Zionist Double Standard: Why Public Supporters of Israel Should Expect to Be Criticized

By Yves Engler

Liberal MP Ya’ara Saks is claiming to have been the sufferer of “hate” when younger folks yelled, “cease supporting the killing of Palestinians”. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Mates of Simon Wiesenthal Middle Canada and B’nai B’rith, in addition to NDP MPs, all amplified her hypocritical claims on Twitter.

A self-described “unapologetic Zionist”, Saks just lately tweeted about an incident that transpired throughout her daughter’s commencement ceremony at Canada’s Wonderland. The Toronto MP claimed:

“As households have been strolling, a bunch of younger folks handed and yelled out ‘cease killing Palestinians.’ These mother and father are Canadians, residing right here. This wasn’t a public occasion nor had it something to do with the battle, it was a highschool commencement. They’re simply visibly Jewish.”

I emailed and referred to as Saks’ workplace to ask for an interview. They failed to reply so I used to be unable to substantiate which faculty her daughter attends. However, Toronto’s fundamental Jewish highschool TanenbaumChat organizes “IDF Days”, fundraisers for Israeli navy initiatives and celebrates graduates who’ve served within the IDF.

Toronto’s Bnei Akiva highschool additionally has IDF troopers communicate, honors alumni who serve within the IDF, and have fun the Israeli navy. “Love Bnei Akiva?! Love the IDF?!”, famous its webpage.

With out video, I wouldn’t belief Saks’ description of what transpired at Wonderland. Zionists have been caught distorting conditions too many instances to deserve the advantage of the doubt. In the course of the upsurge of Israeli violence and ethnic cleaning, final Spring Saks even accused fellow Liberal MPs of anti-Semitism.

She launched an announcement noting:

“There is no place for antisemitism in Canada, Parliament, or the Liberal Celebration. Jewish Canadians, like everybody, have the suitable to be protected, safe, and freed from hate, or intimidation. Current statements and occasions have made Jewish Canadians really feel focused, and that’s unacceptable. Specifically, ill-informed language like apartheid, which doesn’t acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel’s existence and the every day actuality of Israelis and Palestinians who dwell side-by-side, is improper and damages prospects for peace.”

However, even when Saks’ depicted the Wonderland occasion accurately her hypocrisy is beautiful. In current weeks she’s repeatedly linked Toronto Jews to Israel. A tweet about attending United Jewish Enchantment of Toronto’s Could 29 Stroll for Israel talked about “buddies from the neighborhood within the hundreds”, which was presumably a reference to the Jewish neighborhood. She additionally retweeted Nathan Stall noting, “it was nice to affix Toronto’s Jewish neighborhood and lots of Ontario Liberal and Liberal get together colleagues at in the present day’s 53rd annual UJA Stroll with Israel.”

(At that occasion a bunch of Israel flag-waving people crossed the road to berate a half dozen Hasidic Jews holding a Palestinian flag. One lady is on video repeatedly telling them, “Hitler made an enormous mistake, you must have been within the fuel chambers.”)

4 days earlier than the Stroll with Israel Saks participated within the Canadian Summit of Israeli-Jewish Affairs in Ottawa. She retweeted Israeli ambassador Ronen Hoffman describing “the challenges we face as a collective neighborhood.” In line with a tweet summarizing Saks’ discuss on the Summit, she apparently referred to Canadian Jews because the “Israeli diaspora”.

Saks clearly sees no downside linking Canadian Jews to Israel. However, when a pro-Palestinian teenager crassly applies the identical logic she labels it “collectively blaming Jews for a overseas battle. It’s hate, it’s antisemitism, it’s harmful, and it must cease.” This can be a widespread Zionist double normal.

For Saks the incident at Wonderland was a possibility to take a shot at Palestine solidarity. It labored. Two of the extra pro-Palestinian NDP MPs, Matthew Inexperienced and Heather McPherson, quote-tweeted Saks proclaiming their solidarity.

In so doing they amplified delicate racism in Saks’ thread. The Liberal MP bemoans how “exporting the battle damages the material of our society right here as Canadians.” Saks appears to be implying that younger Arab-Canadians (presumably) are those “exporting the battle”, not those that rally on behalf of apartheid. Adopting the prism of the dominant ideology, she ignores the way it might “harm the material of our society” from the Palestinian Canadian perspective to listen to incessantly that defending their brethren’s rights is “hate” and “anti-Semitism”.

Nobody needs to be yelling “cease supporting the killing of Palestinians” to random visibly Jewish people. However, somebody who usually hyperlinks Canadian Jewry to Israel has a bit of standing to complain about it.

 – Yves Engler is the writer of Canada and Israel: Constructing Apartheid and quite a lot of different books. He contributed this text to The Palestine Chronicle. Go to his web site: yvesengler.com.