Disentangling UNRWA from Hamas

"[UNRWA's firings were a] small beginning. [The UN's] incoherent [position is notable]."

Firing people while refusing to acknowledge why reveals an institution still more interested in protecting itself and its Hamas-embedded workforce than in genuine neutrality or accountability."

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch

 

"Most of these alleged acts correspond to war crimes and, when perpetrated as part of a widespread or systematic attack, they would constitute crimes against humanity."

"There was a campaign to prevent that letter from going out. There were weeks of being bullied and deterred from writing it and telling me that everything in it was false."

"Some other special rapporteurs and working groups had wanted to sign on, but they also had been bullied by others not to sign on, and there was this concerted effort for this letter not to put on record some allegations that had been received."

UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Edwards

The US Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General (USAID) submitted 101 more names for debarment or suspension based on their “participation” in the attack that killed 1,200 in Israel, including 46 US citizens. REUTERS

 

If there were any doubts over charges by Israeli intelligence that many UNRWA staff were members of Hamas, and that some of those members were present in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 when Hamas lead thousands of Palestinian terrorists on a deadly rampage through Israeli farming communities, towns and villages, and at a Nova Music Festival where thousands of music-loving young Israelis had gathered, and were subjected to mass rape, mutilation, murder and hostage-taking, that doubt was dispelled when UNRWA, given inescapable evidence, admitted that some of its hires were terrorists aligned with Hamas.

 

And then just a week ago the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine outright fired 70 of its employees, obviously in recognition of their deep ties to Gaza's terrorist groups. Canada's former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not need such blatant evidence of UNRWA's connection to terrorism. Its record of UNRWA schools teaching children in Gaza from curricula depicting Jews as enemies and exposing the children to music, stories, television series and plays emphasizing the importance of pledging allegiance to the noble jihad of bombing, shooting, knifing the 'enemy' set them up for life as martyrs.

 

And with a direct and clear vision of the UNRWA mission to maintain Palestinians as victims and 'refugees' in perpetuity, the Harper Conservative government cut off Canada's contributions to that grotesquely compromised arm of the UN. When the Liberals returned to govern Canada 11 years ago, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reinstituted Canada's payments to UNRWA, and now that same Liberal government under Marc Carney has done the same.

 

A tunnel shaft was found in 2023, near a school run by Naji Abu Aziz. govextra.gov.il

 

In the immediate wake of the UNRWA firing announcement, Canada's minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand announced $100 million of Canadian funding for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which came to a total of $500 on top of earlier pledges. The latest donation, according to the minister was in support of the UN, Red Cross, Red Crescent and assistance-delivering NGOs in the region delivering aid to Palestine. The very 'State of Palestine' that PM Marc Carney joined the U.K., France, Spain and Australia in formally recognizing earlier in the year at the UN.

 

To add to what is well enough known of the waywardness of the UN regarding Israel, a special rapporteur for the UN has publicly revealed having been 'bullied' by colleagues for her efforts in attempting to reveal the scale of the atrocities that took place on October 7. An investigation by USAID earlier this month laid claim to 101 current or former UNRWA members -- principals, teachers, security personnel, attendants, psychosocial counsellors and medical professional being part of the October 7 massacre, which led to the 70 staff being fired.

 

At least 1,462 UNRWA employees in Gaza are members of Hamas, PIJ, or similar organizations—comprising nearly 12% of the agency's workforce in Gaza were verified up to this point

 

Yet UNRWA stated that "The dismissal of the staff is not part of a disciplinary process and does not constitute in any way a validation of the claims made against them", a statement which Hillel Neuer  of UN Watch made mincemeat of. And then the case of UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Edwards, whose exploratory visit to Israel to document what had occurred on October 7, when everything she witnessed was laid out in a letter meant to be released to the public under the auspices of the United Nations, which she represented.

 

During that trip which Ms. Edwards personally funded, she witnessed evidence of murder, decapitation, torture, mutilation, the burning alive of people, sexual torture including gang rapes, mutilation of sexual organs, and hostage-taking. A severe backlash within the United Nations to the content of the letter was what resulted. Ultimately the adverse comments from her UN colleagues saw to it that "the letter shrank considerably", in content and impact. And that letter was then "transmitted" via the Permanent Mission of the State of Palestine in Geneva -- to Hamas. 

