July 26, 2021
Doris Strub Epstein
THE END JEW HATRED REPORT 2
OPEN ANTISEMITISM RAMPANT IN OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Perpetrators of misinformation and disinformation; propagators of incitement of hatred against Jews, are shaping the public discourse thanks to our schools, from elementary to university.
A Toronto school board employee who sent materials to teachers justifying the murder of Israeli civilians, was reinstated by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) without any disciplinary consequences.
Javier Davila, the TDSB Student Equity Program Advisor, on May 16 and May 19 composed and distributed “resources for educators” about the Israeli Palestinian conflict that glorified violence , especially that of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a listed terrorist entity in Canada.
According to an investigation by B’nai Brith Canada, the emails to the educators are “virulently” anti-Israel teaching material. Davila’s emails also contain writings by Laila Khaled and Hassan Kanafani, prominent members of the PFLP. One flier even justifies Palestinian suicide bombings and accuses “Zionists of plotting genocide against Palestinians.” Davila refers to Israelis as “colonizers” in their indigenous homeland.
By sharing links to the PFLP as part of educational resources for Toronto teachers, Davila is sowing the seeds of terrorism and violence. To legitimize this organization is to legitimize antisemitism in our community and endanger Canadian Jews.
“If the TDSB has really imposed no discipline in this matter, then it is sending a clear signal that it regards Jewish students, Jewish teachers and the Jewish community as second class constituents” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada. “There is no way the TDSB would tolerate the glorification of violence against any other minority group.”
According to the TDSB’s own figures, Jews were the most targeted religious group for hate incidents within its schools for the last two years.
Students at our universities are afraid to wear anything that identifies them as Jews. Instead of addressing this problem, student unions put out statements attacking Israel for defending itself as Hamas launches missiles at Israeli towns and cities, targeting civilians.
In Canadian universities, in response to Hamas’s recent war against Israel, 22 gender studies departments – not individual professors- but the departments themselves, have declared their solidarity with the Palestinian “resistance” to Israel’s “settler colonialism” and “apartheid”. The absurdity seems missed on these supposedly well-educated intellectuals. The Palestinian Arab regimes under both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority treat women as less than equal to men, taunt and torture LGBTQ citizens, place their children in danger or use them as human shields, suicide bombers, rock throwers and gun fodder.
Furthermore, these departments consider dissent illegitimate. “We do not subscribe to a “both sides” rhetoric,” they say; “anti-colonial activism informs the foundation of our discipline,” and “Palestine is a feminist issue.” Of course they cannot present an accurate map or history of a country called Palestine because there isn’t one and never has been.
July 21, the federal government convened a National Emergency Summit on Antisemitism. All participants agreed that Anti-Zionism is a main driver of the new Antisemitism in our schools. It and its proponents must be stopped. Implementing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of Antisemitism in a meaningful and most urgent first step towards a solution—and governments must start to take action not just adopt resolutions and issue platitudes. And the Toronto District School Board has much to account for in ignoring the danger of a Jew hater in the classroom.
End Jew Hatred Rally with Allies was a success bringing together representatives from
Videos will follow. The rally was watched from Bahrain, Scotland, Israel, Australia, Windsor, and Across the US and Canada.
End Jew Hatred Canada is a citizens’ movement of Jews and allies combatting the world’s oldest hatred. contact@endjewhatred.ca
Produced by the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation