As a former news editor and managing editor at Excalibur, York University’s Community newspaper, one of the topics I dealt with most often was the Israel/Palestine issue.
This was always a scary and daunting task to deal with as there are so many accusations leveled back and forth from both the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian sides with such passion that one had to be able to tell the story without providing a megaphone to those wishing to transform a political conflict into a religious one.
In covering such an explosive story, I set up a few basic ground rules, the most fundamental of which was that I would not allow any of my writers to refer to pro-Israeli students as Jewish, or to pro-Palestinian students as Muslim. There was a real point to this other than the obvious reason that not all pro-Israel students were Jewish and not all pro-Palestinian students were Muslim.
The simple fact is that one could disagree with the policies of the state of Israel without being anti-Jewish and in the same vein, one could also support the State of Israel and denounce Palestinian extremism without being anti-Muslim.
This is why I was shocked today to read in a report released by the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) that statements against the state of Israel should be considered anti-Semitic.
I find that statement to be highly unfortunate because, by singling out those who criticize the policies of the state of Israel as engaging in anti-Semitic behaviour takes away from efforts to curb actual anti-Semitism.
This is a really slippery slope because it essentially mixes religion with politics, an abyss for which there can be no compromise.
Even if there are some cases where those who criticize the state of Israel go on to make racist remarks about Jewish people or the Jewish religion, their criticisms of Israel are not what make the comments anti-Semitic, rather it is their attacks on the Jewish people which makes it so.
I find it unacceptable that in a democratic society, one can not criticize the government of another democratic nation without being labeled an anti-Semite.
Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants us the freedom to criticize any government we so choose. What it does not grant us is the right to make derogatory and hateful remarks about any race or religion.
The two points are completely separate. At least they were up until the release of the CPCCA report.
While I applaud the efforts of the committee to combat anti-Semitism in this country, I think there is a real need to differentiate between those who are opposed to the state of Israel and those who seek to cause harm to the Jewish people.