 

Mohammad Abu Itiwi has been employed by UNRWA since July 2022. On October 7th, 2023 Mohammad Abu Itiwi led the murderous attack on the bomb shelter on Route 232 in the area of Re'im in southern Israel in which **16 were murdered, 4 were kidnapped, and only 7 survived**.

 

"Our credibility depends on maintaining public confidence that human rights are applied universally."

"Where people perceive selectivity, double standards or political alignment, confidence is weakened."

"Politicization is not new to the United Nations; it reflects the divisions of the world it serves."

"No entity -- state or non-state -- should be left without scrutiny."

Alice Edwards, UN special rapporteur on torture 

Have Turkey's Erdogan and Russia's Putin Kissed-and-Made-up for the Very Last Time?

"This is a person [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] who keeps his word — a man."

"He does not follow his tail. If he believes it is advantageous for his country, he goes to the end"

"There is an element of predictability, and it is very important to understand who you are dealing with."

Vladimir Putin, 2021

 

"[Putin’s words are] exactly how I have known Mr. Putin since I first met him."

"He is straightforward and keeps his word."

"It is rare to have such strong relations with any state."

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Kremlin on March 5, 2020 in Moscow, Russia/ Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

  

"On Nov. 24, 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet over Syria, resulting in the deaths of two Russian soldiers and prompting a sometimes spine-chilling war of words. At his annual press conference in December that year, Putin’s description of Erdoğan was quite different from the one he gave five years later. He said he did not “see any prospect of improving relations with the Turkish leadership,” whom he accused of trying to “lick the Americans in a certain place”."

"Sinking the knife in even deeper, Putin accused Erdoğan of betraying the secular system put in place by Turkey’s national hero, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. “The creeping Islamization would probably cause Atatürk to turn in his grave,” he said. Erdoğan, for his part, lambasted Russian “war crimes” in Syria. Russia imposed sanctions, with the package holidays that brought hundreds of thousands of tourists to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast halted and goods like Turkish tomatoes no longer welcome in the other direction."

Stuart Williams, New Lines Magazine  

Suddenly Turkey is Ukraine's best friend -- no, really. With Erdogan's courteous assistance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy now has cordial ingress to the movers-and-shakers of the Middle East. Many of whom have been under extreme violent duress, with the Islamic Republic of Iran punishing the Gulf states for their friendliness with the United States, not to mention Israel. U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, all of whom have been, to some degree targeted by the IRGC; above all, the United Arab Emirates.

 

If any leader of any country currently knows anything about counteroffensives and self-preservation, it is the Ukrainian President, and he is more than pleased to be able to demonstrate what the Ukrainian military has learned while it has been under massive bombardment by an aggressive, much larger conventionally armed neighbour. The Iran war has enabled Mr. Zelenskyy to cultivate closer ties with Gulf states. The Shahed-136 kamikaze drones that Russia uses in Ukraine have been supplied to Iran by Russia and China.

 

At the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.  President of Ukraine

 

Ukraine's answer to the devastating attacks on its cities and civil infrastructure was almost-instant devising, production and use of surprisingly simple advance drone technology which has given it longer reach into Russia itself, demonstrating what's good for the goose is fine for the gander in blowing up Russian military bases, bridges, ships, weapons storage, and oil depots. Ukrainian resistance has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands Russian servicemen monthly, dealing severe blows to Russia's troop numbers and recruitment.

 

With all that experience behind them, Ukraine was pleased to dispatch air defense teams to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, in ushering Ukraine into the comfort zone of making new contacts in the Middle East, has a new partner, as it leaves behind the old one with which its own agenda was never quite a perfect fit. After all, during the drawn-out civil war in Syria, Turkey armed the Sunni groups trying to break Bashar al-Assad's Alawite grip on the country, even as Erdogan targeted Kurds whose fighting prowess was superior to all of the regime's opponents.

 

And it was Russian warplanes out of the Russian air base in Syria that constantly flew over Sunni strongholds bombing them mercilessly. Just incidentally the very same Sunni fighting groups that Mr. Putin has attempted after the fall of President Assad, (domiciled now in Russia), to ingratiate himself with, hoping to be able to maintain both his remaining naval and air bases in the new Sunni-led government of Ahmed al-Sharaa. 

