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Christian Leaders in Ottawa Release Letter of Concern for Jewish Community
The following letter was signed and circulated by 40 Christian leaders in Ottawa who have expressed strong support for Israel and the Jewish people. They are now reaching across the country to expand support and promote this publicly. Please share.
View original letter online and signatories here:
Attack on Jewish Girls’ School in Toronto Gains Sympathy, But Then What?
UJA Federation of Greater Toronto organized an emergency rally outside the Jewish school fired at over the prior weekend. Allies and government representatives came out to stand with the Jewish community, and the school population. Condemnations are not enough.
Hear the statements:
Indigenous Canadians Speak Out
Karen Restoule and Harry LaForme, members of Canada’s Indigenous Communities, presented a submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights that is now studying Antisemitism. The submission was published in the National Post on May 29th, acknowledging Jewish indigeneity and calling out the hate in anti-Israel camps on campus.
Read the article:
Incendiary Device tossed at Schara Tzedec Synagogue in Vancouver, BC
Read CBC story describing this incident and other antisemitic attacks recently in Canada, and government responses.
Indigenous Canadian Leader Saddened by Rise in Antisemitism in Canada
Coming to Canada from a First Nations Summit in Seattle, at which Grand Chief Lynda Prince of BC was appointed an Envoy for the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem (IEJ) for North America, news about the latest attack against Jews drew an immediate response from Directors Hon Alfred Ngaro and Dr Sheree Trotter. CAEF immediately shared this release with over 115 media and community organizations.
Read Media Release, May 31, 2024
Inaugural Meeting of Lawyers Combating Antisemitism
On May 29th at Holy Blossom Temple, over 300 lawyers and other professionals met to launch Lawyers Combating Antisemitism at the launch organized by lawyer Eric Frydman.
The evening was opened with a welcome from Frydman (above), highlighting the emergency facing the Jewish community and as yet untapped talents of many lawyers; remarks setting the tone from Rabbi Ed Elkin; and speakers Karen Restoule, an indigenous lawyer; David Matlow, lawyer; other community members and the Ontario Attorney General, Doug Downey, MPP.
Diverse Canadians Celebrate Canada; Israel’s Enemies Also Hate Canada
Tafsik, a grassroots Canadian organization, working with CAEF and other grassroots NGOs, organized a wonderful half-day picnic and program held on June 2, in greyish wet weather. Love and respect, warmth and celebration were shared among a few hundred who showed up despite showers, to hear from speakers like Melissa Lantsman, MP; Rishabh Saraswat, President of CoHNA; Daniel Bordman, activist; Salman Sima, Iranian freedom spokesperson and Zionist activist; Donna Holbrook, National Director, ICEJ Canada; Ryan Bellarose, Metis Zionist Activist; and other dynamic speakers. The Israeli dance troupe from the Friends of Jesus Christ Church performed, Persian tea was served, and people engaged in crafts, crafted plans to collaborate, found alliances and committed to action. The Moderator, and co-Founder of Tafsik, Amir Epstein, noted that our enemies are all about “narratives,” falsely accusing Israel of genocide as well as ignoring Canadian values based in Judeo-Christian values and engaging in what he termed, “recreational outrage.”
The Demise of UNRWA in Israel
After all the revelations of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) staff collaboration with Hamas, some employees contributing to the massacre of Jews on October 7th, the use of UNRWA headquarters in Gaza as a command center for Hamas, the teaching in schools and training in summer camps of Kids to kill Jews, the celebration of the massacre and every other tragedy that befalls Israel, and the total waste of billions of dollars provided by aiding western countries while not a single Palestinian Arab has ever been settled and the fictitious roster of “refugees’ continues to grow, the Israeli Knesset has introduced a Bill to designate UNRWA as a terrorist entity. That designation would strip it of all immunities, and likely force the closure of UNRWA offices in Israel. Israel will prohibit travel to the country by UNRWA employees, and the City of Jerusalem has lodged a suit to collect back rents for offices, a total of which is several million dollars. Additionally, illegal structures built by UNRWA need to be torn down as ordered by the courts.
It’s too soon to celebrate but we are hoping it will come soon.
Read article here:
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Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Arieh King told TPS in February: “They’re building illegal buildings, they have petrol stations in places they’re not allowed to have, and it’s time that the Israeli government will allow us, the municipality of Jerusalem, to pass a law against UNRWA.”
On Wednesday, the Knesset approved a preliminary reading of legislation designating UNRWA as terror organization. The legislation authorizes the Foreign Ministry to make the final determination on the terror designation. UNRWA would then be stripped of its diplomatic immunity, tax-exempt status, and other legal benefits.
