having done absolutely nothing besides present a passport that happened to be from Israel.

There are a zillion Israeli backpackers in Australia right now. I ran into them in just about every hostel, on every bus, and in every tourist site imaginable. A fair number probably travel to Fiji on a regular basis. Fiji’s economy is largely tourism-based, and they depend on this business. I hope this story reaches the backpacker community far and wide, and that travellers of all stripes band together to refuse to go to Fiji until a suitable apology is issued. (Judging by the antisemitism too prevailant in the backpacker community, though, I wouldn’t hold my breath).

A woman was killed and five other women were wounded on Friday when a gunman opened fire at a Jewish organization in downtown Seattle that last weekend organized a rally in support of Israel.

A Seattle police spokesman said the gunman, who was thought to be acting alone, had been taken into custody but that authorities were “taking every precaution” in searching for explosives and additional suspects.

Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle Vice President Amy Wasser-Simpson told the Seattle Times in a story on its Web site that a man got through security at the building and shouted, “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel,” then began shooting.

Police did not confirm the report and offered no immediate motive for the shooting. It was not clear if the shooter was specifically targeting women.

The whole thing is absolutely sickening.

There’s going to be a lot of talk about how this was “terrorism”, which, I suppose technically it was, but it doesn’t appear to be the work of any organized terror cell. Rather, it looks like it was a deranged lone gunman using politics as an excuse. Won’t make a difference to any of the shooting victims, of course. But before the facts of the story get lost in the coming media frenzy, let’s just take a deep breath and remember that.

Sadly, there will be those who celebrate this nutjob as a hero. That’s the sickest part of all.

Of course, the Palestinians are reacting predictably:

Meanwhile, Palestinian professor Sari Nusseibeh, who last week urged an end to the boycott, has been under attack by many Palestinians who have been calling for his dismissal from his job as president of Al-Quds University.

Several Palestinian political and academic groups issued statements strongly condemning Nusseibeh, accusing him of normalizing ties with Israel and acting against the interests of the Palestinian people.

Leaflets distributed in some areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip branded the widely respected Nusseibeh a “traitor” and “collaborator.”

Nusseibeh co-signed a letter with the president of Hebrew University calling for an end to the AUT boycott, which is what some think was the deciding factor in the reversal. The letter called for “problems to be resolved through dialogue”. Needless to say, those passing out leaflets branding Nusseibeh as a “traitor” don’t agree with that statement.

(Hat tip: Lynn).

Three students have been expelled from an elite private school for posting pictures of Nazi rallies and Jews being tortured on a Web site and then using anti-Semitic slurs to lash out at a student who objected. The boys, one of whom is Jewish, thrown out of Royal St. George’s College after posting “heinous” images of the Holocaust on a chat board used by several private schools, headmaster Hal Hannaford told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Is it just me or is there some kind of cold comfort to the fact that idiotic teenagers looking to rebel see Nazism as a kind of “worst of the worst” tough image to adopt?

If they were trying to get a reaction, they sure got one. Let’s hope those kids learned their lesson that antisemitism is not, in any way, “cool”.

I’ve always been torn on the issue of hate speech legislation. Restricting freedom of speech can have potentially dangerous consequences for a free society, and it’s not something to take lightly. After all, restricting free speech means that someone has the power to decide what qualifies as hate and what doesn’t. This opens the door for things like this, when those in power can muzzle their political opponents by attacking different opinions as “hate speech”. Deny a freedom to your enemies, and you open the door for your enemies denying that same freedom to you if the tables should turn.

And one could argue – convincingly – that people like Ahenakew should be encouraged to say what they really think, so at least we know what they really think and can judge them on that basis. And if political ostracism for hate speech isn’t disincentive enough for someone to shoot off their mouth in public, then it’s doubtful hate legislation will be either.

On the other hand, wilfully and publicly promoting hatred against a group of people, when left unchecked, can allow the hatred to grow and spread like a cancer. It’s like advertising; repeat something often enough and loudly enough, and people will start to believe it.

There are no easy answers here. However, the Ahenakew trial is just barely underway and it’s already leaving a sour taste in my mouth.

First of all, there’s the ridiculous defence argument that Ahenakew said what he did because he was on medication:

“He was certainly not feeling well that day and wouldn’t have said these things if he was feeling well,” [Defence lawyer Doug] Christie said.

“His medication had recently been doubled caused clearly by a chemical imbalance in the blood being related to diabetes. In addition to that he had two glasses of wine the night before.

“I think in those circumstances it’s pretty obvious that he wasn’t measuring his words the way he would normally do.”

Basically the lawyers are arguing a technicality: hatred is okay, but expressing it isn’t. That’s the way the law is written after all. This isn’t Orwell’s 1984 and we’re not about to start prosecuting thoughtcrime. So this defence argument of utter nonsense actually might work here.

This raises the question of what happens if Ahenakew is acquitted. Some people will use that mere fact as vindication for their hateful and antisemitic views. Ahenakew would become an underground hero of the antisemitic fringe. In many ways, an acquittal could have worse consequences for Canadian society than a lack of trial in the first place.

Then there’s the issue of the media coverage of Ahenakew’s trial actually becoming an additional vehicle for Ahenakew’s vile views to be spread. Every time a clip of Ahenakew’s despicable statements about Jews is shown on the news, millions of Canadians are hearing it. One hopes that most people react to what they hear with distaste, but some people may be reacting by agreeing. After all, it’s this exposure of such views that hate speech legislation was designed to prevent.

Now that Ahenakew is on trial, only a conviction would send a message to Canadians that promotion of such hatred is unacceptable. Only a conviction will deter further spreading of the cancer of hatred. Which is why I’m hoping for this outcome. It’s kind of like the war in Iraq; agree or disagree with it at first, now that the US is there, they have to finish the job.

But there are a lot of tricky questions here, and I don’t think the sour taste is going away anytime soon.

And now we have a better insight into why. Livingstone’s twisted political views clear things up nicely (via Allison):

The dispute between London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Britain’s Jewish leaders was reignited Thursday night when Livingstone branded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a war criminal, the Independent reported on Friday.

Livingstone launched a provocative critique of Israel with accusations of “ethnic cleansing” and demonizing Muslims before calling for the imprisonment of Sharon, according to the British daily.

He also claimed in his article that the Israeli government presented a “wholly distorted picture of racism and religious discrimination in Europe in order to convey the impression that Jews suffer most discrimination.

“The reality is that the great bulk of racist attacks in Europe today are on black people, Asians and Muslims – and they are the primary targets of the extreme right.”

But wait, it gets worse:

“Israel’s expansion includes ethnic cleansing,” he wrote. “Palestinians who had lived in that land for centuries were driven out by systematic violence and terror aimed at ethnically cleansing what became a large part of the Israeli state.”

He added: “Today the Israeli government continues seizures of Palestinian land for settlements, military incursions into surrounding countries and denial of the right of Palestinians expelled by terror to return.

“Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison not in office.”

Hmmm, I can think of someone who has no business being in office here. But it certainly ain’t Sharon. Here’s hoping that Londoners will teach Livingstone a message come next election and toss him out on his antisemitic arse.

Ken Livingstone today refused to apologise for his “German war criminal” jibe delivered to a Jewish Evening Standard reporter.

His refusal came as he was referred to an official standards watchdog for comparing reporter Oliver Finegold to a “concentration camp guard”.

It also came despite a unanimous call by the London Assembly for him to back down and withdraw his remarks.

The fact that a politician could make those kinds of remarks on the record, in a friggin’ microphone, baffles me. And his unabashed attitude reminds me that these things don’t happen in a vacuum. With heightened levels of antisemitism in the UK, Livingstone’s remarks are that much worse. He may have just been seeking an insult against a reporter he didn’t like, but that doesn’t excuse or justify what he said.

Early editions of Thursday’s issue of “The Sun,” showed Prince Harry, the second son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, clutching a cigarette and a drink and wearing a swastika armband.

The newspaper said the 20-year-old prince had attended a fancy dress party in the uniform of a fascist soldier.