 

The Russian military presence in Syria has declined significantly over the past two years, from 114 military sites to only two bases today. [Getty]

 

In the early years of Russia's conflict in Ukraine when Moscow was isolated by the West, Turkey, though a standing member of the NATO alliance, spurned the sanctions. In the process becoming a link for Russian trade, investment and energy flows. A situation that gave Ankara greater leverage over Moscow. Russia, before the ouster of the Syrian Alawite regime, could do anything it wanted there and had hundreds of military bases; now under the new Sunni-led regime, reduced to two, albeit its major bases. 

 

It is Turkey that is now the power lever in Syria, helping its interim president al-Sharaa to be presented to the EU, the U.S. as the new, kinder, 'democratic' face of Syria with whom they could all do business with confidence. And in the process, Turkey has become the king-maker, which suits its future plans of greater dominance in the Middle East very well. A role that as a junior partner to Russia for so many years, Russia cultivated for itself, while it is Turkey now that has inserted itself in helping to rebuild the Syrian Army.

 

By openly giving assistance to Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, Mr. Erdogan is amply demonstrating that once again Turkey has spurned its sometimes-tenuous, but generally past-useful allyship with Russia, moreover a Russia that has, by its territorial aggression served to isolate itself, while continuing to aggravate and threaten his eastern European neighbours and needling NATO, of which Turkey is a member. Vladimir Putin and his war-wearied economy has lost the projection of global power, and Turkey for the time being has no further use of his allyship with Russia. 

 

Russian and Turkish delegations at a summit in Tianjin, China, September 2025 Vladimir Smirnov / Reuters

 

 

In the U.A.E. -- Waiting It Out For Now

"We are at this juncture pint. Are we going to maintain the view of the world that we had before, or not? Is this war going to mutate our DNA?"

"[The DNA of the United Arab Emirates, and much of the Persian Gulf region was coded for] connectivity and economic relations despite political strife."

"The whole world economy is [now] Iran's human shield. This is now Iran's new-found nuclear weapon." 

Mohammed Baharoon, director general, Dubai research centre B'huth

 

"[In attacking so grievously, Iran attempted to] break the model we successfully embodied."

"They failed, because the people stayed. We are already building resilience."

"We know that a military solution alone will not work." 

Anonymous U.A.E. official

 

"We can be under no illusion: this has gone on longer than any of us imagined."

"Trump doesn't inspire any confidence. You hear there is a deal, then you hear bombs."

"There is an incredible amount of interest in being here. Everyone understands: ending the war] is not in their hands."

Cherif Sleiman, chief revenue officer, Property Finder real estate company   

Brookfield Place at the Dubai International Financial Centre on June 10. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)

 

 In Dubai, schools have reopened now that the missile and drone alerts no longer arrest people's attention to impending danger. The UAE's financial centre is back in business. Traffic has resumed its street-choking normalcy. All seems back to normal, but uncertainty over new strikes on Iran by the U.S. and Israel occasioning the certainty of the Islamic Republic reacting by targeting its near neighbours remains. An active return to the conflict haunts the minds of those who had enjoyed their lives in this thriving metropolis.

 

Mohammed Baharoon's mind returns to the reality of Iran's regime's use of violence for the purpose of pressuring its adversaries. And should the regime continue its control of the Strait of Hormuz its ramifications in continuing to strangle local economics is certain to have its impact beyond the Gulf as a financial and logistical linchpin. 

 

The unforeseen was realized when the aerial bombardments of the United States and Israel, and the pinpoint assassinations of key Iranian figures led fundamentalist Islamists in the country to a devious scheme demonstrating it had no need to develop a nuclear device when control of the Strait could accomplish economic Armageddon.

 

When the war was yet young, the United Arab Emirates saw a barrage of over 2,500 missile and drone strikes rain down, mostly in the most populated of its seven emirates, Dubai. The strikes were a menacing warning to the U.A.E. that its reputation as an oasis of wealth and stability was vulnerable to punishment by the Islamic Republic. 

Residents said there are quiet signs everywhere that things are not quite right, from the closed yoga studios to the exodus of students from international schools. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)

 

Of Dubai's four million residents, 90 percent are comprised of foreign citizens living and working in the futuristic city. Landmarks such as the Fairmont Hotel and the Birj Al Arab, Dubai International Airport and buildings in the financial centre were targeted by Iranian bombs. Following the ceasefire in April those strikes decelerated and halted, enabling many resident who had left, to return. The stock marketed rebounded and though tourism was badly wounded, construction is ongoing. 

