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Quebec Jewish Physicians Association members unite to fight antisemitism in the medical system

It’s not like Lior Bibas is signing as many petitions as he is medical reports—but it certainly seems like the prescriptions need writing.

The Montreal cardiologist and president of the Quebec Jewish Physician Association (AMJQ) added his voice to the Global Jewish Health Alliance (GJHA) condemning the Jan. 2 call by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for the global medical community to cut ties with Israel.

Albanese’s proposal is dangerous and endangers global healthcare progress, Bibas posted on social media. “Cutting ties with Israel, a leader in medical R&D, would delay or derail life-saving treatments,” he wrote. “Open science and global collaboration are the bedrock of progress in healthcare. This affects everyone.” Calls for academic and medical boycotts erode decades of trust, delay innovation, and disrupt care worldwide he said, urging the UN, World Health Organization and other professionals to condemn Albanese’s appeal. “Medical boycotts harm everyone—they don’t build a path to peace and certainly do not build a better world.”

Bibas co-founded the AMJQ in the weeks following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. “We heard that trainees were having a hard time, and we’ve lived it every time there’s a war, like in 2021” he told The CJN. “We saw a worsening of the situation and were hearing stories of trainees removed from study groups, others put on the defensive about what’s happening, very uncomfortable situations,” and some saw relationships with residents deteriorating very quickly.

“I myself did eight years of residency,” said Bibas, an assistant professor of medicine at Université de Montréal. “Medical training is very hierarchical. You are getting evaluated constantly, it’s really hard and you don’t want to ruffle feathers, which can really have a negative impact on your career.” The AMJQ counts some 400 physicians and 150 medical students and residents as members.

The group participated in the national survey of some 1,000 Jewish Canadian medical professionals, and while it hasn’t released specific results yet, Bibas says there are similarities with Ontario counterparts. “Trainees are getting the brunt of all this. Their entire training ecosystem—relationships with peers and physicians—has changed.”

Whether anti-Zionist remarks, blaming Jews for Israel’s actions, or other behaviour, it can be debilitating in a grueling academic/career setting. “I’m not saying there’s systemic antisemitism in Quebec’s medical system. There are incidents that are dealt with, but issues of trust remain… One of the biggest problems is getting trainees to testify. They don’t trust the system.” The fear of retaliation is so strong, that some students are unwilling to report incidents, even anonymously.

“Even though I think people need to be a bit more outspoken, I understand their hesitation because I once faced an issue with an attending that could have set back my career severely due to power dynamics in academia.”  

One first-year Jewish Montreal medical student, who spoke to The CJN anonymously for fear of reprisal, saying within two months of beginning studies he was confronted by two students demanding he explain why Israel “withholds vaccines” from Gazans.

“I was terrified and felt trapped and laughed, asking them if they thought child hostages should be vaccinated. One laughed back and shouted that ‘You can’t stop lying!’. It completely changed my trajectory here. It’s head down and ignore. I’ll speak out when I have the energy to.”

Speaking out is what Bibas is doing, by pushing back on French radio, television, and social media, against unrest on streets and campuses, and calls for medical boycotts.

Bibas also says while some colleagues talk of leaving Canada, “I don’t interpret that as people packing their suitcases. I haven’t heard of anyone from Quebec leaving. They may feel they may have no choice, but not because of what’s happening now in hospitals. More because of our future. I have a great practice, I love my work, but I see my kids and I don’t know… Do they have a long life here? With the way things are going, is there a future for our children?”

Elie Haddad knows the feeling. The pediatric immunologist came to Montreal 20 years ago for professional opportunities, “but also because my wife and I thought that France did not have a good future for Jews. So we wanted to leave.” He was often confronted with antisemitism, “of course, in the street, in the hospital, everywhere. It has become banal in France.”

Quebec was “a peaceful haven. We were incredibly surprised, at almost every level we found a beautiful community life, a respectful, multicultural society where people respect laws. It was going so well, but over the years, especially the last five years, we’ve noticed a dramatic abrupt change with regard to antisemitism.”

He himself experienced only one serious incident in the Quebec workplace which marked him significantly but praised his institution’s response as “incredible support which was very reassuring.”

Haddad doubts people really want to leave. “We know as Jews we may have to leave at anytime from any country, so this is saying ‘I feel I’m ready if it’s necessary’. On the contrary, we must not say we’re going to leave, we must fight. We share a vision as Quebecers: separation of religion and state, individual rights, respect for religions, respect for others. It’s a beautiful society and I don’t think we should let it be ruined by dark individuals.”