In a statement, the prince said he was “very sorry if I caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone.” He added, “It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize.”

That’s all very well and good but what on earth would possess him to think this is a good idea in the first place?

Maybe he should have tried wearing his costume in France instead, where – according to Jean Marie Le Pen, the Nazi occupation of France was “not particularly inhumane”. (Hat tip: Damian.) I bet the French would have laughed.

It’s starting to become clearer that the rise in anti-Americanism in Europe is not entirely unrelated to the increased whitewashing of the Holocaust. When the US replies to anti-American sentiment with a “well, you weren’t complaining when we saved your collective asses from the Nazis”, the Europeans can just respond with a “hell, those Nazis weren’t so bad”.

History has a way of lessening the emotional impact of the very terrible or very tragic. And right now is a historical turning point. The survivor generation that bears witness is dying. “Nazi” is being used as an epitheth to describe just about anyone, from the “Zionists are Nazis” crowd to the “soup Nazi” on Seinfeld. The Holocaust is starting to be viewed not as anything particularly horrible or unique, but just as yet another chapter in the endless saga of the human race’s capacity for cruelty and evil and destruction. Maybe it’s even inevitable. When, only sixty-five years after Churchill’s “blood, sweat and tears” speech, a British prince is sporting a swastika, that has to mean something.

And of course, it’s easier to rationalize hating Jews if you believe that the Holocaust was just a minor blip, and that the concentration camps were just summer camps with bad food.

Prosecutors say a stabbing on a local college campus is a hate crime.

Police say Philip Robertson, 22, stabbed Jordyn Lavin behind a dorm at Plattsburgh State University in September.

According to court papers, Robertson went after Lavin because Lavin is Jewish.

Robertson is charged with attempted murder and assault as hate crimes, and is being held on $10,000 bail.

More details can be found in a campus report:

Plattsburgh State student Jordyn Lavin remembers walking behind Wilson Hall to smoke marijuana with his roommate, then feeling a knife pierce his back.

During a preliminary hearing Friday in Plattsburgh City Court, Lavin testified that his then roommate, Philip Robertson, accompanied him to a wooded area near the Saranac River the afternoon of Sept. 1.

Robertson handed Lavin a pipe and gave him permission to take the first hit, according to Lavin’s testimony.

“He walked behind me, and I felt pain,” Lavin said. “I could see the knife was in me.”

After that first stab wound, Robertson allegedly asked Lavin if he is Jewish, saying Lavin sounds like a Jewish last name.

Lavin replied that he is not Jewish.

Lavin and Robertson were apparently roommates and friends, so it’s hard to say what truly motivated this attack. Was this a symptom of the increasing virulent anti-Jewish sentiment on many college campuses, or an isolated incident of an unbalanced individual? Details are too sketchy to say at this point. But it’s certainly worth watching carefully.

Mr. Elmerhebi kept his head bowed slightly and his eyes on the floor as the plea was entered.

Evidence read in court said his arrest in May was prompted by police wiretaps and surveillance.

He was tracked by police after tanks of kerosene found at the United Talmud Torahs school were traced back to a Canadian Tire store where the manager confirmed that Mr. Elmerhebi was an employee.

Store surveillance cameras and receipts confirmed him as the buyer of the tanks. Receipts were also found in his home when it was searched by police.

Sounds like a lot of evidence to me. Elmerhebi probably took the best deal he could in light of the probable guilty verdict.

Elmerhebi’s mother has been charged as being an accessory, and has a court date still to come.

The school’s reaction was fairly pragmatic:

School principal Sydney Benudiz was satisfied with the plea.

“Something wrong was done to our school and we hoped that justice would be served and it seems that it’s going to be served,” he said outside court. “We just want our lives back.”

This is pretty much how the system is supposed to work. People commit a crime, they get caught, they get arrested, they get punished. The article didn’t mention anything about sentencing but those details will likely follow.

However, I still think this should have been charged as a hate crime. I know this is a contentious issue especially among people who don’t believe in hate crime legislation. But motive is something we should take into account when determining a punishment to fit a crime. We already do, when we consider that a calculated crime for profit, for example, is worse than a non-premeditated crime of passion. A crime motivated by hate or racism is more serious than one with most other motives, because of its potential to set off hatred among others in the community, and because of the offender’s higher likelihood of reoffending. I think that in clear-cut cases of crime motivated by hatred, sentencing should be more severe.

A punishment that would truly fit the crime would be to compel Elmerhebi to contribute towards paying the millions of dollars that the Jewish community is now forced to spend on security guards for schools and campuses.

Sympathy messages and donations of $400,000 in cash and thousands books poured in from across Canada and around the world following news of the arson at the private school last April.

“Unlike (with) many of our students’ grandparents who went through the Holocaust, this time the world reached out to us and helped all of us heal,” said Rachel Cohen, president of United Talmud Torahs.

“It was very reassuring and the impact of this outreach will positively affect students all their lives.”

This is of course great news for the library. (I wonder whether they’ll be able to put some funds into renovations for the rest of the building, which during my high school years was in a pretty sorry state of disrepair and had a constant smell of rotten fish. The elementary side wasn’t much better, though the high school did have a more modern library. But anyway…)

Symbolically this was an important day. And I’m glad to see that things are back up and running like normal. Now when a teacher assigns homework that involves the library, the students will have to think of another excuse of why they couldn’t get it done.

Simon Zogheib, 19, was arrested in connection with the library fire at the United Talmud Torahs School.

One of his lawyers, Serge Segal, said the Crown decided not to proceed with the charges because of a lack of evidence.

It’s always hard to tell what to think in these cases. The media is banned from elaborating much, because two other suspects are still in custody awaiting trial. And of course, it’s impossible to know whether Zogheib is really innocent or just legally “not guilty”. Without the facts, it’s impossible for any of us to make a judgment.

I will say this, though: if the police and legal system are incapable of bringing the true perpetrators of this crime – whoever they may be – to justice, it will be a real shame… and a real failing of the system. There is an obligation to crack down on this kind of despicable hate crime against innocent children, to prevent it from recurring.

Debbye has thoughts on the CBC’s “Greatest Canadian” contest, something I’ve tried to avoid watching because I knew it would make me very very angry. Judging by the top 30, it seems we’re propagating our own stereotypes as a nation, voting in hockey players, any popstar or movie star with crossover American success, and iconofied politicians. The fact that this is a contest where Don Cherry can place in a top 10 alongside Alexander Graham Bell should say it all. *Sigh*.

Imshin is absolutely required reading, lashing out at those who believe that Israel should not exist. She also points to this article, published in the Guardian, about anti-Americanism and antisemitism in Europe.

And this is a little late, but Burnside has packed in his keyboard. Another casualty of the blogosphere. He’ll be missed.

Absolutely disgusting. But the real question is, will the letter-writer be sacked for his opinion? What percentage of the general public in London these days secretly agrees with him?

A Jewish community center in Paris was burned down last night. The police suspect arson. But there is no anti-Semitism in France.

[ . . . ]

How can that be? Anti-Semitism is not a big problem in France. Chirac said so. He even chastised Ariel Sharon for saying that it was.

Read the rest.

On a related note, Imshin has a disgusting travesty of justice for an 11-year-old Jewish boy who was beaten up by Arab classmates who shouted antisemitic jeers at him while they beat him. The school expelled both attackers, but then their parents sued the schoolboard and the ministry of education. Subsequently, both boys were allowed back into school, and damages ordered paid to them.

The ministry of education and the parents opposed this decision in an appeal court. Imagine what will happen to the Jewish boy if he sees his tormentors back in school. The execution of this judgment means in fact expelling the victim from the school. The judgment will be rendered in August, when all France is on vacation, and the lawyer of the parents is very pessimistic, based on many recent cases in France where complaints about anti-Semitism were minimized and usually dismissed by the French courts. In this case, the administrative court judged that, based on the accused boys declarations, the anti-Semitic acts, even though recognized by the authors, were not numerous enough to justify expelling the authors form school. So, for this French court, a certain level of anti-Semitism, even though illegal (it is against the law in France to proffer anti-Semitic or racist remarks in public), is acceptable.