 

The 80 percent hotel occupancy in Dubai had dropped precipitately to 10 percent and no signs yet have arisen that tourism will rebound any time soon. Should the current uncertainty drag on, according to Cherif Sleiman, families may decide to leave and enroll their children at schools in their countries of origin. Living in Dubai the past 20 years, Sleiman is staying, committed to the U.A.E. and trustful of the government.

 

Cherif Sleiman fears ongoing uncertainty around the war will cause more families to leave Dubai. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)

 

 In neighbourhoods at the outskirts of the city, where migrant workers live, the war's effects is felt particularly among those who represent the working backbone of the Dubai economy. Migrant workers who support their families back home suffered most of the war casualties. These workers were laid off en masse, as hotels and restaurants closed while the conflict proceeded. Higher fuel and food prices afflict them most acutely. "It is not OK, but we are managing for now" security guard, 52-year-old Ghanian Isaac Antwi stated.

 

Despite the fear of  higher prices, Ugandan Simon Obbo, 27, fails to recognize an option of leaving. "I still need to achieve my dream, he explained. "That dream is supporting my family." Alex, manager at one of the oldest companies, spoke of the current dilemma over future prospects. "Business is down 95 percent. We fear that this will not end, that it will become like Ukraine."

 

"It is not okay, but we are managing, for now,” Isaac Antwi, 52, said of rising food prices. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)

 

 

IRGC Proxy Killers for Hire?

"They get paid to do it; they don't care what they shoot. This is the bottom of the barrel."

"Because of a couple of arrests in the GFL investigation, they had information in the individuals' phones that linked them to the consulate."

"They're videoing [the shootings] on their phones because the only way they get paid is to take a video." 

"This is just the beginning of a long investigation. The whole ring is  unwinding. They're starting at the bottom and working their way to the top."

"They're just raising havoc. They don't even know what they're doing. They're given an address and told to go shoot this address."

Anonymous insider source

 

"We know that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been using proxies, i.e., cut-outs or guns for hire, right across Western Europe."

"They can use these wankers, pay them not very much money and say we want you to do X, Y, or Z. These guys they're hiring have no ideology. They have no skin in the game."

"[The consulate shooting] at first blush [appears to be tied to] an actual state sponsor, that is the IRGC in Iran. We've never really seen that before, not to the best of my knowledge, and I worked on Iran at CSIS. I worked on jihadis at CSIS. I don't recall a single event where we can definitively say Iran paid his guy X amount of money to do this."

"[Hiring shooters is cheap and gives those doing the hiring] a level of plausible deniability. [That allows the Iranians to say] he's not ours. He's just some guy that's mad about Palestine or mad at [U.S. President Donald] Trump or mad at Jews and he carried this out independently." 

Phil Gurski, former senior strategic analyst, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) 

 

"What would the state of Iran get by expending resources and time to do these types of activities in Toronto?"
"What's the impact versus going to the United States and making trouble for Donald Trump if they had a real terrorist incident?"

"It does sound a little amateurish. We need a little bit more data before we pin this on Iran."

Daniel Stanton, director, National Security Program, Professional Development Institute, University of Ottawa 

Police had been investigating a March incident in which shots were fired at the US consulate building in Toronto.  Getty Images

 

Police were led by an investigation into shooting events at GFL Environmental facilities to those now considered shooters-for-hire, who had targeted the U.S. Consulate in Toronto this spring, suspected of having caused the shooting death on Thursday of veteran Toronto police Constable Marc Pinizzotto, 43, an 18-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service.

 

As a member of the TPS Emergency Task Force Constable Pinizzotto and others were executing an early morning search warrant at a downtown apartment building. Nicholas Bennett, 19, shot and wounded during the raid where Constable Pinizzotto met his death is under arrest to face a first-degree murder charge connected to that death. The search by investigators for 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, the second suspect wanted connected to the consulate attack continues.

 

The GFL facilities investigation plus the search of a Toronto home of one of the waste company's executives had led to the raid at the apartment tower north of Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Avenue, uptown Toronto. According to texts and videos found in the phones of those arrested in the GFL investigation, evidence arose that shooters were paid between $600 and $800 to target buildings, including the U.S. Consulate in Toronto.   