Bibas agrees. “I’m an optimist. People are saying we should leave but I personally don’t like that kind of talk. If things are not going the way we want, then we need to be empowered. It’s time to show strength and unity. Let’s stay. We belong here. It’s not time to leave because the going is a bit tough. We have it pretty good here and have to fight for that.”

He regularly makes the case that the Jewish and wider Québécois communities share common values that reject hate, fundamentalist and anti-western sentiment recently and regularly articulated in Montreal streets. “We want to live in peace. We respect other people but want people to respect us. And I think what’s happening in Quebec, specifically in Montreal, where people see 15 months of riots, disorder and chaos, is an international embarrassment that will likely affect the standing and investment in Canada and Montreal.”

He deplored the “complete indifference and inaction of Mayor (Valérie) Plante. Really, it’s embarrassing, the fact she just tweets meaningless things. What is she waiting for, more bullets?”

A clinician researcher in a Montreal hospital, Haddad concurs and points out that in France “the situation continues to worsen in a horrible downward spiral for Jews. In Quebec, it’s a multicultural society, it’s beautiful and it can work, but you have to respect the laws and enforce the laws. It’s hard when you have a mayor who does nothing, and people see that and continue with hateful speech, calling for people’s deaths, and we see how our youth, particularly in English-speaking universities, are stigmatized.”

Bibas is a child of Bill 101, raised in the French school system and integrated into Quebec society, and says there’s much to share, and the Jewish doctors group presents itself proudly in French. “We’re a Quebec organization. We want to continue building, contributing to Quebec. We work with patients from all backgrounds, we understand Quebec society, politics, and culture. We want to bridge that gap and show we’re part of the community. We’ve been here for over 250 years and aren’t asking for special treatment—we’re not causing disruptions or protests. We’re not the ones destroying the streets.”

The AMJQ came out prominently in April, responding to a March letter published by a doctors’ collective denouncing Israel’s military campaign. In a written response in French-language media, the AMJQ slammed the letter as a “militant pamphlet conveying mendacious rhetoric” which in addition “to expressing a humanism with variable geometry, spreads erroneous information with impunity, without concern for the accuracy of the facts, with the result of misinforming Quebecers and stigmatizing Israel.”

War is always monstrous, they wrote, regardless of who it affects. “For us, AMJQ doctors, a Palestinian mother who has lost her child constitutes the same calamity as the Israeli mother who mourns hers. Our compassion has no double standards.”

On Jan. 6, a group of Montreal-area medical professionals walked off the job to protest outside Radio-Canada offices, calling for an arms embargo, ceasefire and medical boycotts. Those who could not attend were encouraged to wear pins and keffiyehs to work. Demonstrators insisted they only abandoned administrative and other tasks, not medical duties.

The CJN asked Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé’s office if such a walkout should be sanctioned, given the waiting lists and backlogs in the province’s healthcare system.

Spokesperson Marie-Claude Lacasse told The CJN the ministry had no comment. “It’s the Collège des médecins (CDM) ethics code that governs professional responsibilities and not the ministry.” The CDM was similarly mum, referring queries to individual establishments. Only one institution responded, the CHU Sainte-Justine children’s hospital stating, “in Quebec, doctors work in the health network as self-employed workers. This means that they have autonomy in the management of their activities and their professional commitments.”

Bibas was unimpressed. “As physicians, our foremost duty is to provide care and preserve life,” guided by ethical principles that prioritize patients. “It is deeply concerning to witness a call for boycotting Israeli medical institutions and universities—actions ultimately jeopardizing patient care locally and beyond.” He said the group was ignorant of vital contributions by Israeli medical institutions, “including an unwavering commitment to humanitarian aid such as Israel facilitating the polio vaccination of over 1 million children in Gaza over the past year.”

A Jewish staffer at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal also speaking on condition of anonymity saw the protest on her way to work, telling The CJN she was “disgusted. We’re working endless hours to keep the system going, dealing with all kinds of shit, and our schedules are locked down. These people claim to do something noble? Why not on a day off? I haven’t heard a single word from any of these types after Oct. 7 other than about Israel’s ‘so-called ‘genocide’. That tells you what they are really all about.”

Haddad says it’s too late for France “and Quebec could get worse if we don’t act.” He has a prescription for that: “Get involved in politics at provincial, federal and municipal levels, explain our situation, make sure laws are enforced. We’re not asking to reinvent the wheel. Multiculturalism can be beautiful but if it’s not working, remake it. I won’t tear my shirt over the model,” he said, in regard to the province’s Jan. 30 announcement that it will completely revamp its model of integrating newcomers to Quebec, with increasing focus on secularism, equality between sexes, and adherence to common values.