Read here:
Bring Justice To Bear Against UNRWA
The Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research has been documenting the terror training of Palestinian Arab children in UNRWA schools and camps for over a decade. Schools celebrate "martyrs" ie those who die while killing Jews or attempting to kill them. Schools negate the existence of Israel and label all of it "Palestine." Summer camps are run by Hamas and we saw on October 7th, how this "training" was actualized. Lots of evidence has been provided to show that some UNRWA employees participated in the massacre, kidnapping and ongoing savagery. Help fund a campaign to bring justice to bear against UNRWA.
The Netherlands Government Examines Timing to Move Embassy to Jerusalem
The new Dutch government is considering moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. It introduced a 26-page draft accord that also calls for Holocaust education to be included in the Dutch naturalization test and tougher policing of “discrimination, racism, antisemitism and hatred against Muslims.”
The new president has been a proponent of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, having said repeatedly that “there has been an independent Palestinian state since 1946: the Kingdom of Jordan.”
Read here:
Sweden Introduces Law Against Holocaust Denial and Distortion
This is a proposal that we must watch to see if such law is adopted. It is the law in Germany but rarely considered in other countries. The update to the Freedom of the Press Act, will “explicitly criminalize the denial of the Holocaust and certain other international crimes." The proposals also ensure that individuals in protected groups are given protection, victim status, and the right to compensation. Be wary of the phrase “other international crimes.” Is this a back door for the fabricators and Jew-haters to claim the Nakba was an “international crime,” given all the effort globally to push this falsehood?
Read here:
Spain, Ireland and Norway, Never Great Friends of Israel Recognize a Palestinian State
While three European countries have declared that Palestine exists, they offered no boundaries, and other elements that formally make for statehood. Bassam Eid, a Palestinian Arab human rights activist points out that Ireland, Norway and Spain’s statement recognizing Palestine as a state is merely another way to “poke Israel in the eye.” Why do these governments hate the Jewish state and want to reward terrorists? Why reward terrorism?
Read here:
An AFP article in The Times of Israel, reports that Israel took a strong stand against the Spanish government in anticipation of its recognition of a Palestinian State and in defense of its security, which matters above all else. President Herzog affirmed the action.
Read here:
Watch Interview on ILTV with Paul Coulter, National Director of ICEJ Ireland, who claims the government of Ireland is anti-Israel but all of the people are not. Note the significant Irish vote for Israeli contestant in the Eurovision Contest.
Failing Grades to DEI
There is growing evidence that the mantra of “diversity, equity and inclusion” is anything but inclusive and is not leading to equity but to inequality as emphasis on outcomes now limits access to a many people where criterion for jobs, special educational programs, promotions and appointments are limited to race, not to merit, performance, qualifications, skills or other attributes. It is not producing equitable outcomes, but it is producing divisiveness, resentment, silencing, cancelling, discrimination, and even racism for which it was originally intended to overcome.
Read article by Joseph R. Murray in the Washington Times, April 23, 2024 on how the demise of DEI will save public education:
Joseph R. Murray is an award-winning middle school teacher residing in west Tennessee and a contributor to KFAX AM San Francisco. He is a former civil rights attorney and speechwriter for Patrick J. Buchanan and author of Take Back Education, which explains “how our America’s classrooms (by extension, Canadian classrooms) have become battlefields in the culture war for the heart and soul of the country. Murray details how cultural Marxists have spent the last century systematically removing all elements of Western values and American exceptionalism from the classroom and replaced them with policies that seek to institutionalize conformity.
Response from Dina Roubina, Israeli Author, to Pushkin House
On being asked to deny her Zionism in order to participate in an international event, read how this self-confident, authoritative, Zionist responds publicly to such discrimination.
Read here:
US Seeks Justice Against SJP
National Students for Justice in Palestine has until June 12 to provide the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability with documentation of its communications related to Oct. 7 and its funding sources, according to a letter that the committee chair sent on Wednesday.
The request includes providing “all documents and communications, regardless of topic, created on or sent between Oct. 6, 2023 and Oct. 8, 2023, inclusive,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, wrote.
Read more here:
Sang Hea Kil, a San José State University justice studies professor and faculty advisor for Students for Justice in Palestine, was placed on a temporary suspension last Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Read more here:
Advocacy and Action
Letter to NY Times from Larry Shapiro, Calgary, re moral equivalency of Hamas and IDF.
Letter from Richard Sherman to Vanderbilt University re Zionism and the false claim it can be delinked from Judaism.
Letter from Larry Shapiro to NYT re "What the I.C.J. ruling actually means for Israel's offensive in Rafah".