 

Const Marc Pinizzotto pictured with his wife in a family photo   Supplied TPS

 

 Police warned the public that Jabbi, armed and dangerous was not to be approached. It was also revealed that he was involved in the theft of a vehicle prior to the shooting at the consulate facade located on University Avenue. No confirmation has yet been given by police that the investigation includes a search at a network of shooters for hire that had targeted Toronto synagogues, as well as GFL buildings.

 

Prosecutors in the United States, on the other hand, suspect the consulate attack had been directed by the commander of an Iraqi militia, Mohammad Baqeer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, who has ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A wiretapped conversation with al-Saadi shortly following the March 10 shooting at the Consulate claimed "our people" were responsible for the attack as well as another on "the Knesset", evidently referring to a synagogue in Toronto fired on at roughly the same time.   

"[If the IRGC did order the consulate shooting], it's a brilliant plan by the Iranians to make their presence known." 

"If there's something there, then I think it does point to a significant scaleup in Canada as to Iranian state activity on our soil."

Phil Gurski

 

"They find these guys that will do anything for a few bucks. They say here's the address: go shoot this place up."

"There are all kinds of desperate people out there with guns and they basically make their money by intimidating people or shooting up people."

"This is away beyond just the Toronto police, who have been stretched to the limit."

Councilor Mike Cole, representing Eglinton-Lawrence, Toronto 

Zara Jabbi, 19. is wanted in connection with the March shooting at the U.S. Consulate and is considered armed and dangerous. If you see him, do not approach, police say. (Toronto Police Service)

 

Indigenous Leaders in Empathetic Concert with Israel/Jews

"In my view, Israel is the product of the greatest decolonization project in modern history, and this fact does not make it a colonial entity."

"Indigeneity is demonstrated by historical, collective-continuity with a distinct ethnic identify language, culture, rituals or traditions, economic, social, legal and religious and spiritual belief systems that predate subsequent invaders or colonizers." 

"The  Islamist strategists correctly believe that their ideology-driven false narratives appropriating Indigenous social justice language would resonate, and given traction with the academically ignorant and the academically sinister in Canada." 

"The Jewish people are not alone. I stand with them. Miigwetch. Shalom. Am Yisrael Chai." 

Justice Harry S. LaForme, Indigenous-Canadian judge 

Walk for Israel, Toronto, The Canadian Jewish News

 

"From my Maori perspective, a key point is that there was always a continuous Jewish presence in the land; they kept the fires burning, and that is what indigeneity looks like to us."

"Settler-colonialism has become a totalizing dogma: it overgeneralizes, homogenizes, and divides the world into saints and sinners, oppressed and oppressor."

"Jewish people really need to own their indigeneity for themselves. Even if you don't live in Israel, your people originate there, and you are part of an Indigenous people to that land." 

Dr. Sheree Trotter, fellow, London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism 

 

"Political movements [have co-opted] Indigenous identity [and the term is] increasingly being treated as a  universal political language, borrowed when convenient and deployed in conflicts that arise from very different histories."

"Increasingly, Indigenous identity is being treated as a metaphor, a brand in exercise, a political strategy. Indigeneity isn't any of that; it is a lived reality rooted in specific people and place."

Karen Restoule, Ojibwee, Dokis First Nation, director of Indigenous affairs, Macdonald-Laurier Institute 

A conference just recently took place in Toronto, a one-of-its-kind meeting between Indigenous representatives from across Canada and New Zealand and Canadian Jews. There was a consensus born of many commonalities as indigenous people traditionally under stress from colonialism and racist attitudes from the majority populations that culminated over centuries of colonialism. Israel's struggles for recognition and equality among peer countries, resonate with the never-ending struggles faced by Indigenous peoples everywhere. 

 

Barriers were set up at major intersections along the route. At one point during the walk, participants and counter-protesters were hurling insults at each other, separated by dozens of police officers and barricades. (Saloni Bhugra/CBC)

 

The conference was an opportunity for discussion, recommendations, mutual support and the recognition of strength in numbers facing off against the casual global attitude respecting the human rights of dispossessed peoples. The conference grew out of local Indigenous-Jewish programming when groups of Indigenous people marched alongside Canadian Jews and their supporters, in the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto's annual Walk with Israel event, when an estimated 60,000-strong celebratory-pride-assertive march took place. 

