The Criminalization of my Jewish Identity
Codifying "Anti-Palestinian Racism"
This is an important guest post by Shauna Small, who is a mother, leader, educator, and passionate Zionist.
At this moment, school boards across the country are updating their “equity” strategies to include something called Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR). The Canadian government has also introduced a motion to add APR into its equity policies. Before these policies become law, we must understand what they mean, the slippery slope they will create, and how they will impact the Canadian Jewish community moving forward.
I am a proud Jewish Zionist living in the Diaspora.
This is the core fabric of my identity, woven into my heart with 3,000 years of history.
My ancestors and I are indigenous to the beautiful Land of Israel that people read about in their Scriptures, and that I feel with every ounce of my being. I beam with pride, together with the international Jewish community, each time Israel accomplishes another miracle that brings light unto all nations. I also cry collectively with my people when evil brings death upon one of our own.
Together we pray, using our indigenous language - Hebrew - and turn our faces toward our beautiful Jerusalem in prayer, as it is written in our customs from thousands of years ago. Together, we claim “Next year in Jerusalem” at the end of every Passover seder as we collectively yearn for the day of our return to our Homeland.
That day however, may now have come for Jewish Canadians, who are faced with an unprecedented rise in antisemitism. As we watch in horror how the documented horrors of October 7, 2023 - horrors perpetrated against our babies, children, elderly, women, and men - are set aside as hoaxes or irrelevant to the history of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, we may not be paying close enough attention to the misguided efforts to change policy in boardrooms across Canada, and in our legislature.
“Anti-Palestinian Racism" (APR)
The new drive to introduce Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) to “equity and inclusivity strategies” throughout this country and within our Canadian government must be a wake up call. The current application of APR within school boards, without a legal definition of what constitutes this form of racism, is actually abhorrent.
So what is APR? And how is it being defined?
Well, it is basically anything that may be perceived to be anti-Palestinian, no matter how distorted “pro-Palestinian” has become. So, Zionism is APR, and the IHRA definition of antisemitism is to be considered racist against Palestinians too.
The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association released a framework for APR in a 42 page document that seeks to outline how APR is manifested and systemically embedded in Canada:
“Anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives. Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including: denying the Nakba and justifying violence against Palestinians; failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine; erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians; excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies; defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values” (Pg 13).
I honestly never understood the concept of “gaslighting” until I read through this document. All the experiences that the Jewish people have been faced with throughout Canada for over a decade and especially since 10/7 are allegedly being faced by Palestinians in Canada too. Yet, their allegations of APR are not backed up with any data. According to this document, “There currently is no reporting mechanism or formal data collection for APR in Canada”(ACLA, pg 6). So the allegations of APR are not investigated and are being legitimized based on anecdotal stories.
Example: Pointing out Jewish indigeneity in Israel is considered APR
The Jewish people are indigenous to the land of Israel. According to the UN (Martinez Cobo Study, 1982), common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands along with a shared culture constitutes indigenuity. The Jewish people all share some common DNA. Our relationship to one another and to our indigenous home is actually written in our genetics according to recent genetic research (DNA study).
Furthermore, our indigeneity has been documented in texts for over 3,000 years. The People of Israel and our narratives are told in Biblical and more modern day texts. The “Children of Israel”are even referred to in the Quran since our history obviously predates Islam. Jerusalem as our capital is mentioned over 600 times in the Old Testament but not ever mentioned in the Quran.
If this is not enough evidence, then one can look at the archaeological evidence of our people that have been recovered throughout Israel. Antisemites like to blame Jews for killing Christ in Jerusalem, but will then say that we are new arrivals to the land. Well, which is it? Did we allegedly kill Christ 2,000 years ago? Or did we just arrive 100 years ago? Well, we didn’t kill Jesus, but he was Jewish too, living and preaching in the land of his forefathers. We can feel our history in every grain of sand as we walk throughout Israel.
“FAILING TO ACKNOWLEDGE PALESTINIANS AS AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE includes: denying the existence of Palestine and Palestinians as a people; denying the settler-colonization of Palestine” (ACLA pg 21).