In a parliamentary brief last year, the Canadian Federation of Jewish Medical Associations (CFJMA) with more than 2,000 members, said there are non-Jews in Canadian medical faculties “who do not hate Jews and who do not want harm to come to Jews, and there are even a few who are actively working to learn more about antisemitism in order to be better allies to Jews.”

CFJMA’s provincial member organizations however, report increasing numbers of people working in faculties and institutions that govern and accredit medical training “who do not believe that Jews are worthy of equity, equality, or even basic human rights. It is also our experience that the most vocal of those faculty members are active in promoting equity and human rights for other groups, sometimes as individual advocates but often as leaders or as educators in the EDI space.” They added, “this issue of open antisemitism in anti-oppression circles” has grown steadily in North America over the past 10 to 20 years.

The post Quebec Jewish Physicians Association members unite to fight antisemitism in the medical system appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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Syria’s President Visits Saudi Arabia in First Foreign Trip Since Assad’s Fall

Syria’s newly appointed president for a transitional phase Ahmed al-Sharaa meets Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salam, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 2, 2025. Photo: Bandar Algaloud Saudi Royal Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS

Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday in his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, signaling a shift in regional alliances and a move away from Iran as the country’s main ally in the Middle East.

After meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Sharaa said in a statement that they discussed strengthening bilateral ties, regional developments, and cooperation in humanitarian and economic matters, along with “extensive future plans in energy, technology, education, and health.”

Last week, Sharaa became Damascus’s transitional president after leading a rebel campaign that ousted long-time Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war.

According to an announcement by the military command that led the offensive against Assad, Sharaa was given the authority to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional period and to suspend the country’s constitution.

The collapse of al-Assad’s regime was the result of an offensive spearheaded by Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.

During the “Conference for Announcing the Victory of the Syrian Revolution,” Sharaa said that the first priority was to fill the government vacuum “in a legitimate and legal way.”

Since Assad’s fall, the new Syrian government has sought to strengthen ties with Arab and Western leaders.

In these efforts, Saudi Arabia has played a key role, hosting Damascus’s new foreign and defense ministers in early January and later organizing a meeting with Syrian, Arab, and Western officials.

Last week, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani became the first head of state to visit Damascus after the collapse of Assad’s regime.

Syria’s new diplomatic relationships reflect a distancing from its previous allies, Iran and Russia. Iran, for example, has not reopened its embassy in Damascus, which was a central part of its self-described “Axis of Resistance” against US-backed Israel, including Assad’s Syria and a network of terrorist proxies — primarily Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Russia seeks to preserve access to its air and sea bases in Syria, but Moscow took in Assad when he fled the country in December. Syria’s new government has requested Assad’s extradition.

The Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on opposition protests in 2011 sparked the Syrian civil war, during which Syria was suspended from the Arab League for more than a decade.

The new Syrian government appears focused on reassuring the West and working to get sanctions lifted, which date back to 1979 when the US labeled Syria a state sponsor of terrorism and were significantly increased following Assad’s violent response to the anti-government protests.

However, Damascus still faces significant instability and challenges, including threats from the Islamic State terrorist group and other militants in the country. On Monday, a car bomb exploded in Manbij in northern Syria, killing at least 19 people, mostly women, and leaving over a dozen wounded.

The post Syria’s President Visits Saudi Arabia in First Foreign Trip Since Assad’s Fall first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Trump Hints at Openness to West Bank Annexation, Touts Israel’s Success Despite Being ‘Very Small Piece of Land’

US President Donald Trump (R) in the Oval of the White House in January 2025. Photo: Fortune via Reuters Connect

US President Donald Trump on Monday did not bat down the prospect of Israel annexing parts of the West Bank, noting that the Jewish state is a “very small piece of land” and praising Israelis for their “amazing” accomplishments despite their country’s size.

While speaking to reporters from the Oval Office, Trump was asked whether he supports Israel potentially annexing the West Bank. Though Trump refused to answer the question directly, he seemed to indicate dissatisfaction with the size of Israel’s territorial boundaries. 

“Well, I’m not going to talk about that,” Trump said regarding West Bank annexation. “It [Israel] certainly is a small country in terms of land.”

Trump then picked up a stationery pen and juxtaposed it to his presidential desk, comparing the size of Israel to its Middle Eastern neighbors.

“That’s not good, you know? It’s a pretty big difference,” Trump said, regarding the size of Israel. 

“I use that as analogy. It’s pretty accurate, actually,” Trump said. “It’s a pretty small piece of land, and it’s amazing that they’ve been able to do, what they’ve been able to do when you think about it. There’s a lot of good, smart brainpower. But it is a very small piece of land, no question about it.”

Trump has previously indicated a potential belief that Israel should expand its territorial boundaries. In August 2024, while still campaigning for president, Trump called Israel “tiny” and questioned if the country could expand. 