But no, Meryl’s right, of course: there’s no antisemitism in France.

Update: Bad news for France but good news for the Israeli tourism industry.

Evidently incited by the presence of an Israeli flag wrapped around the shoulders of Tamar Schuri, an Israeli student from Ben Gurion University, the first assailant ran at the group while its members were being guided through a model gas chamber and crematoria and began swearing and hurling anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli insults.

“He told us to go back to Israel and said that we were stupid and should be ashamed to walk around with an Israeli flag,” testifies Maya Ober, a 21-year-old Polish student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan and member of the Polish Union of Jewish Students (PUSZ), which organized the 16-day summer learning program along with the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS).

After the initial altercation, a second assailant grabbed Ober by the arm. “One of the guys held me by the arm and wouldn’t let go,” says Ober, who lost several members of her family at Auschwitz. “I was afraid. I couldn’t move and I didn’t know what he was going to do.

“I was shocked. Although I have met anti-Semitism many times, I never expected to meet it at Auschwitz, where so many of my relatives were killed,” she says she spoke to the assailants in French and that in addition to being “brutish and vulgar,” their sentiments “made absolutely no sense.”

That’s the thing about antisemitism. It “makes absolutely no sense”. But that hasn’t helped it disappear in the last 2000 years.

(Via Damian Penny, who astutely points out that we’re about to hear some lame excuses as to why this is “anti-Zionism, not antisemitism”).

Both Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and B’nai Brith Canada say they will not press for hate crime charges to be added to the counts of arson and conspiracy against two young men in connection with the firebombing of the St. Laurent United Talmud Torahs library in April.

Both organizations agree that the hate provisions in the Criminal Code of Canada do not appear to apply in this case. They do, however, expect that if there is a conviction, hate motivation will result in a stiffer sentence, as the law provides.

“It’s ironic because this was a deeply hateful act targeting a Jewish school, but we are stuck with a Criminal Code that has less than perfect wording,” said David Birnbaum, executive director of CJC, Quebec region.

I’m no lawyer, but to me this seems ridiculous. What point is there in having hate crime legislation if it can’t be used in an obvious case like this one?

Arab states at the United Nations are trying to foil a proposal to raise a vote condemning anti-Semitism in the General Assembly this September.

At a closed meeting held recently in New York, UN ambassadors from Arab and EU countries met and the Arabs made clear that they do not accept the initiative for the UN General Assembly to condemn anti-Semitism.

The blunt language used by the Arabs describing their opposition, and their plans to use diplomatic means to prevent the resolution from reaching a vote, shocked the Europeans, said a UN source.

Allison’s not shocked. Neither am I. Neither should anyone who’s been even semi-conscious in the last decade or so.

The lame reasons? They hardly even bear repeating, but for what it’s worth, here are some of the excuses:

Jordanian Ambassador to the UN Prince Ziad Hussein argued that the resolution would reinforce the tendency to call any criticism of Israel, anti-Semitic. Moroccan Ambassador Mohammed Banone, said that the seminar against anti-Semitism was a terrible idea and a decision would only divide the world body. Arab League Ambassador Mahamas Hani warned that a UN resolution condemning anti-Semitism would have a negative impact on the Middle East.

The Arab states are so blatant about their hatred of Jews that one would almost assume that they are making themselves look bad and doing their causes a disservice with how obvious they are being. But they know as well as we do that they can get away with it. After all, they’ve been getting away with it all along.

Israel has repeatedly tried to get the United Nations to pass even seemingly obvious resolutions condemning terrorism, suicide bombings, or even the targeting of civilian children. In each case, the Arab countries have blocked them from even coming to a vote. This time, the resolution is one that there doesn’t seem to be any legitimate argument against, and yet the Arab countries are again insisting that there is no place for a condemnation of antisemitism in the United Nations.

Why do we even bother? Why haven’t we written off the UN by now?

I won’t post excerpts because I urge everyone to read the entire thing. (Via Meryl Yourish).

One quarter of the 928 hate crimes reported by police between 2001 and 2002 were anti-Semitic in nature, said the survey of hate crimes.

It’s the first time that police have provided the data to Statistics Canada, the agency said.

Muslims were the victims of 11 per cent of hate crimes. While religion accounted for 48 per cent of incidents, it ranked second behind race and ethnicity as the primary motivator of these crimes.

I’m always a little skeptical of these studies, because the only crime data they have available is the data that gets reported. It is possible that, because of the strong position of the Jewish community in Canadian society and the existing infrastructure to combat hate crimes, that more people will report antisemitic incidents than other kinds.

But even despite that, the news is disturbing. Canada is considered one of the “safe havens” for Jewish people in the diaspora. And while the incidents are few, they’re not as few or as far between as they used to be… or as they should be. Over two hundred reported incidents – 41% involving violence – is not exactly comforting news. Even a little hate is too much.

If you’re not reading Imshin, you should be. She has been blogging in her typically insightful fashion lately about Shavuot and Zionism’s true meaning, and about antisemitism at Berkeley.

LGF has the photo that proves just how little the UN can be trusted in the mideast. And Meryl has some biting commentary on the latest news emerging from Israel.

In Canadian news, the election talk that seems to be dominating the airwaves. But Damian Penny and David Janes have a disgusting story of racism interfering in custody cases that proves just how dangerous these “PC” policies can be for innocent children. As for the election, Paul Jané comments on the Liberals’ transparent scheme to make ridiculous healthcare promises at the eleventh hour that they clearly have no intention of keeping. (Anyone else remember the “no more GST” promise? Remind me again why I keep voting for these guys?)

When you search for the word “Jew” in Google, you no longer get an antisemitic hate site as the top result. Thanks to a web campaign to create links like Jew and Jew, those two sites are now ranked 1-2. The aforementioned hate site has dropped to third, plus when you click on it, you get a message saying the person’s account has been suspended.

Individual site owners may not feel like they have much power, but when everyone works together, things can change for the better. It’s encouraging.

All the schools have armed guards now in Israel, for obvious reasons. They guard entranceways, check bags of people going in, and basically stay on the alert for anything suspicious. It’s sad but necessary. And as much as I hated my friend’s choice of job, it did pay better than waitress or gas station attendant… and let’s face it, these days it wasn’t really any more dangerous. But as much as I love Israel, I was grateful that I live in safe, secure Canada, where schools don’t need security guards.

Not anymore.

This morning, on my regular drive to work, I passed by a local Jewish elementary school, as I do every day. Yesterday was the first day of classes after Passover for the students there, and I didn’t notice anything in particular since I went into the office very early. But today, I drove by while the kids were out in the schoolyard for recess. And in addition to the teachers at their regular posts inside the schoolyard fence, I couldn’t help but see the security guard standing just outside. He was wearing a big jacket saying “SECURITY” in huge letters, and wearing an earpiece, and he was watching the traffic and all the people around the school with an alert, hardened look in his eyes.

He was the only guard I saw, but there may have been others. I understand why it’s necessary. The U.T.T. firebombing makes extra security a necessity. From the parents’ point of view, the more the better – anything to protect their kids.

But it also saddens me immensely that it’s come to this. That here, in safe secure Montreal, we need security at elementary schools to prevent sickos with agendas from attacking children.

Officials with a Jewish cemetery in Kitchener, Ont., are trying to determine whether 12 headstones were knocked over this weekend as an act of vandalism, or a hate crime.

A dozen headstones were toppled sometime Saturday night or early Sunday morning at the Beth Jacob Cemetery, as Jews prepared to mark the high holidays of Passover.

Trying to determine if it’s a hate crime??? Is that like trying to determine if rain is wet? A friggin’ cemetery was attacked – what do you call that, a hockey game?

The pattern is disturbing. The Ottawa Citizen had an editorial last week that was right on-point:

Still, the firebombing in Montreal represents a new level of depravity. The attack, though, is in one sense instructive: It demonstrates the nexus of anti-Zionism (hatred of Israel, the Jewish state) and anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews). Only a mind clouded with hate could think that burning a children’s school in Canada is a legitimate way to protest Israeli government policies.

