Progressive Canadian Jewish groups challenge institutional monopoly

by Barry Weisleder

More than a hundred people answered the call of the Alliance of Concerned Jews of Canada (ACJC) to attend its first-ever conference, March 28-30 at the Steelworkers Hall in Toronto. It was a long-awaited sign of a small but important change in the Jewish community.

Participants came from all over Canada, including Jews, Muslims, Christians and atheists, as well as representatives from unions, religious organizations and social justice groups, from Halifax to Vancouver. They agreed to organize to put pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territory and to form an organization that strives to provide a counterweight to the steady stream of pro-Israel, pro-occupation propaganda flowing from organizations like the Canadian Jewish Congress and other members of the Israel Lobby, as well as the major media and the Stephen Harper government.

Despite differences on a political solution for Palestine (One State versus Two States), the conference agreed on the urgency of educating Canadian public opinion and challenging the Harper government’s uncritical and aggressive support for the Zionist apartheid state. "It is our aim to provide an alternative voice for Jewish and non-Jewish Canadians, wherever they live, who are inundated with information from only one side of the conflict," said conference coordinator Diana Ralph, of Ottawa.

Journalist Naomi Klein (author of The Shock Doctrine) delivered the conference keynote address. She described how the government of Israel, in celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of its founding, is attempting to "re-brand" itself as a holiday destination. To do this Israel must play down its repression of Arab citizens and Palestinians and ignore the devastating effects of its so-called Separation Wall. "They are normalizing war and violence," Klein said, stressing the "high level of security the Israeli Defence Force [IDF] is able to deliver. They're saying, 'come to the beach, we'll keep you safe and secure'."

Klein linked Israel's repression of the Palestinian population to Washington’s "war on terror" and described how Israel has become an international specialist in the development and manufacture of surveillance hardware, crowd-control devices, and other high-tech policing technologies. Security has become "Israel's main export, more than fruits or vegetables," she emphasized.

Among the tactics the new organization will employ are: challenging dominant views of the crisis in Israel and Palestine in public forums, letters to editors, in demonstrations, by founding alternative campus organizations for Jewish youth, by speaking at synagogues about the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians and the seizure of their property (a time known by Palestinians as the Nakba, or Disaster), by supporting the work of Palestinian and alternative Jewish artists and writers, and by working with unions, peace groups and equity-seeking organizations.

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