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An Array of Significant Happenings | CAEF Bulletin, Feb. 21, 2024


Israel’s War is Just!



Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, made a surprise solidarity visit to Israel, and wrote an incredibly supportive, factual OpEd that was front page in the National Post on February 18, 2024. This must be shared widely.


 

Advocate Award of Excellence Honoree Barbara Kay explains antisemitism in an interview with Brian Crombie.




 

CAEF Caption Contest Winners and Next Image


CAEF is pleased to announce the winners of its first monthly caption contest, sponsored by CAEF board member Michael Teper, who will contribute $50 to the Jewish charity of the winner's choice, and $25 to the Jewish charity of the runner-up's choice.


CAEF is pleased to announce that Jack Micay won the contest and $50 will be donated to Beit Haolechem, and the runner-up is Cathy Zeldin. Michael will donate $25 to her charity of choice, Kulanu Canada.


The winning caption and the runner-up are below the photo.



“Hello Mo - I want you to sell all my shares in Gaza Cement and put all $500 million into Israel Defense Industries, inshallah.” (Jack Micay)


Yes!  Thank you so much for all your gifts, UNWRA.  They are very helpful. (Cathy Zeldin)


February Caption Contest will be announced next week


 

Ontario Teacher's License Revoked for Classroom Antisemitism - Review of Case Exhibits


In November 2021, the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) revoked the license of Joseph DiMarco, a teacher at a Timmins Ontario high school. DiMarco had treated his students, during class time, to Holocaust denial material, referred to a school trip to Europe at which students would visit several Holocaust memorial sites as "propaganda", and taught his students that 9/11 was a conspiracy involving the Israeli military.


The case was shockingly reminiscent of the original classroom antisemitism cases of James Keegstra and Malcolm Ross, and marked the first time that an Ontario teacher's license was revoked for antisemitic classroom teachings. In 2007, the College revoked the license of Paul Fromm, but Fromm was careful to keep his neo-Nazi activities separate from his classroom teaching.


The case, which is published at 2021 ONOCT 142 (CanLII) | Ontario College of Teachers v Dimarco | CanLII is a powerful reminder of how destructive teacher who abuses his authority to indoctrinate antisemitic propaganda can be. We enourage our readers to access the link and read the case for themselves.CAEF obtained the key exhibits introduced as evidence in the hearing, including the expert report of Bernie Farber. This expert report, reproduced exclusively by the CAEF Bulletin, contains important observations about antisemitism and anti-Zionism that were accepted in full by the College's Discipline Committee, and which are valuable precedents in dealing with incidents of classroom antisemitism following the October 7 massacre.


Farber writes (para. 17): "A more modern mutation of antisemitism was prompted by the creation of the state of Israel. While in a post-Holocaust era it was generally considered to be inappropriate to apply the age-old antisemitic tropes to individual Jews, those same slanders could be applied to Israel with more impunity. Thus, as Professor Irwin Cotler has noted, "In the past, the most dangerous anti-Semites were those who wanted to make the world Judenrein, 'free of Jews'. Today, the most dangerous anti-Semites might be those who want to make the world Judensaatrein, 'free of a Jewish state."


He continues (para. 34): "While I have noted - per the IHRA definition - that criticism of Israel is not necessarily antisemitic, the repeated application to Israel of libels which have historically been directed against Jews makes it less likely that the similarities are unintentional. Historically, Jews have been held responsible for disasters, wars, plagues and social and economic disruptions (to name but a few of the calumnies) ... The member further attempts to draw a solid line between his allegations of untrustworthy Zionist behaviour in 1945 and 2001. It's interesting that the member believes that knowing "the truth" will cause ferocious antisemitism, and then proceeds to reveal just that "truth" to his students, even offering to support his theories with "research" he has done..."


He continues (para 48): "While Zionism can be fairly critiqued as a political movement, the totality of the member's messages points to a different motivation. The term "Zionist" is of ten used as a convenient effigy when it is Inexpedient to talk about Jews."


CAEF continues to vigilantly monitor social media sites for antisemitic comments by members of Canada's regulated professions, and has launched several complaints currently before the College and other professional bodies.


If anyone would like to see the exhibits presented to the OCT, feel free to contact andria@caef.ca

 

Commending and Condemning Responses to Sexual Assault on 10/7


CAEF commends Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman, a Kosovo Albanian, survivor of sexual assault, and a prominent advocate against wartime sexual violence, who visited Israel as a guest of Shurat Hadin, a women-led non-governmental organization dedicated to combatting terrorism and antisemitism. 


Krasniqi Goodman spoke of the tragedy of rape and violence on October 7 as she visited the sites to bear witness. She was the first person to tell her story in Kosovo, after being subjected to rape by two Serbian police officers. In 2021, the President of Kosovo declared April 14, the day of Krasniqi's assault, as the "Day of Sexual Violence Survivors" in Kosovo. Today, she serves as a member of Kosovo's Parliament and continues her advocacy as a leading human rights activist.