Antisemitism is on the rise because of so-called “anti-Zionism”. The two are one and the same. Legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies is one thing, but there’s no excuse for the firebombing of schools, vandalizing of property, or the threatening of Jewish MPs. And it’s exactly why the de-legitimatizing of the Jewish state is a direct attack on the notion of Jewish nationalism, or the Jewish people in general. Call it anti-Zionism or call it antisemitism, it’s just plain disgusting.

This morning, there was a suspicious package at a Jewish cemetery:

Police detonated a suspicious package found at a Jewish cemetery in the Ahuntsic borrough Thursday morning. The package looked like a white bag with wires wrapped around it. A piece of paper was left behind but police would say little about it. Constable Micheal Kriaa told reporters that it could be a few days before we learn if there was actually explosive material in the package.

It may be a little while until we know whether this was really a bomb, or a false alarm. I’m really hoping for the latter. This is starting to get scary.

Update: The media is now reporting that it seems this was a false alarm after all. That’s a relief.

Really, if you think about it, whatever sick freaks did this didn’t time it very well. Not only is the school is closed for Passover anyway, but there’s gonna be a lot of angry Jews discussing it at their seders and demanding action.

In the blogosphere, I see that LGF and Burnside have picked up the story. And Stefan Sharkansky wonders whether officials are too politically-correct to release information that would seem to implicate Palestinian-sympathetic vandals as the responsible parties:

The CBC and the Toronto Star might not want to confront the unpleasant truth about the motives and identities of the arsonists, but at least some Canadian journalists are doing their jobs:

The CTV network quoted sources who said the notes denounced recent attacks against Palestinians, including the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Islamic Hamas movement, and threatened further attacks.

The contents of the note and the name of the “unknown organization” that signed the note should be released.

If – and this is a big if – what CTV said is true about the content of the note, then it must – and will – be dealt with. Especially considering the note threatened future attacks, which is truly chilling:

“Our goal was only to sound the alarm without causing deaths. . .but this is just a beginning. If your crimes continue in the Middle East, our attacks will continue,” the letter reads.

There’s no telling whether the assholes who did this were using it as an excuse or cover-up, or whether they really are affiliated with some Hamas-sympathetic group. Not yet anyway. My sense is that the police will release details when they see fit, and until then, they might be keeping them under wraps to help them do their jobs. And anything that increases the chances of apprehending the responsible parties is okay with me.

And the political reactions continue. Here’s PM Paul Martin:

“This is not my Canada. This is not our Canada,” he told reporters in Burlington, Ont.

“They are attacking all of us. And it is only if we are unequivocal in that statement that we join together that we are preserving our values.”

And of course, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler (a UTT grad himself) wasted no time ringing in:

“As students, we experienced anti-Semitism, but it was an anti-Semitism of ignorance, of stereotype, of prejudice. What we have witnessed here today, it’s anti-Semitism of hatred, racism and violence.”

“We will not be intimidated and we will act and we will bring the full force of the law to bear against those who commit these cowardly hate crimes,” Cotler told reporters.

And Mayor Gerald Tremblay:

“These acts will not be tolerated in our city and must be denounced as emphatically as possible,” he said.

It’s good that people are taking this seriously.

Never once in eleven years of Hebrew school did I feel unsafe in my classroom (except for maybe the fear of exams, or a test tube exploding in a science lab). The current students, who are pretty much exactly like me, won’t have that luxury.

I’m just plain angry now. There should be a special section of hell reserved for anyone who targets or frightens innocent children.

Another update: It seems Michael Demmons has picked up the story. And Ted Belman at Israpundit posted about it, and included an e-mail from Lori Anders, who was a grade ahead of me in high school. The Globe and Mail, Gazette, and La Presse all have plastered the story prominently on their front pages. And the AP story is being picked up off the wires by publications as remote as the Kansas City Star.

United Talmud Torah School in St. Laurent was the target of an anti-Semitic attack Monday morning as the building was set on fire.

No one was hurt in the blaze that occurred at about 2:30 a.m. The extent of the damage is not known at this time, but it seems to have been limited to the school’s library. The school is located on de l’Eglise St.

Investigators found letters at the scene that were described as anti-Jewish hate messages. They also found signs of accelerants indicating the fire was deliberately set.

I’m truly horrified. I remember we used to have practice drills in grade school and high school, both for standard fires and for “security incidents”. It seemed normal that we had closed-circuit cameras in high school… we saw them as a tool to apprehend students skipping class, not antisemites with agendas. We truly, naively believed that the stories they taught us in Jewish history classes about hatred against Jews were just that – chapters in history books. It never occurred to us that our school was anything but safe.

I feel bad for the students who will have to face the fact that someone set fire to their school. No elementary school child should have that illusion of safety shattered.

Update: RDI has more, including the reaction of Jean Charest:

“De tels gestes sont intolérables, écrit M. Charest, incendier une école est déjà un acte vil, mais quand cela est fait au nom du racime ou de l’intolérance, chaque Québécois doit se lever et le dénoncer afin que cela ne se reproduise plus.”

Strong words from the Premier’s office. But unfortunately, this kind of hate has already recurred far too many times. And I fear it won’t be the last.

This hits way too close to home.

Coincidence?

It’s a crazy world we live in.

Issuing its 22nd annual “audit” of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada, B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights took the unprecedented step of naming Arabs and Muslims generally as perpetrators of incidents.

“We’ve been able to identify 30 probable Arab perpetrators of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada in 2003,” said Stephen Scheinberg, a Concordia University history professor who is the League’s national chairperson.

“We’re not saying all Arabs and Muslims are implicated, not at all,” he told reporters at a Montreal news conference.

“But we are saying a small minority have brought these ideas with them” from the Arab world, he added, and “have been worked up” and “propagandized” by what they hear in Internet chat rooms and on Al-Jazeera broadcasts.

“And it’s caused some real problems for the Jewish communities,” Scheinberg said.

Of course this accusation is drawing an immediate flurry of criticism for B’nai Brith for “generalizing” – even though Scheinberg clearly accused a “small minority”. Also, there are some questions as to the legitimacy of these audits – were there really more incidents, or were there simply more people reporting them? And does B’nai Brith’s line of counting certain anti-Israel incidents as antisemitic fall in a different place than some other organization would draw it? We’re sure to hear all of this and more, as antisemitic groups launch their usual backlash against B’nai Brith.

Doesn’t change the fact that they’re simply daring to speak the non-politically-correct truth. And that Canada will need to face up to that truth if we’re going to improve the situation.

The Canadian Jewish Congress has released the report in defiance of the EU’s refusal, and it is available online. Read it here.

Small wonder the EU is so critical of Israel… it beats introspection any day of the week, doesn’t it?

But there’s been lots happening lately. Check out some of the links on the left for more about the world’s reactions to the Malaysian PM’s antisemitic remarks, the hate-fest at Rutgers University that makes Concordia look like paradise, and of course, the Habs’ win over the Wings last night.

Hope to resume regular blogging soon. Sorry for the long hiatus.

The Blue Blazes Band would perform a historically accurate show titled “Visions of World War II” featuring flags and music to represent the combating nations.

It would include a student running across the field with a Nazi flag and the tune composed by Franz Joseph Haydn that later became “Deutschland Uber Alles.”

Mr. Grissom didn’t anticipate the response his group received while performing at Hillcrest High School on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

You want to accuse these people of spreading hate or of being bigots but you can’t even do that. The most you can accuse them of is sheer, utter, total stupidity. I mean, a Nazi flag at a high school football game???

(Via Damian Penny).

Must be tough being both gay and Jewish. Kind of a double-minority-whammy. At least this guy’s got a good sense of humour about it.

I stand with Israel. In the endless finger-pointing game of “who shot first? Who stops shooting first?” I point my finger squarely at the Arab world, and wait with Israel for them to make the first real move. I admire Israel, because it is a ridiculously small country with ridiculously brave people.

