Call It What It Is: Antisemitism

"The Azrieli Foundation is a passive minority shareholders of the Azrieli Group. As a responsible investor, based on our knowledge and information, we can confirm that the Azrieli Group's activities are entirely within Israel's internationally recognized borders."

"I am particularly saddened that ongoing attempts to disparage the Foundation have impacted many of the artists, creators and organizations that we have supported over the years in Canada." 

Naomi Azrieli, Azrieli Foundation chair 

 

"[It's up to the Giller if it's] interested in rebuilding any sense of trust with writers and readers."

"We imagine some authors who have boycotted might submit their works again, and others might not."

CanLit Responds organizer Michael DeForge

Protesters gather in Toronto to demonstrate against the Giller Award ceremony in November 2024. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press)

 

Once again pro-Palestinian propaganda groups that promulgate a version of  history and reality that is their very own perception, unreflective of reality, has succeeded in wearing down the sponsors of the Giller Prize group through a literary event boycott. Their mission is to wreak havoc within any group that hints of a relationship with Israel, portraying them as complicit in the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government.

 

That Palestinian leaders have for generations incited the Palestinian population to view Israel and Jews -indigenous to the land -- as enemies, as usurpers of Palestinian land, colonists who have no right to claim land as theirs, thus depriving the Palestinians of what is rightfully theirs, and in the process teaching their population from childhood forward that to desire martyrdom in the cause of achieving Palestinian statehood where Israel sits and beyond, is the greatest of aspirations in honour of the Islamic faith. That heroic status of martyrdom theirs, with the commission of murder of Jews.

 

This is the ideology of victimhood that supporters of the 'Palestinian cause' celebrate, support, and choose to harass and persecute Canadian Jews, their organizations and very presence in support of. That Israel exists on its own ancestral land, that Jews gratefully accepted a Partition Plan proffered by the United Nations and the Palestinians rejected that offer, is of no concern to Western apologists for Palestinian terrorism, who prefer to portray them as victims of Israeli 'occupation'. An 'occupation' necessitated by constant Palestinian lethal attacks, random or organized, on Jews in Israel.

 

The equivalent of the lethal attacks in the Middle East verbally now take place regularly in the West, with slanderous accusations of 'genocide' levelled against Israel and the IDF in its retaliation for the worst slaughter of Israelis carried out in southern Israel by terrorist groups from Gaza, led by Hamas. That would be the Hamas which, though on Canada's official terror list, is considered a liberating army by the persecutors of Canadian Jews and their organizations.

 

A prestigious Canadian literary prize halted its partnership with Scotiabank after nearly 20 authors pulled their books from consideration to protest the bank's investment in an Israeli defence contractor. CBC

 

CanLit Responds is one of those groups, proud of its efforts to demonize Israel and by extension any group or organization or individual in Canada with links to Israel. CanLit Responds, comprised of like-minded anti-Israel haters, a literary group of Canadian writers who have in the past benefited from association with the Giller Prize, blackballed the Giller to the point where it now announced no sponsorship ties to Scotiabank or the Azrieli Foundation, through an announcement from its executive director Elana Rabinovitch.

 

At the same time, Indigo Books, which has also been a target of pro-Palestinian groups for its charitable arm in Israel that offers higher educational opportunities for Israeli soldiers, foreign volunteers without family in the country, has been identified as well in the Giller announcement to the effect that it was never a sponsor, only a promotional partner, by highlighting Giller-prize authors on shelving displays highlighted in their stores. 

 

CanLit Responds claimed to represent hundreds of writers when they launched their boycott in 2024 over Giller sponsors' links to Israel. Scotiabank had been the naming sponsor of the $100,000 prize for two decades, but when protests surfaced in 2023 after the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Palestinian terrorists over its subsidiary's investment in an Israeli arms manufacturer, Scotiabank and the Giller Foundation delinked their association. 

 

That alone failed to satisfy the CanLit organizers who insisted that the boycott would remain in place as long as the Giller Prize was linked to either Indigo or the Azrieli Foundation, taking issue with Indigo's charity of scholarships for former IDF soldiers. Giller, responded Rabinovitch, "has never received money" from Indigo. Citing the Azrieli Foundation's connection to Israeli real estate company Azrieli Group, with minority holdings in Bank Leumi, it was also in the CanLit crosshairs.

 

It was later explained by Rabinovitch that the Azrieli Foundation's contract with the Giller ended in 2025. The foundation and prize continued to operate in 2025, she stated, with "a one-time 'bridge' gift and two smaller donations from individuals and foundations who wish to remain anonymous", allowing the Giller to carry on for the 2026 prize event.  

 

Pro-Palestinian activists are calling for a national day of action and boycott against businesses tied to Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Supporters of Israel call the movement antisemitic.

"The Azrieli Foundation remains deeply committed to supporting arts and culture in Canada and we are proud of our collaboration with the Giller Prize."

"It was not ended because of pressure from activist groups. In fact, we remain open to new opportunities to collaborate in the future." 

Heather Sherman