Janice Arnold’s online article “Anti-Israel protesters gain entry to federation building,”(cjnews.com) repeats an intentionally misleading press release about us.
CIJA claims we were there to “incite hatred against Jews in Quebec” but in fact we are Jews committed to confronting anti-Semitism where it exists. Accusations of anti-Semitism are consistently employed by CIJA/CJA in this cynical manner to silence criticism of Israel. In the process, those of us who oppose the State of Israel are made to disappear as Jewish people. Worse, by making these kind of claims, CIJA/CJA are undermining those working to uproot real forms of anti-Semitism.
CIJA refuses to acknowledge that we are Jews because its aggressive politics on Palestine and its efforts to control the discourse of the Jewish community require that all criticism of Israel originates from anti-Semites. For that reason, anti-Zionist Jews are an inconvenient fact. By refusing to acknowledge our existence as an organized group of Jewish people, CIJA/CJA is continuing their campaign of intimidation within the Jewish community, silencing all dissent on the issue of colonialism in Palestine.
David Zinman and Sam BickMessers Zinman and Bick are apparently misinformed re CIJA's mission. It isn't, as they believe, to provide a forum for every single Jew with a grudge against Zionism and a gigantic lefty chip on his shoulder to crap on "colonialist" Israel. Should the Bickmans want to air their grievances about "colonialism in Palestine," an idea which completely and maliciously ignores Jewry's genuine historical and religious claim to Eretz Israel, they are free to do so under a plethora of auspices, including such redoubts of the Zion-loathing as Not in Our Name, Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, and rabble.ca.
Montreal.
Also in the this week's CJN letters: don't miss the one (scroll back to the top) by Steven Sheffer. It rocks and rolls!
After taking a look at the article the two of them wrote, I don't think they're actually saying that CIJA should provide a forum for their anti-zionist views (since CIJA is pretty clearly an organization that supports Israel).
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be angry that the federations and CIJA are claiming to speak for the whole Jewish community. Which gets hard when they're also dedicated to a political position the whole community doesn't always agree with.
http://canadiandimension.com/articles/6232/