At this point most other authors would say, “if you don’t agree with me you’d better just skip the rest of this.” I almost did just that. But I changed my mind. If you don’t agree with the sentiments above I want you to read the rest of this very slowly. I want you to understand how stupid and ignorant you are. I want you to understand that being “for Jews but against Israel” is a contradiction that reeks of anti-Semitism. I want you to get so angry your blood fizzes. Because you see that’s how angry I am right now, and I feel like sharing.

Read the rest. Yeah, even you who disagrees. You know who you are.

“At first, neither the politicians, nor the courts, nor the intellectuals, nor the media, nor public opinion, nor civil society — none of them said anything,” said Simon Kouhama, president of the Jewish Citizens Forum, an organization founded largely by Sephardic Jews. “We began to ask if we could even stay in France. Were we really French citizens? Were we Jews? We had the feeling we were a people apart.”

Worth a read.

A student panel at Concordia University has dismissed a harassment complaint against activist Laith Marouf for drawing swastikas on an Israeli flag during a March 12 protest at the downtown campus.

In a 2-1 decision, the board ruled that while “Marouf’s gesture was in very poor taste,” it was made during a tense confrontation and did not qualify as harassment under the university’s code of rights and responsibilities, or warrant expulsion or other sanctions.

Adam Spiro, the finance student and Hillel member who filed the complaint, said he’s disgusted by the decision.

“It sends a terrible message,” he said, noting his paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors. “It says that in the heat of protest, there are no boundaries.

“It legitimizes the swastika as a symbol of political discourse, which it’s not. It’s the worst symbol of hatred, racism and the genocide of 6 million Jews.”

So what is this, complaint number 912 against Laith Marouf that he gets tossed out? He was banned from Concordia two years ago, along with his buddy Tom Keefer, for spraypainting anti-Israel vandalism and threatening a security guard. But the university lifted that ban, and he’s been merrily shit-disturbing and displaying his intense hatred ever since. Apparently anything goes as long as you wrap yourself in the Palestinian flag and make ridiculous excuses for your actions, like this one:

At a May 14 hearing, Marouf testified he drew “the inverted swastika, the Hindu circle of life, not the Nazi swastika” on the Israeli flag, as a lesson in symbolism. However, he conceded he realized some people might not make the distinction and would be deeply offended.

Maybe it’s just cause it’s Friday, but I can’t seem to stop laughing at that one.

Staff from the United Talmud Torah elementary school and Herzliah High School in St. Laurent were busy removing anti-Semitic graffiti from their doors and windows yesterday.

The building that is shared by the two schools was struck by vandals overnight. They covered two entrances and several windows with messages including “Free Palestine” and “Die Sharon.”

This is extremely unsettling and disturbing to me, who spent 5 years dragging myself to that building on a daily basis. I may have felt imprisoned by the endless math, chemistry, and Talmud classes, watching the endless seconds tick off the clock until the final bell . . . but I never felt threatened.

Luckily it was just a bit of graffiti – most likely written by idiot kids – but nevertheless, the swastikas and disgusting slogans that were pictured in the print version of the Gazette are cause for concern in light of the rise in antisemitism around the world. It’s a reminder that, as secure as we may feel in our home and community, we’re never really entirely safe.

Local journalist Aboubakr Jammai told the BBC that witnesses had spoken of “many dead” as well as numerous injuries.

Mr Jammai said he knew of four attacks that had taken place near an Hispanic centre, a hotel, a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery, although he said there were reports that there had been as many as six explosions.

He said that the attack on the Hotel Safir in the old part of the city had been a suicide attack and that at least eight people had been killed in that incident alone.

More terrorism. More people dead. And another “who would’ve thought?” target. With all the talk about Riyadh, about the US and Britain as possible targets, and even the warnings in Kenya, who on earth saw this coming?

Update: CNN is reporting that at least 20 people have been killed in the bombings. One of them was apparently targeted at a Jewish nightclub, but it was closed for Shabbat so it was (thankfully) empty. Another bomb exploded in front of the Belgian Consulate, for reasons that are as of yet unclear.

The CST blamed the sharp rise in anti-Semitism on anti-war campaigners who linked the Iraq conflict to the situation in Israel. Mike Whine, CST’s media director, told the BBC, “The Iraq war fed anti-Semitism because groups from across the political and social spectrum alleged that the war was fought for `Zionist’ interests.”

Whine said anti-war protesters “consistently linked the issues of Iraq and the events in Israel and Palestine.”

The English and the French may not like each other much, but it seems that something they’ve got in common is their hatred of Jews. But before we get too smug over here in Canada, our own numbers aren’t looking that great either.

The rise in antisemitism may not be surprising, but it does nobody any good to be complacent either. This is a red flag that’s been waving in front of our faces for a couple of years now. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that red flags are ignored at our peril.

It’s a day to take a moment and reflect. A day to light a candle in remembrance of the six million. This is what the US Holocaust Memorial Museum says about Yom Hashoah:

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and for reminding Americans of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign. The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, created by act of Congress in 1980, was mandated to lead the nation in civic commemorations and to encourage appropriate Remembrance observances throughout the country. Observances and Remembrance activities can occur during the week of Remembrance that runs from the Sunday before through the Sunday after the actual date.

While there are obvious religious aspects to such a day, it is not a religious observance as such. The internationally-recognized date comes from the Hebrew calendar and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on that calendar. That is the date on which Israel commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah.

The Holocaust is not merely a story of destruction and loss; it is a story of an apathetic world and a few rare individuals of extraordinary courage. It is a remarkable story of the human spirit and the life that flourished before the Holocaust, struggled during its darkest hours, and ultimately prevailed as survivors rebuilt their lives.

For more information, a few good links to visit are the Nizkor Project, the website for Yad Vashem, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s website.

Perhaps not incidentally, Simon Wiesenthal announced his retirement from six decades of work pursuing and catching Nazi war criminals. The 94-year-old and his organisation are responsible for apprehending about 1,100 war criminals, and he is finally ready to quit:

“My work is done,” he said. “I found the mass murderers I was looking for. I survived them all. Those who I didn’t look for are too old and sick today to be pursued legally.”

It may seem like a small event, but Wiesenthal’s retirement is probably symbolic of the turning point that the world finds itself at today. Normally quiet to almost the point of being reclusive, Wiesenthal has spoken out this year about current events, including the riot at Concordia that prevented Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking:

Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal has urged Concordia to reschedule last month’s speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that anti-Israel protesters have succeeded in restricting freedom of speech for the entire student body.

“I never thought I would live to see the day when there would be more open expression of hate against Jews than in the 1930s,” said Wiesenthal in a letter to Rector Frederick Lowy. “Tragically, that is the situation today around the world.”

Perhaps this is never more relevant as right now. The last generation of Holocaust survivors is ageing, and sadly, there will soon no longer be anyone alive to bear witness. The horrors of the Nazi regime will become just another chapter of history, remembered by Steven Spielberg movies and the hundreds of archives that are frantically being assembled by museums and historians. And the more remote in time it becomes, the easier it will be for the racists and revisionists to twist history. And the easier it will be for history to repeat itself.

At the same time, the world is witnessing an outbreak of antisemitism that – while it would be unfair to all to compare it to the Holocaust – is clearly heightened.

Tomorrow’s challenges are already crystallizing today. It will no longer be sufficient to point to history, because too many people are loudly rewriting history to make it fit their prejudices and perspectives.

I’ve frequently heard criticism that there is too much focus among Jewish organizations on the Holocaust, and that we ought to move forward after so long. That may be, but anyone who moves forward without remembering history is bound to repeat it. We say that so often, it’s become somewhat of a cliché. But it is also an irrefutable truth.

Yes, this is a turning point in history. Something to think about in the coming hours of Yom Hashoah.

Most of this seems pretty transparent. The constant use of “war criminal” is an attempt to slander Benjamin Netanyahu with a false allegation that they know they cannot prove. Their reference to the “criminalization of dissent” flies in the face of evidence that conclusively states that what they are engaging in is, in fact, the politicization of criminal activity. Their “demand” that charges and sanctions be removed from the rioters is nothing short of a joke (incidentally, if you have not yet signed the petition to bring these criminals to justice, please do so!)