But now, apparently, proclaiming our history and indigeneity to Israel would make the Jewish people guilty of APR. When we question the Palestinian narrative and present the evidence of our history, we are apparently complicit in “traumatizing the Palestinian people by denying their truth.” When we denounce a Palestinian narrative of the Nakba by presenting an alternate narrative, backed with reputable evidence that resulted in the Declaration of Independence of the sovereign State of Israel, we, by this definition, will be racist.
Our children will be silenced throughout this country in combating the new face of antisemitism which is taking the form of the erasure of our history. The chants of genocide that we hear in our streets to “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” (which means to annihilate the State of Israel which is situated between that river and sea) would no longer be considered antisemitism, since it is an expression of their identity and justified as “Palestinian poetry” that acknowledges their “resistance.”
Notably, when we ask for evidence of a state that was ever named “Palestine” in the past (there was never a sovereign territory called Palestine), or try to present the facts of 3,500 years of Jewish habitation on that land, it would be considered APR. The truth and reality that there has never been an independent state of Palestine (at least until Palestinian nationalism as a movement took off in the late 1960s) will no longer matter. (Timeline of Jewish history)
Fighting antisemitism is APR
According to the framework of APR set out by ACLA, the suspension of Javier Davila, a TDSB teacher and equity coach constitutes APR. His actions that involved the circulation of an antisemitic document to teachers throughout the Board is irrelevant, since that document included the Palestinian narrative, so it is considered APR to disallow it. His document included antisemitic rhetoric, denied Israel’s right to exist, shared links to recognized terrorist organizations, and vilified the State of Israel. Yet, he is seen as the victim of APR and the Jewish and Israeli staff and students who were targeted by this document are irrelevant, the antisemitism they faced designed to be ignored.
Jewish Pride is APR
The call for the annihilation of the State of Israel is referred to as “freedom of expression” within the ACLA document. In Canada, we have laws against hate speech and incitement of violence, therefore this framework of APR contravenes the laws we uphold in this country:
“Abroad, defenders of the state of Israel uphold and justify Israel’s treatment of Palestinians by targeting its detractors. Over time, the efficacy of this defence of Israel has resulted in the othering, racialization65, stereotyping, dehumanization and discrimination of Palestinians and advocates in Canada and elsewhere. It also has led to the “Palestine Exception”, where rights upheld for other individuals and groups are routinely denied to Palestinians and advocates i.e. freedom of expression or freedom of association.”(18)
Last week, Jewish Canadians proudly waved our Israeli flags through the streets of Toronto during our annual Walk with Israel, which brought more than 50,000 participants out. This solidarity with our Homeland is being twisted into an evil expression of APR.
Today we see our flag regularly burnt at Anti-Israel rallies, we see it taken off any displays within schools throughout the country since it is considered “controversial,” and we see it disallowed in professional sports arenas such as the Scotiabank Arena.
Jewish students are regularly harassed, bullied, excluded and assaulted. Jewish students are unsafe sharing their faith or connection to their ancestral homeland. Social media is flooded with viral, antisemitic hate, but instead of addressing this unimaginable rise in antisemitism, the government and school boards across Canada are choosing to focus their attention on implementing strategies to address APR that would in fact further marginalize and victimize the Jewish community. Again, it makes countering antisemitism a form of APR itself. It is a strange mix of Orwellian and Kafkaesque, if not just utterly preposterous.
A distortion of reality
Whenever a Palestinian individual or an ally chooses to commit crimes according to Canadian law, such as incitement of violence or hate speech, condemnation of those actions could be classified as APR. The swarms of Anti-Israel activists who chose to show up to the Walk with Israel with their keffiyehs wrapped around their faces, were “only expressing their identity.” It doesn’t matter that they harassed people, intentionally bumped into people to intimidate, or that they made violent hand signals and hateful speech. If we criticize those actions then, according to this new proposed policy, we are guilty of APR.
Take this example of APR, found in the referenced document: A Palestinian woman, Rasmea Odeh, was deported to Jordan from the United States in August 2017. It is apparently irrelevant that she lied on her immigration papers when moving to the United States (lying on your immigration form is a deportable offence). She was a convicted terrorist serving a life sentence, who had been released from prison in Israel as part of a prisoner exchange with the terrorist-organization PFLP. She was convicted of placing 2 bombs at a supermarket and the British Consulate in Jerusalem that killed Israeli civilians. But, her criminal and immoral actions are apparently irrelevant. It only matters that she is Palestinian, and being held accountable for those actions. Accordingly, and apparently, this makes it a case of APR.