 

Judge LaForme is a member of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation, a proud Anishinabe. He was appointed a justice of the Superior Court of Justice in 1994 and in 2004, appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal; the first Indigenous lawyer to be appointed to a Canadian appellate court. An Ojibwe from Dokis First Nation, Karen Restoule also addressed conference attendees in the language of sisterhood and understanding of the deep links shared between them.

 

Dr. Sheree Trotter earned her doctorate in history from the University of Auckland; her doctoral thesis was on Zionism. She is currently a fellow of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. The conference, explained Avi Attali, vice president of Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, one of the event's sponsors, "allowed us to exchange views, to learn about each other's cultures and issues, and tried to seek solutions on how we can help each other in the future."

 

Conversations focused on building a shared framework for allyship, positioning dialogue and relationship-building as measures to aid in countering misinformation relating to both socially- and politically-estranged communities. "Radical activists have weaponized everything from international law to Indigenous language in their attempt to rewrite reality", explained Robert Walker, assistant director of HonestReporting Canada. "That only works in a vacuum. The time has passed to permit this shameless inversion of reality to continue unchallenged. First Nations and Jews are both indigenous peoples who have a right to reclaim the truth from those who try to twist it."

 

 Record turnout for Toronto pro-Israel march as violent antisemitism spikes across Canada, Times of Israel

 

"As someone who has been trying to build these bridges for  years, it is great to see so many people of like mind, people who understand that it's more than just a shared history of persecution, but also a shared history of love and veneration for our ancestral lands, that really helps bind us."

"And with Israel being a great example of a successful land-back movement, there is much we can learn from our Jewish friends."

"[This conference is] is a valuable first step in building bridges between the Indigenous Canadian and Indigenous Judean people [Jews]." 

Ryan Bellerose, Metis from Alberta 

Mensch Warmers

"We want to ensure that belligerent fans aren't taking away from the other fans or players who can't help but hear these type of negative remarks."

"We have come up with ways to deal with this and we have ejected individuals who have engaged in this type of offensive language."

"In a few cases, we have had to ban these fans for a full season."

Stuart Ballantyne, president, chief operating officer, Rogers Place, Edmonton

 

"It happens a lot, everywhere. I feel  hostility from the crowds sometimes."

"Also, as I've become more recognizable around the league, I find myself having to talk more about Israel and trying to explain to people that, even though I love my country and always will, I play basketball."

"I am not involved in how the Israeli government deals with the many problems they face."

"But my heart is with Israel, of course."

"I wish that, when I'm playing basketball, I wouldn't hear any antisemitism. I don't feel I'm deserving of that."

"I wish something could be done. It's very unfair."

Deni Avdija, National Basketball Association all-star 

Jewish and Israeli athletes have come out in droves supporting Israel against Hamas terrorists. Clockwise from top left: A post by the Washington Wizards' Deni Avdija; an Instagram story from retired NBA player Omri Casspi; a post by Baltimore Orioles' Dean Kremer; Houston Astros' Alex Bregman drew a Magen David on his cap; Kremer wearing a Magen David necklace during a game; Israeli UFC fighter Natan Levy in an Instagram video; and retired NBA All Star Amar'e Stoudemire. The Canadian Jewish News

 

 Even before the global eruption of antisemitism that arose in the wake of the Palestinian terrorism attacks of 7 October 2023 in southern Israel, Jewish sport figures -- from superstars to junior leagues -- have been the victims of virulent antisemitism. In the instance of young players being taunted by their non-Jewish antagonists, that kind of racism likely erupts from domestic exposure with parents conveying to their youth their contempt for Jews and Judaism, a cultural pathology across all global borders. Those young Jew-haters will mature to become fully-fledged antisemites. And the young Jewish players who were the butt of their discriminatory jeers will come to fully understand the universal flaw in humanity's perceptions of others like themselves, but not quite.

 

The more current spike in antisemitism posing as anti-Zionism and contempt and hatred for Israel -- when the Jewish state reacted to the murder of over a thousand Israeli Jews in southern Israel, and the hostage taking of hundreds of children, youth, women, men and entire families -- by entering Gaza with the intention of confronting and punishing Hamas and its companion terrorist groups -- then veering off to northern Israel with the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah widening the conflict in support of Hamas through orders directly from the Islamic Republic of Iran -- all came as a lightning bolt out of the blue.

