Dave Gordon on Antisemitism, Canada, and Israel

According to the Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2019, a 36-page report for the League of Human Rights of B’nai Birth Canada, there were 2,207 recorded incidents of Antisemitism. That amounts to more than six incidents per day.

The current climate of Antisemitism in Canada has intensified, with assaults more brazen and violent than in years past, and anonymous online harassment up 11 per cent. Per this B’nai Birth Canada blog, much of the online activity advocated genocide and Holocaust denial.

While Atlantic Canada and the West experienced decreases in Antisemitic incidents from 2018, they were still up from 2017. Ontario and Quebec, however, experienced a whopping 62.8 per cent and 12.3 per cent increase, respectively.

Renowned Jewish writer and managing editor of thej.ca, Dave Gordon, expressed his concerns on this trend, citing fringe values and ‘skewed reporting’ from the mainstream media against Israel and the Jewish people.

“Far too often it is couched as “reporting” where it is actually obsessing over an incident that no other country is ever held accountable for,” Says Gordon. “Antisemitism is on the rise.” 

“What we have to know is this: Complacency and indifference are evil’s best enablers. As such at TheJ.ca we will be doing our part by calling attention to Antisemitism in our communities and bringing to the fore ways in which we can all educate others on the problem.”

TheJ.ca is scheduled to launch today at 7 pm ET and will be “the new connective wires for Canadian Jews to become informed, to interact, and to share ideas.”

The “true national scope” of thej.ca/ lies in its orchestra, according to Gordon, who has writers of various degrees of religiosity, ethnic backgrounds and political persuasions, from liberal to conservative, Jews of Colour, Ashkenaz to Sephardi to Mizrahi, religious to secular, immigrants to generations-long Canadians, Arab and Jew, Millennial to Boomer.

Liberal Party has shifted Canada’s position on Israel

Recently, The National Telegraph reported on the anti-Semitic undertones of American Congresswoman Rashida Talib, who blatantly rejected Jewish self-determination and denied the right of Israel to exist on behalf of the Palestinian lobby.

Under the Liberal Party, Gordon acknowledged that a shift in Canada’s policy regarding Israel occurred, with its support for the UN Resolution on Palestinian self-determination.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a “radical shift” but it is a shift nonetheless.”

“It seems rather unpredictable with this administration because sometimes they stand by Israel. Sometimes kind-of. Sometimes they abstain, other times vote with dictators. It’s that inconsistency that has rankled many Jewish community members in Canada. What I’d like to see is PM Trudeau’s promise “I have Israel’s back” with tangibles, concrete action that shows Canadian Jews he’s serious about it, and in a meaningful way.”

Relating back to Canada’s uptick in Antisemitic incidents, Gordon likens the anti-Israel rhetoric of “occupied-Palestinian territory” and “Apartheid-state” to attempts to “change the narrative with untruths, which the hard left has done with this nonsense about “occupied Palestinian territory.””

“The hypocrisy is astounding,” says Gordon, citing “those who boycott Israel, like BDS, aren’t boycotting any other country, for “human rights” reasons” to similar extents as demonstrated by United Nations-led Human Rights tribunals. 

“I see no boycott movement against China,” he concludes, who has amassed concentration camps of Uyghur Muslims and has a long-standing history of discrimination against Christians.