The “inquiry into racism” was already called for by the CSU, which gives some insight into its true motives. However, with the old CSU out and the new CSU coming in, it will hopefully end up being more of an opportunity to raise discussion points, rather than a witch-hunt against the “Zionists” and the administration.

As for the third point, normally, students can use space to hold events, and a police presence wouldn’t be necessary if SPHR didn’t insist on turning these events into violent clashes.

Their “principles” are equally transparent: Their standard calls against the “criminalization of dissent” and the “discrimination against refugees”. Their reference to “civil disobedience” would be all very well and good, except for their stubborn conviction that smashing windows and beating up people in kippas consists of “civil” disobedience. And note their use of “in Palestine” – um, last I checked, Palestine isn’t a country.

Finally, perhaps most offensive is their attempt to re-define “anti-Semitism” as meaning “racism against both Arabs and Jews”. That is a racist attempt to twist two thousand years of history around and turn the Arabs into the innocent victims. There’s no such thing as a “semitic” race – that’s an invention of racists. Antisemitism means racism against Jews. Don’t like it? Write to the publishers of the dictionary. Nobody’s denying them the right to protect against other forms of racism, including anti-Arab racism. But their twisting of the term antisemitism enables them to claim to be against antisemitism, when in truth they’re perpetrating it.

SPHR is looking for groups to “endorse” these demands before presenting them to the university. Hah! If you’d like to let these jokers know what you truly think of them, you can send them an e-mail to express yourself.

Update: I’ve removed the actual text of their “demands” and “principles” from my site, because I realized it could be mis-construed that I was actually promoting the damned thing. Of course, as nothing is further from the truth, I took it down to avoid confusion, but I left the link up so that you can read it and see for yourself what they’re up to.

Il aura fallu trois jours aux organisateurs des manifestations parisiennes contre la guerre pour condamner les agressions antisémites commises samedi dernier, en marge du cortège. Un retard qui vient s’ajouter au malaise ressenti par certains devant la tournure prise par le dernier rassemblement, à la tonalité plus pro-palestienne que pacifiste.

The article goes on to talk about a few specific incidents, including the Jewish student who was shoved and roughed up by ten or so protesters who were waving an American flag with a swastika in the colours of Israel in the place of the stars.

And the group of protesters holding Palestinian flags who went off in search of Jews wearing kippas at the association offices of Hashomer Hatzair, a Zionist youth group. They beat one of them up, while shouting “Allah akbar”. Security personnel nearby refused to intervene. Not only that, but the whole thing was captured on film.

The reaction from France’s leftist political parties is summed up in this quote by Arielle Denis, co-president of the “Movement de la Paix”:

Elle reconnaît “une très forte sensibilité vis-à-vis de la Palestine et d’Israël” au sein du mouvement, mais estime que les positions anti-sionistes restent un phénomène “marginal”.

Marginal? Yeah, right.

Update: The Canadian Jewish News has more on this story, including further evidence on the habit of these groups to completely fabricate “fact” out of thin air:

CAPJCO, however, denied its activists were involved in the attack. Its president, Olivia Zemor, said her members had, once again, been attacked by Jewish extremists from Betar.

“We are going to be speaking to the police and asking for protection.” Asked to specify the number of injured from her own organization, Zemor said she did not know the “exact figure” before admitting that there had been no CAPJPO injuries.

Hmmm . . . sounds to me a lot like the fictitious claims that the “Zionists instigated the violence” in the case of the September 9th Concordia riots. It fits the same pattern of inventing the truth for propaganda purposes without a shred of evidence. Disguating, all of it.

A federal court jury found Fowad Assed, a Palestinian-born U.S. citizen living in Brooklyn, innocent of sending threatening e-mails, referring to three messages to the Jewish Defense League that threatened bombing businesses in Borough Park, a heavily Jewish neighborhood.

Assed, 33, never denied sending the e-mails, which were sent to the militant Jewish group the day after the Israeli army declared it was going after Palestinian groups following suicide bombings.

Defense Attorney Deborah Colson had argued that while the messages might be offensive, Assed was exercising his rights to free speech.

One e-mail stated: “If you kill an Arab today over there, we will kill a Jew in the U.S. … We should go to 13th Avenue in Brooklyn and set bombs in the stores there.”

Times like these test our desire for certain freedoms. In Canada, Assed would almost certainly have been convicted under hate legislation. But in the U.S., he’s apparently free to threaten to blow up as many Jews as he wants.

Of course, that’s the whole point, right? Once you start curbing your enemies’ freedoms, you’re also giving them leverage to curb yours. Deny freedom of speech to the devil, and he can turn the tables right back on you. And the true test of a democracy’s commitment to freedom is whether it grants that freedom to its most flagrant and despicable abusers. Fowad Assed being a case in point.

A tough-talking Immigration Minister Denis Coderre indicated yesterday he’s prepared to act to thwart Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel’s attempt to claim refugee status in Canada.

“Just watch me,” declared Mr. Coderre when he was asked what measures are available to him to bar someone from getting access to the country’s refugee system, a process that can last years.

The Canadian Jewish Congress is livid about the whole thing, as they well should be:

“Ernst Zundel is an unwanted hatemonger. We are confidant that Canadian refugee law will see through Zundel’s charade and quickly send him back to Germany where he awaits possible jail and prosecution for his hateful activities in that country”, stated Keith Landy National President of Canadian Jewish Congress.

My issue isn’t so much with Zundel, who’s a known hatemongerer and there isn’t much question about what he is or what he stands for. But I really have to wonder at a legal mind that would come up with the twisted argument that Zundel is a refugee from Germany, because if sent back there he would be jailed as a Holocaust denier.

Are we supposed to feel sympathy for this guy or something???

When thousands of legitimate refugee claimants struggle daily to enter Canada, why is anyone even giving this guy the time of day, let alone a hearing? He should be tossed out on his ass where he belongs.

The online hate speech, tracked by the ADL on Web sites, chat rooms, bulletin boards and e-mails, includes allegations the US and Israel destroyed the Columbia to divert attention from the Iraq conflict, that Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon was a spy, and that Jews and Israelis were complicit in the shuttle’s downing in order to gain sympathy for Israel.

The extensive report includes examples of hate speech and conspiracy theories posted by Holocaust deniers, far-right-wing mailing list subscribers, terrorist groups, journalists from Arabic-language newspapers in the Mideast and in Europe, and even from journalists in Tokyo!

This stuff is disgusting but, unfortunately, not all that surprising. These nutcases, and the ones circulating conspiracy theories after September 11th, have been around for a long time. The only difference between today and 50 years ago is that the Internet gives them a forum and an audience for their views.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the progressive Jewish magazine Tikkun, says he was “blackballed” from speaking at Sunday’s rally because he has criticized one of four coalitions sponsoring the event for spreading “anti-Israel propaganda” at recent peace rallies.

[ . . . ]

The local peace movement’s intramural spat erupted nationally Wednesday when Lerner publicized his situation in a Wall Street Journal opinion article. It is all the more striking because the San Francisco-based Lerner is perhaps one of the most vocal Jewish critics of Israel in the country.

Many anti-war activists have unspoken agreements not to publicly air their differences, in part because they feel infighting distracts from the more urgent cause of opposing U.S. policy on Iraq. But Lerner said the anti-war movement will grow in strength only if it is able to seriously critique itself.

He charges that San Francisco rally organizer Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, or A.N.S.W.E.R., uses anti-war rallies to blast Israel’s human rights record while ignoring Palestinian violence, a tactic that he characterized as both lopsided and anti-Semitic.

The article goes on to explain that while the vast majority of the anti-war protesters are simply against war in Iraq, Jews attending these events often find themselves in a “hostile” environment that is strongly anti-Israel. The pro-Palestinian cause has been linked to the anti-war cause, and those who support the latter and not the former find themselves unwelcome, and asked to keep their opinions to themselves.

Some democratic movement.