Quoting from the Jerusalem Post, "It took months for the international community to even begin to face the terrible truth of the events of October 7,| Darshan Leitner said. "But more importantly, we still do not see decisive actions by governments, the UN, women's rights organizations, the International Red Cross, and other organizations against Hamas, which is still holding Israeli hostages that we know are being assaulted in captivity as we speak," she said. "We hope that Vasfije's visit will help raise awareness about these atrocities, the need to prosecute Hamas Nukhba terrorists for the War Crimes of sexual assault, and to the need to uproot Hamas rapists from Gaza."


This is a far cry from the situation in Canada and globally, where women’s organizations failed to even acknowledge, let alone condemn the mass rape and torture of women, girls and boys, carried out by Hamas. In Toronto, we witnessed the failure of the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre to speak up while planning to March for Palestine, and inviting people to gather to create signs and other materials for their protest. Once it became apparent to the Jewish community that three levels of government and a public foundation were funders of TRCC, letters were sent to demand the defunding of TRCC and an investigation into its accountability, its promotion of hatred and bigotry and its failure to stay on mission. How could Jewish, and particularly Israeli women, ever feel safe and respected by staff at TRCC, after their announced propaganda campaign against Israel? How could one support an NGO that ignores rape and sexual torture and actively promotes #MeTooUnlessYoureAJew?


CAEF has lent support to a grassroots Toronto group, Canadians for Israel, that has successfully organized rallies and vigils to draw continuous attention to the plight of hostages still held in Hamas hell in Gaza. On February 14th, Valentine’s Day was marked by street theatre in which 14 Jewish women wore pants smeared with red paint to symbolize the rape and molestation experienced by Israeli women on October 7th, 2023 and those who continue to be raped by the monstrous barbaric Hamas terrorists. Several men were in disguise as terrorists dragging the women forward linked together with hands bound. 


One of the most important messages was directed at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre and other women’s organizations that failed to call out the horrible treatment and rape of Israeli women. Even more upsetting and cause for an investigation is that TRCC was a noted sponsor of pro-Palestinian actions, which typically shout and display anti-Israel and pro Hamas messaging.


Below are photos of the rally at the corner of Yonge St and Eglinton Ave, and a story from the National Post, February 15th, 2024




Ontario MPP responds to calls to investigate funding of TRCC


CAEF and other organizations complained about TRCC's publicized support for a March for Palestine, certainly not part of its mandate, and potentially rejecting of Jewish women, especially those who are Israeli or have stated Zionist identify



French Minister of Gender Equality Takes Right Approach



 

UNRWA—Share the Truth


Read End Jew Hatred Report prepared by Doris Strub Epstein, editor and volunteer extraordinaire. This issue is dedicated to revealing much of what is known about the relationship between Hamas and UNRWA, the latter serving as a cover for Jew hatred, educating Arab children to despise and vilify Israel with the goal of killing Jews and running summer camps that actively train kids to kill.


The report has been sent to every MP and every provincial member of governments in Canada and all Senators, and many media. Please click here, read and share it.


CAEF supports the Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research in its efforts to seek justice by pressing criminal charges against the High Commissioner of UNRWA.



Watch Hillel Neuer, Director of UN Watch, on i24 describing the UN’s fake investigation into UNRWA.



 

DEI Proven to Increase Racism and Antisemitism


Research has (finally) come to light that indicates that the hoped for results of mandatory training in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, is having the opposite result. Instead of decreasing racism and prejudice, it is stoking increased levels of such attitudes. Its contribution to antisemitism has been explained in full by David L. Bernstein in Woke Antisemitism, How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews.


Lorrie Goldstein, published February 13, 2024 in the Toronto Sun, on research findings of David Haskell, an associate professor of digital media and journalism at Wilfrid Laurier University.


The article quotes Haskell: “A growing number of high-profile cases suggest that diversity workshops and their supporting materials regularly promote questionable claims — particularly about the overarching, malicious character of the majority (white) population.”


“In Canada, students who challenge claims have been punished or expelled, employees have been suspended. One whistleblower who leaked DEI training session material maligning the majority population lost his employment.”



Watch the interview of David Haskell with Andrew Lawton, as presented by True North.



CAEF Director of Hineni Research Project Outlines Antisemitism in Health Care


Dr. Annette Poizner has been collecting information and reporting on antisemitic experiences of social work students in Canadian universities for the last 3 years and is now engaged with other medical and allied health professionals in looking at antisemitism targeting professionals in the workplace.


The article published in the Jerusalem Post on February 18, 2024 begins:


“As diversity, equity, and inclusion offices proliferate in academic and professional spaces, Jews, always the miner’s canary, now have to worry about whether human rights codes will be weaponized against them.” 



Employment Law Expert Addresses Issue of Firing for Social Media Postings


Howard Levitt, a legal employment specialist, has a regular column in the Financial Post, which has recently tackled issues arising from prejudice in the workplace, such as antisemitism expressed by employees and that expressed by employers, On February 17, 2024 Levitt presented the case for dismissal of employees who support terrorism and he called on the Toronto police to enforce prevailing laws that apply to Hamas-supporting protesters.


 

CAEF Co-Sponsored Webinar—Reclaiming Gush Katif?


