Press Release
For Immediate Release
Toronto, Ontario, May 14, 2020
Iranian Regime Drives Antisemitism Campaign from Afar, Mocks Canadian Values of Diversity, Tolerance, Justice and Truth
A look at the image below from Iran, celebrating their annual anti-Israel, antisemitic hate fest, tells the whole story. Calling Jerusalem “Al Quds”, and calling for a day to mourn the return of Jerusalem to its founding people -- the Jewish people, while also making false claims denying Israel’s legal rights, false claims about Israel’s self-defence and worse—calling for Israel’s destruction, all this meets the criterion of the internationally accepted definition of antisemitism and should not be tolerated in Canada or by any other Western nation.
A collaboration of anti-Jewish organizations have taken up the mantel of the Iranian regime to single out Israel for demonization and they do it by spreading falsehoods, and delegitimizing the one Jewish state under the pretense of social justice and humanitarianism. The truth is these antisemitic groups are not seeking real justice, nor serving the Palestinian Arab cause, but are sowing divisiveness, spreading falsehoods and hatred. That some of the Anti-Zionists are Jews does not legitimize their claims, nor does the fact that some are Arabs, prove that they are speaking the truth about the events taking place in the 100-year-old Muslim/Arab-Israeli/Jewish conflict. The subtleties are not so subtle.
The people and organizations identified as sponsors or speakers at both the Nakba Day, established after Israel won the War of Independence in 1949, or Al Quds Day, founded by the tyrannical Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, spread vicious lies about Israel. Israel celebrates its Independence Day on May 14th, and on May 15th anti-Israel activists mourn the rebuilding of Israel which has legal and historical rights to the land.
Those who traffic in lies about Israel increase the antisemitism in society and endanger the well-being of Jews in Canada and elsewhere. That the state of Israel was re-established in its original homeland, by and for the Jewish people, is an historical fact, legally recognized and confirmed, firstly at San Remo, Italy in 1920 and then by the Council of the League of Nations in 1922. The League’s resolutions were all accepted as foundational in the establishment of the United Nations and have never been abrogated. They hold fast until today. And it would well serve the interest of peace to have the belligerents, whether Arab or non-Arab, accept this fact. Peace will only come when the Arab Muslim world stops inciting violence, stops carrying out terrorism, rewarding murderers and teaching lies, while also pretending that Israel does not exist.
Clearly Canada does not have a diplomatic relationship with Iran which is the world’s number one sponsor of terror. Clearly the Islamist regime intends to continue to foster hatred and incite, and as reported on May 7, 2020, in the e-newspaper, Algemeiner: Iran continues to operate outside the human family’s values and is intent on mass murder. Consider its goal: the Iran Regime Pledges Annual ‘Quds Day’ Urging Israel’s Destruction Will Go Ahead, Despite Coronavirus.
“In a sign of the importance that Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attaches to Quds Day, its spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif, announced separately on Thursday that the Tehran regime’s ‘supreme leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would deliver a speech to mark the occasion.”
It is time that Canada listed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity, that Canada enacted a plan to fight antisemitism, including online hatred, and that Canada condemned in the strongest terms both antisemitic events, Al Quds Day and Nakba Day, and any other mockery of our Western liberal, democratic values.
Contact: Andria Spindel, Executive Director, CAEF andria@caef.ca
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