Those Contemptibly Useful Idiots

"Even though CJPME [Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East] was founded as an organization for 'Canadians of all backgrounds', we are now viewed through a lens of identity politics by many."

"Even though CJPME has never claimed to be 'Palestinian' or to 'speak for Palestinians', many in the movement presume that non-Palestinians in leadership at CJPME are illegitimate."

"I've been ready to leave CJPME for some time, and these new winds indicated to me that the time had finally come."

"We never intended to start an organization, but when the local Palestinian community organization said that they could accept my wife as a member, but not me [as a non-Palestinian], we realized that we wanted to build an organization that welcomed ALL Canadians."

Thomas Woodley, founder and president CJPME

"CJPME is a diverse board and staff -- comprising people from all walks of life, both Palestinian and non-Palestinian."

"Our mission is to enable Canadians of all backgrounds to promote justice, development and peace in the Middle East, and here at home in Canada."

CJPME Board statement

"This organization, which is led by two white men presents itself as the largest Palestine solidarity group in 'Canada' while silencing & punishing dissenting Palestinian voices."

"My experience as a Board member exposed @CJPME & other 'non-profits' as highly oppressive groups behind their benevolent facade."

"Shame on the cowardice & complacency of CJPME board members."

Ghada Sasa, former CJPME board member

 

Evidently Ghada Sasa had been suspended soon after the October 7, 2023 atrocities for having argued that the Nova music festival concertgoers were slaughtered not by Palestinian terrorists but rather by Israeli forces. She denounced the group, calling out the president and vice president, Thomas Woodley and Michael Bueckert respectively, following her suspension.  She holds a social science doctorate from McMaster University.

In an interview with an Alberta talk show host, she commented that she "was reading a lot of the people who were killed were actually killed by Israel. Hamas was not trying to kill [Israelis]". CJPME responded in a statement: "Ms. Sasa has never been authorized to speak on behalf of the organization. In addition, some views that Ms. Sasa has expressed publicly are not aligned with the policies and positions of the organization". 

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, an anti-Israel group established in Canada that has attained a level of prominence, saw its president resigning with the explanation that ongoing opposition to his leadership among activists targeted  him "as a non-Palestinian", unsuitable to lead the group. When he felt compelled to resign the presidency, Thomas Woodley wrote his supporters that since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the anti-Israel activist movement has viewed CJPME as illegitimate, citing its non-Palestinian leadership.

It was the exclusionary views of the local activist community, commented Thomas Woodley, that led to his and his wife Grace Batchoun founding of the group in 2004 in Montreal against the backdrop of the Second Intifada. With Mr. Woodley's resignation, the CJPME board decided to name Michael Bueckert as interim president of CJPME and its Foundation, in refutation of Woodley's claim of discrimination as a 'non-Palestinian'. 

On the morning of October 7, one of CJPME's earliest public statements rationalized the invasion of southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists through blaming Israel: "After years of Israeli assaults on Gaza, an attack by Hamas on Israel has killed at least 40. Now Israeli airstrikes have already killed 160 as Gaza braces for bloodshed. Canada must call for a ceasefire and an end to root causes of violence: occupation, siege & apartheid."

Soon afterward, CJPME retweeted an image of a Hamas bulldozer destroying the Israeli border fence posted by Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti who wrote: "Gaza just broke out of prison".

CJPME followed that up by writing: "Israel's decades-long confinement of more than 2 million Palestinians inside the world's largest open-air prison is critical context for understanding today's escalation of violence". Through the months that ensued, violence flared across the region, Israel forced to counter other Iranian-backed proxies in Lebanon, and Yemen's Houthis attacking shipping in the Red Sea. 

 

CJPME  had no problems throwing its moral indignation at Israel's response to being attacked on all fronts. "The Houthis are targeting Israeli-related ships of those that are heading to Israel to show support for Palestine and for Israel to stop its bombardment campaign on Gaza", wrote the group. 

 

Wholeheartedly, passionately supporting the terrorist groups manipulated by the Islamic Republic of Iran whose foremost agenda is the destruction of the State of Israel before launching itself a far more ambitious, larger, wider net they feel is required in homage to fundamentalist Islamism to destroy others as well, for having forfeited the right to life by refusing to submit to Islam.

"In the years after 9/11, people became dimly aware that Arabs were not the same as Pakistanis or Indians. It was a faltering start to coming to terms with the existence of Palestinians."

"Then came the solidarity: white people wearing keffiyehs, the Free Palestine badges, lovely posh ladies petitioning outside HSBC over the bank's investment in illegal West Bank settlements."

British artist Tanushka Marah: Why I'm no longer talking to white people about Palestine