{"id":72311,"date":"2016-04-25T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=72311"},"modified":"2016-04-20T11:30:27","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T10:30:27","slug":"anti-semitism-the-most-abused-word-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/04\/anti-semitism-the-most-abused-word-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAnti Semitism\u201d: The Most Abused Word in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2<\/a>15 Apr 2015 – <\/em>\u201cAnti-Semitism\u201d may be the most abused term in Canada today. Almost entirely divorced from its dictionary definition \u2013 \u201cdiscrimination against<\/a> or prejudice or hostility toward Jews\u201d \u2013 it is now primarily invoked to uphold Jewish\/white privilege.<\/p>\n

In a recent Canadian Jewish News interview long time l\u2019Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al (UQAM) professor Julien Bauer slurs Arabs and Muslims as he bemoans \u201canti-Semitism\u201d. \u201cIn the corridors<\/a> of UQAM, there are occasionally pro-Hamas demonstrations and anti-Semitic posters, but this is relatively rare,\u201d Bauer wrote in French. \u201cAt Concordia University, it\u2019s an anti-Semitic festival every day of the year! This is normal because there are many more Arab and Muslim students at Concordia than UQAM.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jewish community\u2019s leading media outlet, which recently called Jews the \u201cChosen People\u201d, failed to question Bauer\u2019s racism and Islamophobia. Instead, they put his picture on the front of the Qu\u00e9bec edition.<\/p>\n

Over the past several weeks Jewish leaders have labeled a student General Assembly<\/a> at McGill University, art depicting<\/a> Palestinian resistance at York, and an effort at that university to divest from arms makers as \u201canti-Semitic\u201d. Head of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center Avi Benlolo, described the arms divestment effort at York, since it includes Students Against Israeli Apartheid, as \u201ca malicious<\/a> campaign that targets and singles out the Jewish community as a collective, demonizes Israel and Israelis, applies unfair double standards to Israel at the exclusion of other nations in the Middle East and rejects the legitimacy of Israel as the only Jewish state in the world, thereby inciting an abhorrent resurgence of anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than calming the tantrum, Canadian political leaders often contribute to the hysteria of certain Jewish groups. During the recent debate to condemn the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign MPs repeatedly accused a movement demanding Israel comply with international law of being \u201canti-Semitic\u201d. The terms \u201canti-Semitic\u201d and \u201canti-Semitism\u201d were invoked over 80 times<\/a> in a debate to justify Jewish\/white supremacy in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

According to Hansard, parliamentarians have uttered the words \u201canti-Semitism\u201d and \u201canti-Semitic\u201d more in the past decade than \u201cracism\u201d or \u201cracist\u201d. (And many of the \u201cracist\u201d references describe purported prejudice against Jews.) The term \u201canti-blackness\u201d was not recorded in the House of Commons during this period.<\/p>\n

Despite widespread discussion of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d, there is little discussion of Canadian Jewry\u2019s actual place in Canadian society. Among elite business, political and professional circles Jewish representation far surpasses their slim 1.3% of the Canadian population. Studies demonstrate that Canadian Jews are more likely than the general population to hold a bachelor\u2019s degree, earn above $75,000 or be part of the billionaire class.<\/p>\n

While Canadian Jews faced discriminatory property, university and immigration restrictions into the 1950s, even the history of structural anti-Jewish prejudice should be put into proper context. Blacks, Japanese and other People of Colour (not to mention indigenous peoples) have been subjected to far worse structural racism and abuse. Even compared to some other \u201cwhite\u201d groups Canadian Jews have fared well. During World War I, 8,500 individuals<\/a> from countries part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (mostly Ukrainians) were interned while in the mid-1800s thousands of Irish died<\/a> of typhus at an inspection and quarantine station on Grosse Ile in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. Canadian Jewry hasn\u2019t faced any equivalent abuse.<\/p>\n

While howls of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d are usually an effort to deter Palestinian solidarity, the shrill claims may also represent what a Freudian psychologist would call a \u201cprojection\u201d. Prejudice against Arabs and Muslims appears rampant in the Jewish community. Then there are the remarkable efforts to keep the Jewish community separate and apart from others. A Canadian Jewish News article about mixed race Jews\u2019 inability to find a match<\/a> on the Jewish Tinder, JSwipe, highlights the issue.<\/p>\n

After Israel, no subject garners more attention in the Canadian Jewish News than the importance of cloistering children by ethnicity\/religion. Half of Jewish<\/a> children in Montr\u00e9al attend Jewish schools, which is startling for a community that represented 7% of the city\u2019s population a century ago. (In the 1920s Yiddish was Montr\u00e9al\u2019s third most spoken<\/a> language.)<\/p>\n

Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Jewish community has segregated itself geographically as well. Without retail shops in its boundaries, Hampstead is an affluent Montr\u00e9al suburb that is three quarters<\/a> Jewish. Four times larger than the adjacent Hampstead, C\u00f4te Saint-Luc is a 32,000-person municipality that is two thirds<\/a> Jewish.<\/p>\n

According to Federation CJA, only 15%-17%<\/a> of Jewish Montrealers live in intermarried (or common-law) households. For those under-30 it\u2019s still only a quarter<\/a>. (In Toronto, where Canada\u2019s largest Jewish community resides, the self-segregation is slightly less extreme.)
\nInward looking and affluent, the Jewish community is quick to claim victimhood. But, like an out of control child, the major Jewish organizations need a time out. Without an intervention of some sort, the Jewish community risks having future dictionaries defining \u201canti-Semitism\u201d as \u201ca movement for justice and equality.\u201d<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

Yves Engler is the author of <\/em>Canada in Africa: 300 years of aid and exploitation<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 dissidentvoice.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost entirely divorced from its dictionary definition \u2013 \u201cdiscrimination against or prejudice or hostility toward Jews\u201d \u2013 it is now primarily invoked to uphold Jewish\/white privilege. While howls of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d are usually an effort to deter Palestinian solidarity, the shrill claims may also represent what a Freudian psychologist would call a \u201cprojection\u201d. Prejudice against Arabs and Muslims appears rampant in the Jewish community. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}