Canadians talk proudly of our tolerance and fair-mindedness. Often a tone of moral superiority insinuates itself into our national discourse. But these virtues are of fairly recent vintage – we have little to be smug about.

Mulroney summarized the dark history of antisemitism, and Canada’s shameful participation – including PM Mackenzie-King’s praises of Hitler, and the shameful “None is Too Many” immigration policy that slammed our doors shut to refugees in desperate need. He then brought his speech back to the present, blasting the current leadership for refusing to take a moral stand:

Anti-Semitism is born in ignorance and nurtured in envy. It is the stepchild of delusion and evil. The ongoing success of Canada’s Jewish community is consequently often misunderstood, misrepresented and misreported. The rise in the number of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in Canada and the pathetic but startling ravings of Saskatchewan Indian leader David Ahenakew testify to the intractability of the problem, and the constant need for vigilance, consistency and strength in dealing with the entire sweep of anti-Semitism.

In Dante’s Inferno it is noted that ”the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis, strive to maintain their neutrality.” Prime ministers are not exempt from this.

After his speech, Mulroney also blasted Chretien for its fence-sitting on Iraq:

“I don’t think anybody can be impressed by what has taken place so far in Canada,” he said.

“Our traditional allies -the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and so on – are going one way and we appear to be going another with the Russians and the Chinese.”

“We have to be moving now to convey to the (United Nations Security Council) our view that this evasion by the Iraqis is no longer acceptable and we want action and that we will support action taken by the United States, preferably, of course, through the Security Council.”

Widely blamed for an international recession, hated for the introduction of the infamous GST, and criticized for a laundry list of sins, Mulroney did not leave office as Canada’s most popular politician. The Conservative Party has been in freefall since his departure. But in this case, he happens to be right. Neutrality is another way of siding with the status quo. As long as the Liberals bury their heads in the sand and refuse to take a stand, Canada is tacitly voicing approval for the current state of affairs. And, as Mulroney pointed out, this current state is unacceptable.

Judging by the horribly antisemitic character of the Raelians’ writings, I can’t help but wonder if this is just the precursor to some new way of targeting Jews. Call me crazy . . . well, no, actually, call them crazy.

The poll results indicate, among other things, that:

• Nearly one third of Americans fear that a Jewish president may have divided loyalties when dealing with the state of Israel. (This apparently relates to the announcement by Senator Joseph Lieberman that he will seek the Democratic nomination for President in 2004).
• Nearly one in four Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 believe that Jewish control of the media distorts the news.
• Twenty percent of Democrats and Independents tend to “view Jews as caring only about themselves,” compared to only 12 percent among Republicans.
• 34 percent of Americans agree that “Jews have too much influence on Wall Street.
• 37 percent believe that the Jews were responsible for killing Jesus Christ.

The poll results were disturbing to Gary Tobin, President of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco:

Gary Tobin, the president of the institute, said the results appear to reverse a post-World War II and post-Holocaust trend of declining anti- Semitism in America.

The academic survey of 1,013 randomly selected adults was conducted from May 2-7, 2002. But Tobin suspects that the trend has only deepened since then because of the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the buildup toward a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq.

“We’re not saying that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic,” Tobin said.

“But college campuses have become bastions of anti-Israelism. In places like Berkeley or Santa Cruz, the demonstrators’ signs say ‘Stop Israel’ and ‘Stop the Jews.’ That’s what we picked up in this survey.”

To me, it’s appalling that Tobin even had to include the disclaimer about not saying that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. That he had to say that at all indicates that Jews everywhere are on the defensive – about Israel, about our beliefs, our politics, and our identity.

This defensiveness is precisely what the existence of the State of Israel was supposed to eliminate. Zionism instilled a sense of pride in being Jewish, and all over the world, Jews no longer had to hide or be ashamed of their heritage. At least that was the theory.

The poll results are showing the opposite trend, though. And it’s scary as hell.

The time for silence and passive acceptance is over. Now is the time to speak out. And now is the time to take back our universities.

Agreed.

Baaklini made widely-criticized remarks in a local Arabic newspaper about the media being “controlled by Zionists”, and blamed the “Zionist party” for being responsible for pressuring the Canadian government to outlaw Hezbollah. His remarks ended with a not-so-subtle threat that “Canadians travelling in the Arab world shouldn’t wear Canada T-shirts.”

He repeated his disgustingly racist and threatening comments several times before issuing a so-called “apology” that was really nothing even remotely apologetic.

I am disgusted by these comments – but I don’t understand why people are shocked. It’s a pretty common accusation of Israel’s enemies, and Izzy Asper, owner of CanWestGlobal, is a favourite target of these morons. Just open any edition of the Link to see that accusation made – in print – dozens of times.

If Baaklini’s remarks are unacceptable – which they are – then they should be equally unacceptable for all the other idiots who say the exact same thing, day in, day out.

I used to think the Raelians were just a bunch of cranks with some wacky ideas, but basically harmless. Than I found the Rael-operated “Subversions.com”, a “politically incorrect” “news” website which features one of the most shocking blood libels I’ve ever read: that the Israelis murdered 1,000 Palestinians, “most of whom were women and children” in Jenin. Not even the Palestinians themselves, nor the most hysterically “anti-Zionist” segments of the British media, wrote anything this vile.

Mind you, the Raelians don’t just pick on the Jews. They say say the U.S. Secret Service killed John Lennon and the followers of “Reverend” Jim Jones, and they even accuse the French of murdering members of the “Solar Temple” cult in 1994-95 and planning their own “concentration camps” for minorities. Still, the front page, which rants about “Americano-Israelian terrorism” and purports to show a Palestinian baby murdered by the IDF, makes it clear who their main target is.

Fuck you, Rael. Fuck, fuck, fuck you. Fuck you and the spaceship you rode in on.

Damian, I couldn’t agree more.

It’s scary as hell. Sure, the announcements of this week’s cloned babies are almost certainly hoaxes, but even the idea of them being true is frightening. Is this really who we want owning the technology to clone people? Imagine what kind of people these bigoted freaks would create. A world full of Raelian clones is not the planet Earth I want to live on, that’s for sure!

According to [Israel Radio] the assailant stabbed Rabbi Gabriel Farhi, 34, in the stomach, shouting “Allah Wakbar we will kill you” before running away.

[. . .]

Farhi told the radio that this was not the first time he or his family had been threatened and that very morning he had received a threat.

If this was an isolated event, that might be one thing. But France has managed to distinguish itself as an epicentre of hatred even among stiff competition. As Jeff Jacoby from the Boston Globe writes:

To be sure, some Europeans are shocked by the re-emergence of Jew-hatred all over their continent. But the more common reaction has been complacency. “Stop saying that there is antisemitism in France,” President Jacques Chirac scolded a Jewish editor in January. “There is no antisemitism in France.”

Sure, Monsieur Chirac, I guess it was that “other” kind of Jew-hatred.

In an emotional appearance Tuesday, Ahenakew apologized to the Jewish community, Holocaust survivors and their families.

“I am deeply sorry for the pain I have caused you,” he said. He also apologized to his own people.

“I have clearly embarrassed our people. I admit my own stubbornness, my pigheadedness and my own personal embarrassment prevented me from coming forward immediately to do the right thing in light of what I have caused by such irresponsible and painful comments,” he said.

Sorry, but in a case like this, that just don’t cut it. What’s more likely to be a true expression of how he feels? The disgusting racist comments he made in anger? Or a carefully-crafted apology after nearly five days of media pressure?

For a man like this to be a member of the Order of Canada is a disgrace. He resigned from all his political positions within the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, but even during his apology speech he still opted to wear his Order of Canada pin on his lapel. What does that say about Canada? What does that say about us as Canadians? He should be stripped of the Order immediately.

Anti-Semitism thrives because slandering Israel is the only aggression against a minority that is encouraged by the rules of political correctness.

Along similar lines, universities have allowed Middle East departments to disseminate anti-Israel propaganda to an extent unimaginable a generation ago, representing violations of intellectual honesty and academic impartiality that may be unique in our academic life.

Worth a read.