 

That Israel, and Jews everywhere in the diaspora would receive a tsunami of biased, racist condemnation for doing what any other state in the international community would be expected to do -- react to protect itself and its population -- seemed illogical and insane. Thanks in large part to the empathetic appeal of Palestinians portraying themselves as helpless victims of Jewish/Israeli 'occupation' of a land consecrated in antiquity to Judaism as ancestral Judean geography which Arabs pronouncing themselves as 'Palestinians' claim as their own. 

 

In the world of sports competition where Jews have spectacularly demonstrated their athleticism and professionalism, to be constantly confronted with verbal pejoratives hinged on their Jewishness, when sports has always been touted as a people-unifying peaceful, competitive activity, this kind of exposure to unremitting hatred of emotional dysfunction is completely demoralizing, confounding and illogical. Although these deep emotions of antipathy relying on unreasonably contentious accusations against Jewish 'plots' to take over world institutions is as old and as morally decrepit as a symbol of human malfunction as any medieval acts of raw, hostile brutality.

 

The Codes of Conduct messages used at sport venues fail to contain references specific to expressions of antisemitism. The executives of the sport world claim to be working on the situation to impress sport fans that their vomiting expressions of Jew-hate are unwelcome at sport arenas. Among them are those who agree that the time has finally arrived for more emphatically stringent warnings against expressions of Jew-hate at these venues, including action toward those who persist, that would amount to lifetime bans on attendance at their arenas.  

 Is football more antisemitic than other sports? Most antisemitic incidents in football won’t appear on Match of the Day. They happen during amateur sporting activities, which makes them even harder to spot and highlight. A German study found an accumulation of cases in football: more than two-thirds (68%) of Jewish amateur football players have experienced an antisemitic incident at least once, compared with 14% in other sporting activities. An Italian study showed that Jews faced discrimination when looking to join a football club.

Antisemitism at certain football clubs has received more attention from researchers than other football clubs. Case studies include Celtic FC in Glasgow, the German team RB Leipzig and certain clubs in Poland. It is not clear whether these researchers’ attention is down to greater or lesser problems with antisemitism at the clubs they have chosen to study.

Of particular interest to researchers are those fans of some well-known teams whose fans declare them 'Jewish' clubs and adopt Jewish symbols as a response to antisemitic attacks on their club. The most famous examples are London’s Tottenham and Amsterdam’s Ajax. Such clubs and their rivals have also been sites for campaigns and educational activities designed to combat antisemitism, such as the UK’s The Y Word project and The Fancoach Project at Feyenoord in the Netherlands.

Antisemitism in football isn’t confined to the stands. Recent studies have shown that online conflicts about football sometimes end up becoming online conflicts about Jews, involving antisemitic language. A Dutch study from 2022 showed how, during the Covid-19 pandemic, football-related antisemitism became more prolific online. A 2023 study of antisemitism on social media found that posts and tweets about the Qatar World Cup often involved antisemitic tropes aimed at Israel (despite the Israeli national team failing to qualify for the competition).

Violence and riots by football fans have occurred for many years in football games in many countries. Antisemitism has also become common at games, with ‘ultra’ football fan groups using antisemitic language and fascist symbols against their rivals. A pioneering Italian project has used ‘Open Source Intelligence’ methodology to assess the threat of antisemitic fan cultures. As antisemitism and football evolve, there will continue to be a need for research methods to evolve accordingly.               Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris, Senior Research Fellow, Project Director, European Jewish Research Archive

 

Most antisemitic incidents in football happen during amateur sporting activities  JPR Institute for Jewish Policy Research

 

Memorializing and Presenting the Palestinian Fiction as Fact

"My dad never had a problem with telling the whole story. I think he'd be disgusted at how the telling of this story has become weaponized in the antisemitism game."

"The Palestinians were offered a state, their own state, and rejected it. Not only did they reject it, but they also attacked Israel and started a war. They lost the war. Start a war, lose a war and now I;m going to be the victim, just like October 7."

"It's putting the fox in the henhouse. They were all partisans. There are historical facts that are facts, not feelings. We've moved into the realm of feelings, not facts."

"This is a highly, highly sophisticated, organized propaganda machine that has been making the Palestinians victims for a very, very long time."

"And now they've got the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, hook, line and sinker, with no serious critical context or analysis." 

