RSS
A new memoir by former B.C. NDP minister Selina Robinson describes betrayal by her own party
Ten months after she was abruptly dismissed from her cabinet position within the NDP-led British Columbia government due to an offhand remark that angered pro-Palestinian groups, Selina Robinson is sharing her side of the story in Truth Be Told, a new book coming out Dec. 18 in Vancouver.
During a B’nai Brith webinar on Jan. 30 featuring Jewish public officials in Canada, Robinson, who at the time was B.C.’s minister of higher education and future skills and the most prominent Jewish politician in the province, lamented the lack of knowledge many people have regarding the Middle East and said Israel was founded on a “crappy piece of land.”
Reaction to those words would, within days, spread rapidly across social media, sparking outrage and threats against her. Robinson immediately apologized to Premier David Eby for her “sloppy language”, which, she said, was not meant in any way to be hurtful.
Eby responded, “Happens to the best. Hang in there.”
For a time, Robinson had been assured that Eby “had her back.” However, within a few days, as the crisis reached a fever pitch with thousands signing petitions calling for her resignation and B.C. mosques threatening to ban NDP MLAs from their premises, the premier, as Robinson sees it, cowered to the mob.
Though the behaviour of the provincial government, in her view, was anything but righteous—and the reaction from some sections of civil society straight-out antisemitic—it was the indifference of her colleagues that remains the most upsetting to Robinson.
“It was only when I sat down to reflect and think about what happened, the most painful part was the silence,” she told The CJN. “It was not the haters. It was not people who were saying that Zionism was evil and therefore Jews are evil.
“It was my colleagues who I thought were progressive, who were not living up to their progressive values. People who say they are progressive but do not stand up for the Jewish community are not progressive. This was the realization that could only come with time.”
When he announced her firing, Eby said Robinson should step away because of “the depth of the work” she needed to do to repair the damage she had done. That statement, she said, echoed in her mind for a long time.
“This book is that work,” said Robinson, who also wrote the book because she felt Canadians should have a better understanding of who Jews are.
The book itself begins in May, at the end of the provincial legislative session, as Robinson felt she had been presented with enough time to consider what had taken place three months earlier.
“I needed the time to make sense of what happened to me at the moment when I was being attacked by the haters, by the antisemites and the people who think they are representing those suffering in Gaza, when really all they are doing is hurting Jews in their community,” she said.
“At that time, I remember feeling, ‘You do not understand. I need to explain my side to you.’ My intent was never to hurt anybody, and I am being accused of all these terrible things that do not reflect who I am. Then to have my premier reflect their perspective was so hurtful—that he would believe that I would intentionally go out to hurt people like that in some way and not recognize what was actually happening.”
Perhaps the most stinging rebuke to Eby comes before the book begins. Robinson dedicates her work to former B.C. premier John Horgan, who died Nov. 12, and whom she refers to as “a friend, a leader and a mensch who understood and lived tikkun olam—making the world a better place.”
Robinson said she is confident that Eby’s predecessor would have handled the issue differently. As the provincial political crisis was unfolding in February, Horgan, then serving as Canada’s ambassador to Germany, called Robinson from Berlin.
“John was very hurt for me. He thought it was wrong. What was interesting about that phone call was that he had just gotten back from Dachau. He said, ‘What is happening is horrifying. I am horrified by what is happening to the Jewish community,’” said Robinson who served at various points as Horgan’s minister of municipal affairs and housing, citizens’ services, and finance.
“When I spoke to John, he said, ‘You apologized. It is time to move on.’ That’s not the position that David [Eby] took. And I did tell David that this is the wrong decision.”
Robinson—who, while serving in the NDP caucus, was known as the “Jew in the Crew”—has a cherished photograph of Horgan serving apples and honey to colleagues during a Rosh Hashanah event.
In the book, Robinson makes it clear that she sees herself as a progressive Jew, a Zionist and a believer in a two-state solution, in which Palestinians and Israelis can find self-determination, peace and fulfillment.
“I disagree with the current Israeli government’s policies and practices on many issues, including many of their actions in Gaza and the West Bank,” she writes. “I also disagree with the Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and the terrorist regimes in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere who seek to destroy Israel at the cost of the well-being of more Palestinian generations.
“Palestinians and Israelis both have the right to a homeland, to security and to live without fear. Both peoples need leaders with a vision for coexistence and peace.”
In this country, Robinson said she finds optimism in the knowledge that the vast majority of Canadians are supportive of the Jewish community and the State of Israel.
“We need to have people feel comfortable pushing back against hatred,” she said.
Jewish readers of the book, Robinson hopes, can derive comfort in the realization that they are not alone.