Israel is not anti-Palestinian
Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East. It is a beautiful and inclusive country that thrives with a diverse population. There are almost 2 million Muslims who live and work alongside 7.5 million Jews.
Israel is not a perfect country, and anyone can freely criticize governmental decisions in Israel, as its citizens frequently do. However, when you judge Israel by different standards than the rest of the world, deny it the right to defend its borders, call for its elimination, or claim that “rape of Israeli women is justified,” then you are revealing your antisemitic bias.
When you choose to use a fringe group of “Anti-Zionist” Jews as representative of the Jewish voice then you are “tokenizing” Jews to somehow legitimize antisemitism.
When you choose to rename the map of Israel to Palestine, you are an antisemite. Israel is the Homeland of the Jewish people, and we can back that up with 3,500 years of history. We can also document our land purchases that legalize our right to the land. Our legal status as the National Homeland of the Jewish People can be verified in the Mandate for Palestine, a legal document that was unanimously adopted by the League of Nations in 1920.
In the aftermath of World War One, when the Ottoman Empire crumbled, several mandates were created that were used to divide up land so that countries could declare their independence. This resulted in the establishment of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and also Israel. The Mandate for Palestine outlines the borders for the “reconstitution” of the Jewish Homeland in Palestine which the British occupied until 1948.
The United Nations itself voted in 1947 to create one Arab and one Jewish State in what was then Palestine. How many countries in the world were established with a vote at the UN? Very few. But yet this is determined to be an illegitimate state.
On May 14, 1948, Israel finally declared its independence from Britain. The next day it was attacked by seven Arab armies, and since that date it has faced many wars and terror attacks in the continued struggle to destroy it.
This is our history. However, Israel continue to embrace life and contribute to improving the world. Some of the most incredible modern day innovations have come from Israel. With each contributions, Jews around the world beam with collective pride because we are all Israel. It is not just a land to us, it is our people, our history, and our future.
The codification of APR would effectively legalize antisemitism. It vilifies Israel and any effort to support that state, seeks to have the fight against antisemitism become a zero-sum game, and seeks to erase our history and connection to Israel. Simply put, it contravenes the IHRA definition of antisemitism and seeks to silence Jewish voices.
Now is the time to open our eyes to the threats to our existence that are happening right here in front of us. We cannot be silent.
IN MEMORIAM
Together with all of Israel, we also mourn the loss in recent days of 12 IDF soldiers, who died fighting for our country. They were:
Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud, 23, a deputy commander from the Druze community;
Sgt. Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist, 21, who moved to Israel from America as a child in 2005 with his family;
Staff Sgt. Stanislav Kostarev, 21, remembered as “a wise and humble boy, pleasant and kind-hearted”;
Sgt. Itay Amar, 19, remembered as “a boy who would make everyone smile”;
Staff Sgt. Oz Yeshaya Gruber, 20, remembered as “a hero on the battlefield who was always smiling, always with good vibes - always happy to lend a hand”;
Staff. Sgt. Orr Blumovitz, 20, remembered as “a bookworm who read over 1,000 books on Israeli history” who loved his home and people;
Sgt. Yakir Ya’akov Levi, 21, remembered as “very bright, razor sharp…He was very determined to win and not to see blackness, to have his head held high and to give his all”;
Sgt. Shalom Menachem, 21, survived by his parents and seven siblings, all with heavy hearts;
Cpt. (res.) Eitan Koplovich (28), a recent law graduate from Hebrew University, who fell in Gaza after fighting for four months on Israel’s northern border;
Warrant Officer (res.) Elon Weiss (49), leaves behind his wife, seven children, and one granddaughter;
Sgt. Yair Roitman, 19, was remembered as “a child who never gave up, did what he wanted, and dragged everyone else toward your dreams…you were larger than life”; and
Staff. Sgt. Tzur Abraham, 22, who was described by his parents as having “a light in his eyes that will accompany us forever.”
Cpt. Eitan Koplovich (left) and Elon Weiss
May their memories forever be a blessing. Baruch Dayan Ha’emet.
 | A guest post by
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I think that Jews need to return to Israel. It is their
Land and will be the only safe place for thetas antisemitism rises across the world.