Seventy-five years ago marked what Palestinians call the nakba, translated to ‘catastrophe’. Today, as we witness the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in Gaza, with Israel having dropped over 6,000 bombs in six days, some say we are witnessing a second nakba.
The Israeli government refuses to abide by international law as it denies sending humanitarian aid into Gaza and targets schools and hospitals. This siege is an amplification of the atrocities Palestinians have been experiencing since the outset of the settler colonial project of Israel in 1948.
Here in Toronto, our government has chosen to ignore the suffering of Palestinians and instead calls for the criminalization of pro-Palestinian protests and statements. Mayor Olivia Chow released a statement following a pro-Palestinian rally on Oct. 9.
“The rally to support Hamas at Nathan Phillips Square today is unsanctioned, without a permit and I unequivocally denounce it. Glorifying this weekend’s indiscriminate violence, including murder and kidnapping of women and children, by Hamas against Israeli civilians is deplorable,” she said in her statement.
York’s initial tweet regarding the issue almost completely focused on the safety of the Jewish community. This ignores the deep fear and pain that diasporic Palestinians are currently experiencing as they wait for news of loved ones while navigating the increasing racism towards Arabs spreading across North America. These rising anti-Arab sentiments are reflected in the recent killing of a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy by his family’s landlord.
As a Jewish member of the York community and a member of Independent Jewish Voices, I feel immense grief and anger at this moment. Grief for lost lives and for those who are frightened by these atrocities.
I am also angry that the world is allowing this genocide to occur. I am angry that our government officials continue offering aid to the Israeli military. I am angry that our school officials condemn our student unions for daring to stand up and say they are against ethnic cleansing.
I am especially angry that all this is supposedly happening in my name and to protect my safety. Palestinians don’t perpetuate anti-semitism, right wing extremists — like the ones behind the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting — do. So, why is York claiming my safety is in danger from my Palestinian peers?
On Oct. 15, I joined with a couple hundred other Jews from Toronto to mourn the countless lives lost in Gaza and demand that the Canadian government call for a ceasefire and the allowance of humanitarian aid. While we gathered together in prayer, a Palestinian couple stumbled upon our action on their way home. The woman broke down in tears and began hugging my friend and thanking us for being there. She spoke of the worry she felt for her family and friends back home, as well as the feeling of abandonment from Canadian politicians and media. We hugged and cried and welcomed her to join us.
Right now, Jewish community members all over the world are standing up and telling the world that we do not agree with the violence and hatred of the Israeli government. Israelis too are criticizing their government for these war crimes.
In Europe, Palestinian solidarity protests and even the Palestinian flag are being banned. Across Canada, these protests are being condemned as violent and hateful. Yet, myself and other Jews who have attended the protests all week are greeted with hugs, gratitude, and reminders of our shared humanity.
However, these stories are not being covered in mainstream media. These moments of solidarity, co-resistance, and coexistence are not being acknowledged by our politicians or school administration. Rather, our administrators are fanning the flames of division.
The power of settler colonial ideology knows no geographic bounds. Canada cannot call out Israel’s settler colonial regime without acknowledging its own, which is perhaps why it remains complicit. York cannot condemn the slaughter of Palestinians without acknowledging its alleged investments in both the Israeli military and Canada’s extractive industries.
As Malcom X once said, “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Those of us in the West no longer have the luxury and privilege of silence. We must speak up right now for Palestinian rights, from Turtle Island to Palestine.
What absolute batshit lunacy.
Good, heartfelt column. Thank you.
Thank you Anna for your clarity, telling it like it is. May your words be amplified into the hearts and minds of all. If there can be any Shabbat Shalom amidst the ongoing nightmare being perpetrated on innocent Palestinians by Israel and our colonial countries, May you experience a breath of peace, to keep you going. Write on Anna!
Enough with the virtue-signalling.
Deception, Lying and Taqiyya Does Islam permit Muslims to lie?
Muslim scholars teach that Muslims should generally be truthful to each other… unless the purpose of lying is to “smooth over differences” or “gain the upper-hand over an enemy.”
There are several forms of lying to non-believers that are permitted under certain circumstances, the best known being taqiyya (the Shia name). These circumstances are typically those that advance the cause of Islam – in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them.
Quran (16:106) – Establishes that there are circumstances that can “compel” a Muslim to tell a lie.
Quran (3:28) – This verse instructs believers not to take those outside the faith as friends, unless it is to “guard themselves” against danger, meaning that there are times when a Muslim may appear friendly to non-Muslims, even though they should not feel friendly.
True colours of the author revealed early: “Palestinians have been experiencing since the outset of the settler colonial project of Israel in 1948″.
I get it, according to some funky ‘anti-colonialism’ gone crazy, Israel shouldn’t have existed in the 1st place.
When you look through that whackjob prism, no matter what Israel does to protect itself is illegitimate, and no matter how rejectionist, violent and anti-semitic the Palestinians, PLO and Hamas have been since day 1 is understandable as ‘anti-colonial’. Facts be damned.
What a crock. Only in ‘academia’ can this tripe be taken seriously
It’s amazing how the author can spend 14 paragraphs on current events without seeing fit to mention the inciting incident – the massacre, rapes, brutal torture and hostage-taking perpetrated by Hamas on October 7.
The author is entitled to her opinion. But it is a bad opinion that puts more weight on the Tree of Life shooting, which stole 11 precious souls from our people, than on the October 8th massacre, which stole 1400+, and from which more than 200 hostages remain in captivity, including babies and holocaust survivors.
York University, Mayor Chow and so many others are rightfully able to condemn the massacre and those glorifying it, without necessarily weighing in on the broader conflict – where their sympathies may or may not more clearly align with the author’s own.
It is a shame the author is so blinded by ideology she cannot take a beat to acknowledge the pain of those she claims as her own people.
Unbelievable lunacy in the modern age. Is this what universities teach these days? It’s 100% backwards. Embracing Jew hatred, murder, rape, beheading of children etc. is not going to solve the Palestinian issue…… but rather….delay it indefinitely. You’ve fallen hook-line-sinker for the rhetoric that terrorists espouse.
Wow! Not a single word condemning the Hamas slaughter, beheadings and rapes of over 1200 civilians and the kidnapping of 240 including babies, children and seniors. Who will stand up for your against the screaming mobs on Campus Anna Lippman? Your article is misleading and has an intentional blind spot to the Israeli and Jewish victims of the war.
The only reason Gaza is being bombed right now is the violence they started on Oct 8.
Must be nice selling out your own people with lies and omissions. Excalibur picked the one self hating jew on campus to write a pro Hamas article because Excalibur will only publish its left wing agenda. Where’s your articles about how most Jewish students who are members of real organizations like Hillel and how they are feeling unsafe on campus with YFS’s cries for violence’s against Jews and Israelis? All we hear is silence because anti Jewish hate doesn’t matter to student media and student government at York.
Maybe you should call Hamas to stop calling for the killing of Jews throughout the world! With Israel in existence, you have the privilege of spewing the garbage you do. You should read what the people you support are saying Horace Dockery should view this https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kaya-mayer-social-marketplace_ok-i-respected-them-and-listened-to-their-activity-7142343424497631233-bA8d?utm_source=combined_share_message&utm_medium=member_ios
Unfortunately, Anna has it backwards. Read my op-ed instead.