“We have all been in this together and we have to stick together and support each other. We need to give each other strength,” she said. “I am going to fight for the pluralistic Canada that gave my family refuge. I still believe that Jewish values are NDP values, but the NDP has turned on Jews.”
Well before the controversy erupted, Robinson had planned to retire after the provincial elections that were held in October. Though she presently does not know how it will take shape, she intends to continue fighting for the progressive values in which she strongly believes.
All profits from sales of Truth Be Told will go to advance coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians and fight antisemitism in Canada.
The post A new memoir by former B.C. NDP minister Selina Robinson describes betrayal by her own party appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
Egypt Purging Antisemitic Content From School Textbooks, New Report Says
Israa Ali, the founder of “Ahfad Al Zaytoun” Olive Trees Initiative, a volunteer-run program that offers Gazan children in Egypt educational and mental health support after school, walks beside a Palestinian flag hung on a wall, in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Egypt has made significant progress in removing antisemitic and anti-Christian content from its school textbooks, and about 80 percent of Egyptian students in elementary or preparatory education are learning from the “reformed” versions, according to a new report published by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se), an Israeli watchdog group.
The report, titled “Review of Changes and Remaining Problematic Content Egyptian Textbooks: Selected Samples 2023-2024,” explained that Egypt has been striving toward reducing antisemitism in its curricula for several years, having chosen to pursue a “year-on-year” process of reform which will reach higher grade levels over time.
The results so far have been promising. For example, 10 antisemitic passages identified by Impact-se researchers last academic year, including one in which Jews were described as “people of treachery and betrayal,” has been replaced with another “underlining tolerance and coexistence between Islam and Judaism.”
Other changes warrant optimism, according to the report. An 11th grade history textbook no longer teaches that Jews possess an inordinate “love of money,” and a third grade textbook on Islamic education no longer teaches that Jews cannot be trusted to describe the contents of their holy books, an accusation attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. Additionally, a sixth grade textbook now features what Impact-se described as a “rare specifically positive reference to Jews” in which the Constitution of Medina is said to be a shared accomplishment of Muslims and Jews while comparing it to the 1948 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.
One reform the report strongly commended was the removal of some texts which encouraged jihad, martyrdom, and religious intolerance. Violence, one 11th grade textbook now says, was a measure of “last resort” in early Islamic conquests.
“Our report also found four problematic examples that have been removed, including a grade 5 Arabic Language grammar exercise teaching that Allah loves the jihad warrior, and a statement from the same textbook declaring that martyrs deserve a great reward,” Impact-se wrote. “A grade 6 Islamic Education textbook no longer glorifies the martyrdom of Muhammad’s Companion of Hamza for his jihad against many idolaters.”
Some concerning content in this vein remains, the authors noted, including the heralding of the martyr as “the most spectacular example of sacrifice” and a section of a grade 11 textbook in which Muhammad refers to “idolaters, Jews, and hypocrites.”
Alongside these lingering issues, however, Impact-se observed a softening of attitudes on gender roles, as evinced by the new curricula’s “promoting inclusivity and equality in gender roles” and “emphasizing the contribution of women in Egyptian society, politics, and Islamic history.” One sixth grade textbook even saidthat the Prophet Muhammad was an inveterate contributor to areas of household management thought to be exclusively the business of women, such as “sewing garments” and “mending sandals.” The new curricula also strongly condemns female genital mutilation, describing it as a desecration of “what God created” as well as cruel to women.
“We are delighted to see the ongoing reforms taking place in the Egyptian curricula, which mark significant progress,” Impact-se chief executive officer Marcus Sheff said in a statement announcing the findings of the report. “There are 25 million children in school in Egypt and around 80 percent are now studying this new material.The progress in revising materials for younger grades is extremely encouraging, especially in material regarding Jews and Israel.”
He continued, “We believe a similar evolution will be implemented in the curriculum for older grades. These changes in the most populous Arab country with a long-standing landmark peace agreement with Israel are of real importance to the region’s future.”
Impact-se’s research on school curricula in the Middle East has attempted in part to gauge states and other governmental entities’ intentions to foster peace and coexistence with the state of Israel, given that public education is the most active way in which countries manufacture the ideal kind of citizen.
In May, the group released a report revealing that Saudi Arabia has been quietly revising its school textbooks, scrubbing negative depictions of Jews, Christians, and homosexuals, and toning down rhetoric against Israel.
However, not all trends have been positive, and Impact-se has sometimes found disturbing trends.
