2023 – The year Canada and the West chose to support Apartheid Israel as it committed genocide against Palestinians

It is evident from statements by Israeli leaders and the US, which has been running interference for Israel at the UN to prevent a real ceasefire, that the people of Gaza will be subjected to horrors by Israel for months.  In the face of this Canadians must continue pressuring our politicians to find their humanity, which they seem to have lost over the past three months.

 

By Fareed Khan

 

As the Christmas holiday season concludes and we begin a new year many Canadians have been feeling anything but festive, with many calling for "no Christmas as usual".  It's hard to be cheery and celebrate when the news has been showing us destroyed hospitals, mosques, churches, and the bodies of dead children – horrific atrocities being committed by the Israeli military against Palestinians for almost three months.

 

From Bethlehem to San Diego - Saturday December 23, 2023
Balboa Park Rally, March, Bridge Closure & Banner Drop for Palestine.

 

In general, 2023 has been a very difficult year for Canadians when it comes to issues of hate and human rights.  There has been an overall rise in hate crimes this year, with an explosion in hate directed at members of the LGBTQ2+ community, and a significant increase in reported hate crimes directed at Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and Jews in response to Israel's military assault on Gaza since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel.

 

The open displays of hate and anti-LGBTQ2 demonstrations that have occurred across the country in 2023 are particularly troubling.  They are the result of a concerted effort by conservative elements in society, including Conservative politicians, to target this community and deny them their fundamental human rights, and are the culmination of an organized effort over the past two years by conservative political and religious groups in the US, which have found adherents and supporters in Canada.

 

However, public and media attention shifted from other forms of hate in October when Israel responded to the October 7th Hamas attack by unleashing a brutal and indiscriminate military assault on Palestinians in Gaza, a people without an army navy or air force.  An exercise in "self-defence", which was endorsed by Canada and other Western nations, turned into a mass slaughter of innocent civilians, galvanizing millions to protest in major cities around the world in support of Palestinians.  The attacks also unleased a wave of anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism that has put Canadian Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs and Jews on high alert as the possibility of violent acts of hate has increased.

Despite the overwhelming show of support for Palestinians in weekly demonstrations across Canada and other nations Western for 12 weeks leaders have ignored the wishes of their citizens, including Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, and have continued to stand behind Israel.  To add insult to injury some political leaders have also levelled accusations of supporting terrorism and "antisemitism" against pro-Palestinian voices.

 

As of December 30th more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military, with over 11,800 of them being children, according to Euromed Human Rights Monitor.  As Gaza is turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland the death toll of Palestinians is bound to rise by tens of thousands, with Israeli officials stating that the military campaign will continue for months until Hamas is totally wiped out.

 

Since October the thoughts of millions of Canadians have been with the Palestinian people who have been facing a campaign of genocide orchestrated by Israeli political and military leaders.  But the tide seems to be turning in the public relations war that Israel has been waging as Jews in the West join millions of others in protests and campaigns opposing the apartheid state.

 

While polls in Canada have been showing that a majority of Canadians oppose the government’s support for Israel, they have also been making their views known via memes on social media.  One that has been making the rounds poses the question "if you've ever wondered what you would have done had you been alive when Nazis were exterminating Jews, you're doing it now in your response to the Israeli genocide of Palestinians."  Given the horrific news coming out of Gaza it is a question that many in Western nations are asking as a way to motivate people to stand up in defence of innocent civilians facing unimaginable horrors while their governments do nothing.  In other words, this a chance for ordinary people to take action to stop a genocide in progress in a way that people did not when the Nazis began the Holocaust.

 

There is also the issue of an explosion in racism and hate resulting from the war in Gaza across Western society.  In Canada people are seeing a level of racism against Palestinians within the Canadian political establishment and broader society that is no different than the anti-indigenous racism that existed in Canada which underpinned the genocide of Indigenous people in this country.  What is happening in occupied Palestine is also anti-indigenous racism against an Indigenous people, and the Assembly of First Nations has joined millions of Canadians in recognizing Palestinians as indigenous to the land that they and their ancestors have lived on going back to the centuries before the birth of Christ.

 

So what are Canadians to do when our politicians have revealed that they harbour racism in their hearts, particularly when innocent civilians are being murdered with impunity at a rate of more than 350 people per day on average?

 

Continue to hold them accountable for their political positions which endorse racism either at home or overseas.  Name and shame those politicians who pay lip service to fighting racism and defending human rights.  Stand with persecuted people in Canada and internationally, particularly those people who are being targeted in a campaign of genocide like the Palestinians are.  Join with other organizations who have far more resources to see if Canadian political leaders can be charged with complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.  And most importantly work to remove politicians from office who seem to have no issue with violent, racist brutality being committed against a racialized people (Palestinians), but will go to the wall for a nation of people who are white (Ukranians) when similar crimes are committed against them.

 

It is evident from statements by Israeli leaders and the US, which has been running interference for Israel at the UN to prevent a real ceasefire, that the people of Gaza will be subjected to horrors and atrocities by Israel for months.  In the face of this Canadians must continue pressuring our politicians to rediscover their humanity, which they seem to have lost over the past three months.  As Canadians we cannot back down in the face of hate or egregious human rights violations, particularly when they are being enabled by the politicians we have elected.  We must call out racism and rights violations wherever we see them, and continue to work with and support those who want to eliminate hate from society.  

 

In the face of a genocide that is happening before our eyes all people of conscience, who believe in basic human dignity and humanity, must become part of a movement that calls for holding the perpetrators of atrocities committed in Gaza accountable, as well as those among our political elites who are complicit in the horrors being committed by a racist, apartheid nation that seems to see the Palestinians as nothing less than sub-human, a ideologically extremist leadership that is willing to commit genocide to create a nation devoid of non-Jews, as was the original intent of the founders of the Zionist ideology.

 

Fareed Khan is a human rights activist and founder of Canadians United Against Hate.

 

© 2023 The View From Here.  © 2023 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.