A Canary's Song: Summary of Presentations by Anne Golden

Summary of Presentations by Anne Golden

The premise of this day-long conference on antisemitism and its latest iteration — antizionism — was that Jew-hatred foretells a wider moral decay and threatens liberal democracy itself. Twenty renowned speakers, including prominent legal scholars, writers, Ambassadors, professors, rabbis, and institutional leaders spoke with candor and passion to the packed crowd of participants.

Special features: Fireside chats between Ambassadors Deborah E. Lipstadt and Deborah Lyons; Raheel Raza's lunchtime talk on Antisemitism and how it will lead to the destruction of the West; Closing Address from the Honourable Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, OQ.

Central themes:

• Antizionism is the latest stage in the history of antisemitism, the oldest and most lethal of hatreds: in the Greek and Roman era antisemitism was political, i.e. the Jews refused to worship their imperial leaders; with the rise of Christianity and then Islam, the hatred and persecution was about faith, i.e. the Jews as Christ killers, as heretics; under Hitler, Jew hatred was justified by race, by the belief that Jewish blood was impure and would corrupt the racial purity of the Aryan race. Antizionism, the current expression of Jew hatred, is that Jewish self-determination is by definition genocidal. Initiated by the USSR, polished and refined in support of Arab Nationalism aimed at destroying the nascent Jewish state, antizionism made Israel into "the Jew," responsible for all global evils.

• The antisemites in each stage justified their Jew hatred as morally virtuous. The Christians and Muslims persecuted and murdered Jews for more than two millennia in defense of their faith. The Nazis tortured and murdered six million Jews in defense of racial purity, to protect their society from "the other". Antizionism today dresses itself up as morality, defending the world from the white colonizers, guilty of apartheid and genocide. Social justice, human rights, anti-nationalists in alliance with Islamists, drive this latest iteration of Jew hatred.

• Jew-hatred historically justified by untruths — from Jews were guilty of killing Christ, to causing the bubonic plague, to conspiring to take over the world (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion), to antizionism — all based on a series of lies; the haters have now added that Jews are not indigenous to Israel, and that only Israel, and not the Arabs, are responsible for the conflict today. Antizionists optimize proven propaganda machinery, relying on a strategy of repetition, simplified messages, driven virally across the globe. Immediately following Oct 7, the attacks against Israel were defended as "resistance," and coordinated, multi-media campaigns were pushed across campuses and social media, adopted by traditional media, repeated by leftist politicians, and embedded in social justice actions.

• The level of toxicity today in Canada and the world is alarming. Several presentations set out data and chilling examples of Jew hatred in Canada's institutions — in healthcare, in government, in the university, in law enforcement. Several presenters noted the enormity of funding coming from Qatar into US universities, associated with courses delivering Islamist and Leftist ideological messages, the changes in curriculum across the West, the priority of social activism rather than evidence-based learning, civil discourse and debate, questioning and curiosity driven independent research in place of CRT/DEI prioritized and funded agendas.

• Jews must fight back. Presenters shared ideas about fighting back, having all declared we are at a crossroads in the war against Jews, democracy, truth. Attack the untruths and the labels. Work with allies. Use the law. Demand accountability from our political leaders, e.g. from the recently created Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion, created by the Prime Minister, which has unacceptable members; however, it exists so Jews must determine how to make it effective and accountable.

• Antisemitism is toxic to democracies, a threat to the security of Canadians, and a ticking time bomb, an assault on our common humanity.

• The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood's role is ignored, not understood, and/or understated. A recent study released by ISGAP documented the many tentacles and the impact of the Brotherhood in Canada.

• Three tipping points in the history of modern antizionism:

• 1975 Durban Conference where the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379 declaring Zionism is a form of racism, a decision driven largely by Arab and Soviet-aligned countries during the Cold War (later revoked).

• 2001 Durban Conference on human rights, where zionism metastasized by being equated with Nazism; in the immediate aftermath the UN General Assembly passed 20 resolutions condemning Israel for human rights crimes, compared to just five for the rest of the world's countries.

• October 7, when unspeakable mass atrocities against innocent Jews were celebrated in real time on social media, followed by denial, support for the terrorism, glorification of the atrocities, and a global explosion of antisemitism, including in Canada.

• Three major libels must be confronted: the colonialism libel, a fundamental assault on the indigenous nature of Israel; the apartheid libel; and the genocide libel.