Earlier this year, it issued a report describing the ways in which Palestinian curricula teach girls that women are inferior to men while demanding that they sacrifice their bodies and families for “jihad.” Coinciding with Women’s History Month, the report, titled “Gender Inequality in Palestinian Authority Textbooks,” revealed that Palestinian education materials deem women as a problem to be managed by the authority of religion and patriarchy, as valuable insofar as they contribute to the community’s population of terrorists and capacity to wage holy war.
Such ideas are ancillary to larger political goals, Impact-se explained. In denouncing women as transgressors of sexual morality and inherent sources of corruption, the Palestinian textbooks aim to rationalize subordinating women to men and limiting their role in public life. They also advocate dressing in accordance with Islamic law, women accepting fault for being sexually harassed and assaulted, and the notion that gender equality is a fiction. Palestinian schools also teach the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s saying, “Never will succeed such a nation that makes a woman” a head of state.
With all avenues for personal growth and achievement sealed off, what is left to Palestinian women is the option to commit violence, to become martyrs and the mothers of terrorists of the future, the report stated.
“The characterization of women as inferior in Palestinian Authority textbooks reflects a broader and worrying narrative of bigotry in the curriculum, which is continuing to shape the outlook millions of Palestinian children,” Sheff said at the time. “Furthermore, it contradicts international treaties on gender equality that the [Palestinian Authority] itself has ratified. In particular, the emphasis on women’s participation in resistance activities as a warped form of gender equality sets a disturbing precedent.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Egypt Purging Antisemitic Content From School Textbooks, New Report Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US House Democrats Demand Biden Administration ‘Suspend Offensive Weapons’ to Israel
US Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) hold a news conference. Photo: Reuters / Erin Scott
A group of 20 Democratic lawmakers in the US House on Tuesday sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urging the Biden administration to “suspend offensive weapons” to Israel due to the country’s military campaign in Gaza.
The letter, signed by some of the most strident critics of Israel in Congress, called for the outgoing US administration to withhold critical offensive weapons from Israel, citing dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where the Jewish state has been fighting Hamas terrorists for the past 14 months. The lawmakers said that Israel has “failed” to address “concerns over Gaza” and that the Biden administration should “reconsider” sending more weapons to the long-time US ally and lone democracy in the Middle East.
The message was spearheaded by Reps. Summer Lee (D-PA) and Greg Casar (D-TX), the incoming Congressional Progressive Caucus chair. Among the other signatories were some of the most outspoken critics of Israel in Congress, including: Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (NY), Cori Bush (MO), Joaquin Castro (TX), Lloyd Doggett (TX), Veronica Escobar (TX), Jesús García (IL), Al Green (TX), Sara Jacobs (CA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Hank Johnson (GA), Jim McGovern (MA.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Mark Pocan (WI), Ayanna Pressley (MA), Delia Ramirez (IL), Rashida Tlaib (MI), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ).
“We believe continuing to transfer offensive weapons to the Israeli government prolongs the suffering of the Palestinian people and risks our own national security by sending a message to the world that the US will apply its laws, policies, and international law selectively,” the lawmakers wrote. “Furthermore, a failure to act will put Israeli lives in danger by prolonging [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war, isolating Israel on the international stage, and creating further instability in the region.”
The letter also condemned Israel for allegedly blocking humanitarian aid transfers into Gaza, saying that an average of 42 trucks per day have entered the enclave.
Experts have rejected such claims, arguing there is no evidence suggesting Israel has blocked humanitarian aid into Hamas-ruled Gaza.
“The facts are that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has facilitated the delivery of more aid to territory controlled by the enemy than any military in the history of warfare, despite knowing with certainty that doing so is actually strengthening Hamas and making the IDF’s job harder,” John Hannah, former national security adviser to US Vice President Dick Cheney, recently told The Algemeiner.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said in October that Israel has delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation a year ago. He also noted that Hamas terrorists often hijack and steal aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.
In Tuesday’s letter, the lawmakers also criticized Israel over its polio vaccination drive in Gaza, asserting that the Jewish state contributed to escalating “violence” which forced delays in the vaccine distributions. The letter also claimed that Israel did not provide “access to northern Gaza” during the vaccination efforts.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 556,000 children under the age of 10 received two doses of the polio vaccine, representing 94 percent of the target population. The vaccination campaign was a “remarkable achievement given the extremely difficult circumstances the campaign was executed under,” according to the WHO.
Israel has insisted that the evacuation of northern Gaza was a necessary step to preserve civilian life as it continued its military campaign against Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the war with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. Though critics have labeled the evacuation orders as “forced displacement,” Israel argued that these advanced warnings were evidence of the Jewish state’s commitment to protecting innocents.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas, which rules Gaza, has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the IDF.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
However, the letter lambasted Israel for allegedly bombing hospitals, schools, and places of worship in Gaza without once mentioning Hamas or any of the terrorist threats that Israel faces.
