‘Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented’

This Canadian Jew is tired of the special pleading and whining of my coreligionist who sycophantically support Israel and think that we are the only victims of racial and religious intolerance. We are not. Henry Srebrnik in his recent article (“Many faces of anti-semitism,” JP, Dec. 10, 2018) decontextualizes the recent rise in hate crimes against both Jews and Muslims in the U.S. and Canada. We Jews are not alone in feeling the lash of religious and racial hatred. Enough of competitive victimhood.

Srebrnik fails to present a full and balanced picture. For example, he neglects to mention the Muslim worshippers who were gunned down in Quebec City nearly a year before the events at the Pittsburgh synagogue. He failed to contextualize how Trump’s tacit approval of white nationalism and nativism has affected the racial climate resulting in the increasing hate crimes against blacks, Muslims, and Jews. Anti-Semitism and being antiZionist are not the same thing. Recently 36 leading Israeli academics and intellectuals wrote an Open Letter stating: “Don’t mix anti-Zionism with anti-Sematism.” (Mondoweiss, Nov. 27, 2018)

Srebrnik completely ignores the broader framework in which these events are occurring, namely, the ongoing Occupation of the West Bank, and its piecemeal annexation, resulting in the colonization of the Palestinians.

All criticism of Israeli is immediately condemned or dismissed as anti-Semitic. But criticism of Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories is mounting and is rapidly approaching a tipping point.

Israel has been cited for its endless human rights violations by Israeli organizations such as Break the Silence and B’Tselem. Israel has engaged in numerous violations of the law of war, including collective punishment, the leveLling of villages such Khan al-Ahmar, the incarceration of nearly 400 Palestinian children, flagrantly ignoring numerous UN General Assembly resolutions, and the systematic destruction of Palestinian culture in Israeli.

The BDS movement is an entirely legal, non-violent, legitimate political movement in response to Israelis racist colonialist policies. But woe unto those who criticize Israel, the Jewish lobby will harass and intimidate them. The Jewish lobby attempts to limit criticism of Israel by muzzling people’s civil liberties. But BSD has gained support from international organizations, NGOs, trade unions, and numerous university groups. Last week the Canadian Student Federation endorsed BDS. And the EU has affirmed that its citizens can engage in BDS activities.

One of the verboten topics is Netanyahu’s support of Donald Trump. The Israeli’s can only get away with their policies against the Palestinians with the tacit approval of Trump. Polling data suggests that 25 per cent of American Jews voted for him. But Trump’s support of Israel has conflicted many U.S. Jews. It is a curse that has unleashed the racist Furies, including anti-Semitism. Increasingly, the American Jewish community is distancing itself from Israel.

If people in the Jewish community chose to ignore what is happening to the Palestinians, the same way the world ignored the plight of the Jews in the 1930s, they should remember that what goes around, comes around.

Srebrnik states that, “No one has a monopoly on hate.” But as Jewish intellectual Elie Wiesel said,” Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented.”

Richard Deaton,

Stanley Bridge