David Asper, Winnipeg lawyer, businessman

 

"As a national, publicly funded institution, the CMHR has yet to provide a meaningful resolution to the concerns raised through numerous communications and meetings aimed at upholding national standards and addressing community concerns."

"National institutions must be held accountable. At a time of rising antisemitism and extremism, the museum must not be instrumentalized in service of a dangerous political agenda."

"Its very legitimacy depends on its leadership's ability to demonstrate rigorous adhesion to the highest standards of professionalism and integrity." 

Gustavo Zentner, vice-president, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Photo by Richard White for Postmedia

 

Nothing, it appears, will dissuade the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) from proceeding with its monumentally controversial Nakba exhibit set to open on June 27. 'Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present' is meant to be an exploration of the 'ongoing forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians' -- according to the CMHR advance publicity -- through artwork, photographs, video testimonies and personal stories from Palestinian-Canadians. 

 

In response to a formal legal threat from Shurat HaDin, Israeli advocacy group, and calls emanating from Jewish organizations to pause and review the exhibit, Amanda Gaudes, the museum's spokesperson, and Isha Khan, the museum's chief executive officer, remain unmoved and determined to proceed with an exhibit that is geared to demonize a legitimate state, re-established on its own authentic ancestral land, which Palestinian colonizers claim as theirs and theirs alone. Palestinian public relations present themselves as hapless, helpless victims of Israeli 'occupation'. 

 

A victimhood that has, since 1948, plotted the overthrow of the Jewish state, initially with the military assistance of neighbouring Arab states, and more latterly reduced to the assistance of Iran, Qatar and Turkey, funding, arming and supporting terrorist groups whose sole reason for existence is their ongoing efforts to disable and destroy the state, in the process murdering as many Jews in Israel and abroad as they can plot and carry out under the banner of a global intifada dedicated 'from the river to the sea Palestine will be free'.

 

Now, a museum that was the brainchild of a philanthropic Jewish family meant to educate the public primarily about the World War II Holocaust that systematically murdered six million European Jews through the deliberate planning and execution of a state mandate for a Final Solution reflecting Nazi Germany's ambition to destroy Jewish life throughout Europe, and by extension showcase egregious human rights violations worldwide, has been occupied and preempted by anti-Israel zealots whose scheme is to turn the museum's purpose on its head.

 

Late Winnipeg media magnate and Jewish philanthropist Israel (Izzy) Asper's focus on human rights and in particular the Holocaust through a dedicated public museum saw him directing a funding campaign to build that museum which opened in 2014. Private subscription and matching government funding saw its dedication to an aspiration of solemn and respectful historical rendering of actual ruinous events that contradicted the very existential human rights of entire populations, made the museum a reality. One that is now turned in on itself in a mockery of what it was meant to be.

 

Israel Asper's son decries the sacrilegious corruption that is taking place in the very institutional dream his father held dear. Instead of continuing its original purpose of memorializing the world's worst massive atrocity that brought antisemitism to the height of savage depravity the new exhibit  seeks to perpetuate more broadly and deeply for a credulous audience a classic narrative of fraud posing as a victim-oppressor tale for the ages. It is a tale of raw vengeance against a people returning to their ancestral home after millennia in exile in a world-wide diaspora that left them vulnerable to the world's most ancient curse.

 

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has asked the museum board to commit to full transparency of the external review said by the CMHR to have commissioned; a stop to educational and resource materials associated with the exhibit until such time the review has been completed; and proper historically professional training for docents. "This exhibit risks legitimizing and normalizing these extreme narratives and those who use them to target Jews here in Canada", pointed out Gustavo Zentner.

 

Isha Khan, CEO of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, said the Palestine Uprooted exhibit is still in development and will get the same academic and curatorial rigour as all exhibits. (CBC)

 

 

"At the end of the day, it's a spineless board. The CEO supports the exhibit, and the minister and the entire government are pandering for Muslim votes, and so they stand for nothing."

"The Liberal MO is to try to make everybody happy, say everything and stand for nothing."

"You know what the recipe for failure is? That."

"The safest thing is to say and do nothing. But the safest thing isn't always the right thing. And that's what I mean about leadership: if you're going to be a leader, sometimes people will be unhappy."

"And if you're not that leader, you shouldn't be in the game."

David Asper