TDSB planner fails to cite Israeli capital
A Toronto Israeli family says it was confused by the omission of Israel’s capital from their son’s public school day planner, until they found out that waffling on the existence of an Israeli capital is actually official Canadian policy.
“We thought, ‘Is it an honest mistake?’” said Amir Lavie, whose family emigrated from Israel three years ago.
It was over dinner that Mr. Lavie’s son, a student at Forest Hill Public School, first noted the error. The boy’s day planner, provided by the Toronto District School Board, contained a map that appeared to omit Israel’s capital city intentionally.
“We were surprised and started looking at other countries, other cities,” said Mr. Lavie.
But while London, Paris, Berlin and Washington were all there, the space around the Jewish State that should have read “Jerusalem” was left curiously blank.
The family mentioned the matter to Forest Hill’s principal, who forwarded it to the Toronto District School Board.
“We are aware of this situation … so we contacted the manufacturer of the planner,” said TDSB spokeswoman Shari Schwartz-Maltz.
The publisher, in turn, cleared up the mystery with a statement: “Canada officially has no comment on the question of Jerusalem and believes the issue needs to be addressed through the peace process,” it read.
“Our research shows that Canada politically does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital and official government of Canada publications leave the capital blank.”
Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, and the ancient city is indeed the site of the Knesset, Israel’s legislature, as well as most of the country’s major ministries.
Nevertheless, even after eight years of the pro-Israel foreign policy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada refuses to say that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital — or even to note whether the country has a capital at all.
On an official Israeli “fact sheet” posted to the website of Canada’s Israeli embassy the section for “capital” is left blank. The Canadian embassy itself, notably, is located in Tel Aviv.
“Canada considers the status of Jerusalem can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the PalestinianIsraeli dispute,” explains the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs. It adds, “Canada does not recognize Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem.”
Canada’s position is standard among G8 countries. Germany, France Italy, Russia, the U.K., Japan and the United States all keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.
Nevertheless, the policy has caused friction between Israel and Canada in the past. In 1995, for instance, the Israeli foreign minister returned official mail from Ottawa because it was addressed to Tel Aviv.
In 1979, one of the first actions of then prime minister Joe Clark was an announcement that Canada would relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, amid threats of a boycott of Canadian goods from the Arab world and a declaration from the CanadaArab Federation that the move was “a declaration of war on 900 million Muslims,” Mr. Clark backed off.
Ever since, Canada has tried to steer clear of the issue. Israeli-Canadians who were born in Jerusalem, for instance, must list the birthplace on their passports as “Jerusalem,” rather than “Jerusalem, Israel.”
As for the TDSB, the school board uses two separate manufacturers to produce its agendas, Premier and Aupel. Notably, the Aupel versions do cite Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
Mr. Schwartz-Maltz says the TDSB has not had a discussion on the topic and therefore is unsure of what it will do for the next school year.
“No one else has complained about it to date, but certainly if parents are uncomfortable with not only this, but anything they see in planners, we encourage them to go to their principals,” she said.
Forest Hill’s principal, Paula Dodick, says she is considering asking for only the Aupel version next year.