“When you look at the map, a map of the Middle East, Israel is a tiny little spot compared to these giant landmasses. It’s really a tiny spot. I actually said, ‘Is there any way of getting more?’” Trump said 

Observers have pondered whether Trump would support a formal annexation of parts of the West Bank in his second term. Although Trump has yet to indicate support for such measures, Jewish billionaire Miriam Adelson, one of the president’s most generous campaign donors, allegedly requested support for West Bank annexation in exchange for financial assistance. However, a spokesperson for Adelson denied that she made such a request.

The first Trump administration handled the West Bank in a different fashion than its predecessors, suggesting that the White House might be open to upending traditional policy regarding the territory. In 2019, the Trump administration reversed the US policy that declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal. Explaining the policy shift, then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace.”

Proponents of annexation argue that establishing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank would protect the Jewish state from future terrorist attacks by groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while also providing residents a better quality of life.

However, opponents of West Bank annexation argue that such an action would deprive Palestinians of the ability to have their own state and trigger an onslaught of backlash from Israel’s Western allies and international institutions such as the UN.

The Trump administration has issued an executive order rescinding sanctions imposed during the Biden administration against Israelis living in the West Ban. The sanctions accused them of behaving violently against Palestinians in the West Bank. Mike Huckabee, the nominee for US ambassador to Israel, has publicly declared that he will refer to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria,” adopting terminology preferred by Israel.

The post Trump Hints at Openness to West Bank Annexation, Touts Israel’s Success Despite Being ‘Very Small Piece of Land’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US Justice Department Forms Antisemitism Task Force Following Trump Executive Order

A woman walks past the US Department of Justice Building, in Washington, DC, Dec. 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Al Drago

The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that it is has created a “multi-agency” Task Force to Combat Antisemitism to fulfill an executive order issued last week by President Donald Trump.

“The Task Force’s first priority will be to root out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” the department said in a press release, which noted that the group will be housed inside the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and include representatives from the departments of education and health and human services.

“Antisemitism in any environment is repugnant to this nation’s ideals,” said Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights who has been appointed to lead the initiative, said in a statement. “The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending antisemitism in our schools.”

The announcement came less than a week after Trump directed federal agencies to combat campus antisemitism and hold pro-terror extremists accountable for the harassment of Jewish students, fulfilling a promise he made while campaigning for a second term in office. Continuing work started started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — the new executive order, titled, “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”

Additionally, the order initiates a full review of the explosion of campus antisemitism on US colleges across the country after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a convulsive moment in American history to which the previous administration struggled to respond during the final year and a half of its tenure.

Jewish activists and civil rights groups praised Monday’s announcement for being responsive to the Jewish community’s concerns about rising hatred and a perceived refusal to condemn discrimination when its perpetrators are left-wing progressives.

“ADL long advocated for the creation of an interagency task force to combat antisemitism,” the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a statement posted on X/Twitter. “We welcome this important step by [the president] and the Justice Department and look forward to working together to tackle antisemitism on college campuses and beyond.”

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard University graduate student who is currently suing the school for allegedly neglecting to punish antisemites, said, “American Jewish students: help is on the way,” while Eyal Yakoby, a University of Pennsylvania alumnus who sounded the alarm that antisemitism at the institution had reached crisis levels following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, proclaimed, “Promises made, promises kept.”

Campus antisemitism was the subject of a major recent report by several committees of the US House of Representatives that accused college officials of choosing to protect their brands over fighting anti-Jewish hatred.

“The committee found that so-called university leaders deliberately chose to withhold support from Jewish communities on campus, demonstrating a refusal to address the hostile environments at their institutions,” the report said. “Jewish students, faculty, and staff often felt abandoned by administrators’ passive and muted responses to the explosion of antisemitic hate on campus. The committee’s investigation found that these failures to act were not mere oversights but intentional decisions.”

The report added that some schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania, pantomimed corrective action to disruptive behavior, assuring the public that it took rules violations, including the commandeering of campus property with “Gaza Solidarity Encampments,” seriously — but it punished very few students for misconduct and those it did were given slaps on the wrist, according to critics.

Egregious conduct which prompted civil litigation evaded disciplinary action, it continued, explaining that nearly 100 students who participated in an encampment which barred Jewish students from accessing sections of campus at the University of California, Los Angeles “signed resolution agreements allowing them to escape disciplinary consequences” and “none were disciplined.”

In last week’s executive order, Trump denounced his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, for refusing to handle the problem.

“This failure is unacceptable and ends today,” he said. “It shall be the policy of the United States to combat antisemitism vigorously, using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post US Justice Department Forms Antisemitism Task Force Following Trump Executive Order first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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