A respected Saskatchewan Indian leader said Friday Hitler did the right thing when he “fried” six million Jews during the Second World War.

In comments one local Jewish leader described as unfortunate, David Ahenakew, a senator with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), a former chief of the organization and a former chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), said in an interview Friday the Nazi leader was trying to clean up the world during the war.

“The Jews damn near owned all of Germany prior to the war,” Ahenakew said.

“That’s how Hitler came in. He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn’t take over Germany or Europe. That’s why he fried six million of those guys, you know. Jews would have owned the goddamned world. And look what they’re doing. They’re killing people in Arab countries.”

I must admit, words fail me. Except to point out that the rise in worldwide antisemitism in the past two years among the fringe extremes has exactly mirrored the rise in anti-Zionism among people who consider themselves more “mainstream”.

But one, of course, has nothing to do with the other. (Insert sarcasm tag here).

Entitled “Rêver La Palestine” (Dream of Palestine), the book is written by a 15-year-old Egyptian girl who holds terrorists up as heroes. According to an e-mail being circulated by the Simon Wiesenthal Center:

The fifteen-year-old Egyptian author, Randa Ghazi, who lives with her family in Italy, writes about Palestinian teenagers who fight ‘bloodthirsty Jews, who assassinate children and old people, profane mosques, and rape Arab women.’

Dream of Palestine is being touted as ’surprisingly mature’ and ‘a great text of suffering and hope.’ One of the novel’s heroes calls for Jihad against the Jews who are ‘a doomed people’ and to ‘kill all Israelis.’ The main character is encouraged ‘to kill hundreds in his suicide bombing’ and later does blow himself up along with five Israelis.

The book has become a bestseller in French bookstores. To join the protest against it, sign the online petition. And thanks to Jamie for the heads-up on this one.

Update: LGF has posted about this, and there’s quite a lively debate going on in the comments about the dangers of censorship versus the dangers of the hate contained in the book. Check it out.

The attempts to “de-legitimize” Israel’s occupation of Palestine are as anti-Semitic as the attempts to “de-legitimize” apartheid South Africa were “anti-Caucasian.”

The number of times that the Gazette and other publications have given voice to this thug – Jewish or not, he’s a thug – is incredible. This is the same Aaron Maté (VP Campaigns of the extremely anti-Israel CSU) who was arrested back in April for holding an illegal sit-in in the offices of Irwin Cotler, MP and human-rights activist. The same Aaron Maté who was arrested on September 9th at the Netanyahu protests. The same Aaron Maté who, in effort to make it seem like he speaks for a significant proportion of Jews, makes a point of prefacing every anti-Israel remark he makes with “as a Jew”.

His twisted logic would have Israel blamed for all of the Palestinian violence. But either he willfully closes his eyes to the virulent antisemitism within the Palestinian movement at Concordia, or else he simply does not think it important or relevant. Perhaps he wilfully closes his ears to the chanting of “death to the Jews” that can be heard at the riots. How else would he be able to rationalize his participation? Most often, he simply claims that the antisemitism is a fringe element among the minority:

Of course, no serious activist will deny that there are elements of anti-Semitism in the pro-Palestinian movement. But I also know that the vast majority of Palestinians whom I have met in Montreal or on the West Bank have denounced anti-Semitism and taken great efforts to oppose it when displayed by others.

Then, he has the audacity to follow with:

That protest was not anti-Semitic. Sept. 9 was a sign of a growing movement of people across the world in solidarity with Palestinians, a group that includes thousands of conscientious citizens and brave “refusenik” soldiers in Israel itself. And despite some unfortunate and deplorable exceptions, it is a movement that recognizes and supports the legitimate rights of the Jewish people.

The anti-Zionists love Maté because they can hold him up as “evidence” that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. “After all”, they can claim, “one of our best friends is Jewish”. Why Aaron Maté lets himself be used like that is beyond me. But what people need to realize is that:

a) Jews who share his views are in the extreme fringe minority, and do not reflect the views of most mainstream Jews worldwide (left, right, or center).

b) Despite claiming otherwise, anti-Zionism of Aaron Maté’s brand is antisemitism. Merely criticizing Israeli policy is not, as he correctly points out, but when anyone goes so far as to deny the legitimacy of the mere existence of the state of Israel, it is antisemitism. Why? Because when you really look at what’s being said, the argument comes down to the fact that Israel is a Jewish state. Whether they argue that it is “infringing on Muslim land” or “racist because of its Jewish character”, this is what is really being said. As Adam Spiro explains (in response to an incident where professional shit-disturbers and buddies of Maté, Samer Elatrash and Laith Marouf, showed up at a Sukkot party):

Next time you hear the SPHR say “we’re anti-Israel, not anti-Jewish” think about it for a few minutes. If their sole concern was Israel, they would not have felt the need to protest a Jewish holiday. I have no need, or desire (nor do I know any Jew who does) to go monitor how Ramadan is observed. Furthermore, someone who was not anti-Jewish would not have played the role Marouf and Elatrash did in the riots where Jews were spat at, and Jewish men had their kippot torn from their heads. I still have yet to see anything (from the SPHR or anyone else), formal or informal, condemning those actions, or even expressing any regret whatsoever. And they say that they’re not anti-Jewish.

These are the people with whom Aaron Maté aligns himself. To exempt him from criticism simply because he is Jewish, while criticising his cohorts, would be racist.

In regard to your Nov. 8 article “Egyptian drama series promotes hatred: Israel”: Egyptian media policy ensures Egypt’s equal respect for all religions and beliefs. It also does not allow for any dramatic work or program to contain innuendos aimed at religious institutions.

The drama series in question, “Knight without a Horse,” does not contain, in its dramatization nor its discourse, what could be taken as a “call for anti-Semitism.”

Egyptian media policy respects the right to freedom of expression, that being a human right. Denying individuals this right would not be synonymous with the democratic principles that Egyptian society follows and that allows this society to respect the cultural practices of others as well as their religious and sacred beliefs.

Stirring up an allegation of “anti-Semitism” at this time of crisis is an old tactic, and since the allegations have not been proved truthful, we think there is a hidden agenda.

In regards to the allegations that “anti-Semitism” is growing within Egyptian society, there is a big difference between anger toward Israeli politics and “anti-Semitism.”

This drama series, like all others, has passed through a rigorous censorship governmental committee prior to receiving approval for broadcasting. This committee ensures that any material that might be thought to contain religious innuendos be removed.

It appears that certain Zionist circles have created this propaganda to divert attention away from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and its daily consequences on the Palestinian people’s freedom and right to practice their religious rituals and to earn a living.

Fatma Abdalla

Director of the press office, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Ottawa

I could comment, but he does such a nice job of exposing his ignorance with his own words, I hardly feel it necessary! I mean, aside from the usual and expected Zionist conspiracy theory and allegations of a “hidden agenda”, he manages to defend free speech and “rigorous” governmental censorship in the same letter. And “Egypt’s equal respect for all religions and beliefs”? Those being Muslim, Muslim . . . and Muslim, right? Certainly he can’t mean Jewish!

For a closer look at what’s really being said in Egypt these days, I direct your attention towards an editorial in the Egyptian government paper Al-Akbar (translated by those nice folks over at MEMRI) – one of many articles that praises the recent Jerusalem bus bombing that claimed 11 lives.

“This operation in which eleven Israeli terrorists were killed and dozens were wounded stems from a number of reasons, the first of which is that this operation is a consequence of a brave ambush prepared by Palestinian martyrs … in Hebron which … because of the state of madness that over took the ruling Israeli gang led by Ariel Sharon, who seeks to spill more Palestinian blood, especially the blood of children, women, the elderly, and the brave people of resistance.”

“In essence, everybody knows that the resistance is the only way for liberation, and there is no alternative. This weapon, the weapon of legitimate force, is the only weapon that Israel fears. Only the resistance can smash the Israeli arrogance and idiocy of its leaders.”

Egypt, remember, is supposedly at PEACE with Israel. It sure brings a whole new meaning to the expression, “with friends like these, who needs enemies?”