Americans for a Safe Israel presented Anita Tucker on February 14th, a former resident of Gush Katif who was forced out of Gaza along with thousands of other Israelis. Now she speculates on the dream of returning.



 

Are Some Canadian Political Leaders Abandoning the Jews?


Just before Christmas, Hamas offered a public thank you to Canada for backing a ceasefire that would effectively allow the terror group to remain in control of Gaza. And the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – a group that participated in the Oct. 7 massacres – just issued a statement praising the cabinet resignation of B.C. MLA Selina Robinson.


“The downfall of a minister biased towards the zionist entity in Canada is an important precedent,” wrote the terror group of Robinson, who is Jewish. The PFLP also happens to be the one with close and potentially direct ties to Samidoun, a Vancouver-based nonprofit that has been at the forefront of anti-Israel protest efforts, including those calling for Robinson’s ouster.


CAEF sent a letter to Premier David Eby, calling for him to take steps to reinstate Robinson whose resignation as Minister for Higher  Education was “a shanda”, a travesty and based on false charges that she was a racist, anti-Palestinian when she spoke the truth. It is almost too ridiculous to repeat: she noted that prior to the establishment of Israel, it was “a crappy piece of land.” All recorded evidence supports her statement and since it has no reflection any people or culture, the “morally wounded” ought to suck it up.  


 

In recorded history there has never been a country called Palestine


Read the article below by CAEF reader/contributor, Richard Sherman, in response to a media story. This very well addresses the efficacy of Selina Robinson’s statement (above story) and provides relevant facts for readers wanted facts to counter misinformation.


Use this information;


Palestine--actually Syria Palestina--was a Roman designation of an area, not a country, a name specifically created to obliterate 1500 years of indigenous Jewish culture including what the area had been called, Judea. 


For nearly 1000 years up until nearly World War One, the name Palestine did not appear on any map. There was the British Mandate for Palestine (1920-1948)--a TRUST not a country. In fact the Arabs have rejected an independent state whether called Palestine or anything else in  1937, 1947, 1948, 1967, 1994,  2000, 2008, 2019 and 2020. The Palestinian Authority is not a country. Opining for non-existent "Palestinian land " does not change history.


"There is no such thing as Palestine, a term the Zionists invented," Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi testifying at the Peel Commission in 1937.


"There is no such thing as Palestine in history," Dr. Philip Hiti, Arab American historian testifying at the Anglo American Committee of Inquiry in 1945.


"Such a country as Palestine does not exist," Ahmed Shukeyri, Ambassador of the Arab League at the U.N.1950.


"Palestine is an inseparable part of the Arab nation...A state named 'Palestine' never existed...When I speak of Palestine, I see it as a part of Syria" Hafez el-Assad, former Syrian President, 1974-1987, 1993.


For the four above citations, see: The Jewish People's Rights to the Land of Israel, Salomon Benzimra, 2018, citation 119: pages 124-125.


Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, which incorporates by reference the 1922 League of Nations Palestine Mandate and the 1920 San Remo Agreement, declares all of what is Israel including Judea and Samaria to be the reconstituted homeland of the Jewish people recognizing the Jewish people's 3500 year ancestral presence on the land and the land as sovereign Jewish territory. Simply put, one cannot annex or occupy one's own sovereign territory. (As an international treaty, the UN Charter supercedes any and all resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly that may conflict with it).


As Eugene Rostow, Dean of Yale Law School (1955-1965) and Under Secretary of State in a Democratic administration (1965-1969) wrote:


"Legally the West Bank and Gaza are unallocated parts of the Palestine Mandate...and as far as the claims of the Arabs who live there goes, it must be remembered that, in contrast to other League of Nations mandates, the Palestine Mandate was not established as a trust for the indigenous population of the area, to be terminated when the population was ready for self-government. It was set up under a different article of the League Covenant as a trust for the Jewish people, in recognition of their historic connection to the land on the condition that the civic and religious rights of the Muslims and Christians be respected.”


"Moreover the right of the Jewish people to settle in the West Bank has never been terminated...Jewish settlement in the West Bank..is the exercise of a right protected by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter and hence necessarily part of the domestic law of the West Bank." Eugene Rostow, Commentary Magazine, October, 1989.


Finally it is unlikely that most people know as much about the "Palestinian people" as a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.


Zuheir Mohsen, a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO and a military commander of the PLO, who in 1977, in an interview with the Dutch newspaper TROUW, declared the Palestinian people to be a propaganda invention:


"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.


"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we claim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan". (The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Spencer, 2019, pp 95-96;).


 

University of Toronto Announced New Lab to Study Global Antisemitism


As reported by the University, “Antisemitism has emerged in the global public discourse on a level that has not been seen in generations,” says Anna Shternshis, director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish Studies. “By offering a space for convening and intellectual conversation, we hope to generate new insights on antisemitism as a phenomenon, and new responses for tackling its insidious pervasiveness around the world.” 


 

News Flash! Conservative MP Calls for Study on Antisemitism


Noah Jarvis, writing for True North on February 17th reported on a motion by MP Rachel Thomas to the House of Commons Canadian Heritage Committee, for a study into campus antisemitism, having noted the rise in Jew hatred since October 7th.


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