The missive represents the latest attempt by some Democratic lawmakers, particularly from the party’s progressive wing, to forcibly wind down the Israel-Hamas war by cutting off the Jewish state’s access to certain American arms. In the year following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, Democratic politicians have adopted an increasingly adversarial stance against the Jewish state. While the vast majority of Democratic officials expressed public agreement with Israel’s right to go to war against Hamas, many liberal lawmakers have nonetheless accused the Jewish state of “indiscriminately” bombing Gaza civilians or inflicting mass “starvation” on the beleaguered enclave.
Tuesday’s letter came days after a group of 77 Democrats in the US House sent a letter to Blinken and Austin demanding that the Biden administration provide an assessment of Israel’s “compliance with all relevant US policies and laws,” suggesting that the Middle East’s lone democracy and Washington’s closest ally in the region is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
The post US House Democrats Demand Biden Administration ‘Suspend Offensive Weapons’ to Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Palestinian Football Association Praises Norway for Urging FIFA to Investigate Israel Before World Cup Qualifier
Oscar Gloukh of Israel celebrates with teammates their first goal, an own goal scored by Hamidou Diallo of Mali during Paris 2024 Olympics – Football – Men’s Group D – Mali vs Israel match on July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) applauded the Norwegian Football Federation on Tuesday for calling on FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, to investigate Israel ahead of the European qualifiers that are set to take place next year for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Israel and Norway’s national soccer teams are set to compete against each other in 2025 on March 25 and Oct. 11 as part of the qualifiers in Europe for the World Cup the following year, it was announced on Saturday. After the matchup was announced, Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, reportedly called on FIFA to investigate Israel for alleged human rights violations in the Gaza Strip during the country’s ongoing war against Hamas terrorists who orchestrated the Oct. 7 deadly massacre in southern Israel. Klaveness said it was “difficult” to see that Norway has been paired to compete against Israel in the World Cup qualifiers and expressed concerns over Israel’s military actions in Gaza, according to reports.
On Tuesday, the PFA commended Norway’s “recognition of the ongoing violations against Palestinian civilians and athletes.”
“President Klaveness’ remarks echo the sentiments of millions around the world who believe that FIFA and the international football community cannot remain silent while grave breaches of human rights persist,” the Palestinian association said in a released statement. “The PFA urges FIFA to act with transparency and urgency by launching a thorough investigation into Israel’s actions and ensuring that football remains a tool for peace and justice, not a platform for impunity.”
The PFA has made repeated efforts to have FIFA, the UEFA, and all national soccer associations ban Israel from all international soccer matches and reiterated the same sentiment in the statement on Tuesday. It also again accused “Israeli occupation forces” of “systematically targeting Palestinian sports, athletes, and infrastructure” in violation of FIFA regulations and international humanitarian law.
“The Israeli Football Association (IFA) systematically violates FIFA statutes by tolerating racism, serving as a tool for Israeli annexation of occupied territory, and encouraging the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the PFA claimed. “These attacks have resulted in the loss of countless lives, including hundreds of athletes, and the destruction of vital sports facilities, undermining the very principles that football stands for — fairness, respect, and unity.”
Norway, a longtime supporter of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, officially recognized a Palestinian state in May. The country has also been a harsh critic of Israel since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that began more than 14 months ago. In February, Joav Melchior, chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Oslo, said antisemitism in the Scandinavian country was at its highest level since World War II.
Klaveness said the Norwegian Football Association “stands with the Norwegian government in its demand for an immediate end to the disproportionate attacks on innocent civilians in Gaza,” according to Ynet. She explained that Norway is actively involved in pushing for Israel to be suspended from international soccer games and also commented on the Norway-Israel soccer games that are set to take place next year as part of the European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“The draw is difficult for us, beyond the purely sporting aspect. None of us can remain indifferent to the disproportionate attacks that Israel has inflicted on the civilian population of Gaza over a long period of time,” she added. “Israel is still part of UEFA competitions. We have to deal with that. We are following the situation closely with FIFA, UEFA, and the Norwegian authorities.”
Klaveness additionally pointed out that Norway has a longstanding presence in the Middle East. “We are also closer to the region and the Palestinian Football Federation than most other European federations, because we have been working there on the ground for more than 10 years, with coaches who create football activities for children in schools and refugee camps,” she reportedly said.
The post Palestinian Football Association Praises Norway for Urging FIFA to Investigate Israel Before World Cup Qualifier first appeared on Algemeiner.com.