The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (JUST Committee) is in the midst a study on “antisemitism and Islamophobia,” with a focus on Canadian campuses. These hearings raise serious concerns for freedom of expression, academic freedom and the safety of our university communities.

The Coalition Against Antisemitism, Anti-Palestinian Racism and Islamophobia (CAAARI, Instagram: @coalitionaaari) - comprised of Jewish, Muslim, and other community groups - formed to protest these sham hearings. Sign this letter to share concerns about the JUST committee with your MP!

BACKGROUND TO THE HEARINGS

On March 21 of this year, the House of Commons’ Justice and Human Rights Committee passed a motion, first presented by MP Anthony Housefather, to study antisemitism, particularly on university campuses. Without any consultation with stakeholders, the motion was amended to add Islamophobia. MP Housefather was in Washington for the November congressional hearings on campus antisemitism, after which several American university presidents famously resigned. As the Canadian MP who is the most lobbied by Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (a self-appointed lobby organization without elected officials that claims to represent Canadian Jews), Housefather is attempting to replicate this process. Israeli officials have also lobbied universities, urging them to root out what they dub "antisemitism," which focuses almost exclusively on Palestine solidarity activism.

While CAAARI and other representatives of communities most impacted by antisemitism and Islamophobia put forward the names of several internationally-respected experts on antisemitism to speak at the hearings, none were invited.

As the hearings unfolded, it became clear that the hearings were never really about actual antisemitism in Canada.

PUTTING RACIALIZED STUDENTS AT RISK

The hearings pit students against each other in our post-secondary institutions. The result ignores the growing threat of White nationalist violence against racialized communities, and legitimizes a clamp down on dissent.  

Calls on law enforcement to clear encampments and protests have resulted in violence and repression. Police violence on campus threatens our students’ well-being and undermines the university’s role as an institution of learning and open debate. Many of the students involved in campus protests are Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Black, and Indigenous. Deputations in the JUST committee antisemitism hearings criminalized their political speech. We must protect the political speech of students of colour and historically marginalized groups. We resist the vilification of their activism through these hearings.

FORCING UNIVERSITIES TO ADOPT THE IHRA DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM

The treatment of calls for Palestinian liberation as inherently antisemitic demonstrates the dangers of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which falsely equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism and promotes anti-Palestinian racism. At the hearings on antisemitism, numerous handpicked witnesses stated their demand that universities be compelled to adopt the IHRA definition; on the last day of hearings, university presidents were asked if they would adopt it. Adoption of the IHRA definition will be used to justify police surveillance and criminalization of students, staff, and faculty.

MALICIOUS PORTRAYAL OF THE STUDENT PROTESTS

The antisemitism hearings painted a picture of the university encampments as hotbeds of “hate”; yet no diversity of views was welcomed at these hearings. At university protests, we have heard consistent emphasis on the war crimes of the Israeli state, and clear demands for the end of Canadian government complicity with these war crimes. In contrast to witnesses’ claims at the hearings that student encampments at universities make Jewish students unsafe, large numbers of Jewish students, staff, and faculty are among protest organizers across the country, with Shabbat ceremonies held on Friday nights at various encampments.

The attempt to silence the right to peaceful protest under the guise of protecting Jewish students also constitutes a degree of political interference unheard of in post-secondary institutions. Historically, these fundamental democratic principles have been respected in Canada by all parties, but there’s a real threat that recommendations to come out of these hearings will override these principles.

Instead, this government should be doing the following:

• Including Anti-Palestinian Racism in Canada’s National Antiracism Strategy

• Condemning Israel’s war crimes in Gaza in no uncertain terms

• Defending students’ right to protest

Bring these concerns to your MP now!

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