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Antisemitism is a Problem Even on Tranquil PEI
By HENRY SREBRNIK (May 30, 2025) At the end of May the Jewish community here on Prince Edward Island met informally with a member of the RCMP to express our worries regarding rising antisemitism. We are very small, some 100 people, and with little visible presence, so it’s not surprising there’s little overt anti-Jewish activity, compared to everywhere else.
Unlike in other provinces, there was never a mass migration of Jews to PEI. The earliest record of a Jewish person on the island is from the mid-19th century but it wasn’t until the 1980s that the Jewish community formally organized itself. Most Jews here are “come from away,” as non-island born people are called. We have few roots and families here. Most Islanders don’t even know we exist.
PEI is a quiet place, and even the antisemites are almost invisible — though, as people at the meeting shared their stories about antisemitic signs on telephone poles, house windows with “from the river to the sea” placards facing the street, reports from some parents about problematic teachers in schools, and so on, they are out there.
For example, an event in Charlottetown last September, on the International Day of Peace, a United Nations-sanctioned holiday, was organized by the local Ukrainian community to protest Russia’s war against their country. Although it had nothing to do with the ongoing war in Gaza, nor was it meant to, yet there were more Palestinian than Ukrainian flags in evidence among the attendees, most of whom came out to make sure Gaza would not be “ignored.”
Our two independent downtown cinemas, which usually host art and foreign films, ran pro-Palestinian movies recently – with, apparently, significant turnouts. Despite City Cinema management having been told that the propaganda being disseminated at the theatre — they were showing the movie “No Other Land,” about life on the West Bank — is highly objectionable to our community, their failure to remove it was extremely troubling. Their lobby had a full display of pro-Palestinian material, a Palestinian flag across their counter, and a Palestinian representative accosting everyone entering the lobby with solicitations for money. At the Tivoli, they presented “The Encampments,” which explores the various pro-Palestinian protests in 2024 on American university campuses. This may not seem like much to people in Montreal, Toronto, or Winnipeg, but here it was a big deal.
During the recent federal election, the website VotePalestine.ca listed more than 330 candidates across the country who expressed “full” endorsement of their “Palestine Platform.” It demanded broad Government of Canada sanctions on anything connected to Israel, including “cultural and academic exchanges.” VotePalestine is closely associated with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), one of the central organizers of Canadian anti-Israel blockades and street demonstrations.
Almost all the endorsers in the country were in the Green Party or among the New Democrats, but it included 19 Liberals and two Bloc Québécois. (No Conservatives.) On PEI, six candidates endorsed the platform, including, in Charlottetown, Liberal incumbent MP Sean Casey. The other five were running for the Greens or NDP.
Casey was the only Liberal on PEI to sign the VotePalestine pledge. The other three Liberals on the island did not. (The Liberals won all four of the island’s seats.)
There are very few Muslims on PEI, and most are Iranians, Kosovars, Somalis, South Asians, and Sudanese. Few are Middle Eastern Arabs. I can guess with almost certainty that they support the Palestinian movement, but they are not especially strident about it. They are immigrants, many who don’t speak English or French, and so have a modest degree of influence.
A more significant group of anti-Israel activists are people who see the devastation in Gaza and blame Israel for everything; obviously a streak of old-fashioned antisemitism is responsible for their one-sided tenderness for Gazans and lack of sympathy for Israelis, even after October 7. They are involved in island peace committees and church groups and write letters to the newspapers. They have more social visibility and move the needle in an anti-Jewish direction.
But, as elsewhere, the third and most influential people are the ones in the universities, where for the past 40 years, here as everywhere, they have inculcated generations of students with very fully-developed ideological theories about Israel being uniquely evil, an apartheid settler-colonial “white” supremacist racist and imperialist country, and as such an oppressive enemy of all Black, Brown, and indigenous peoples (as propounded by the academics who write articles on so-called “intersectionalism.”) Israel is, to them, the current embodiment of fascism. These toxic left-wing ideologies are a very danger to the continued existence of the Jewish state.
Their disseminators are many of the professors at Columbia, Harvard, McGill, Michigan, the University of Toronto, York, and so very many other universities — some even at little UPEI — who deny they are antisemites but rather “anti-Zionists,” and view that battle as being part of a larger anti-racist and anti-colonial struggle. They wear keffiyehs as their modern form of left- wing identity, after it came into widespread symbolic use when adapted by Yasser Arafat, by the hijacker Leila Khaled of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and by other leading figures in multiple intifadas, globalized and otherwise.
The only framework many students have been given for viewing the world by them is the neo-Marxist vision of “oppressor” and “oppressed,” which they neatly apply to Israel and Palestine. As Kathleen Hayes, a former member of an ultra-left Party for Socialism and Liberation, the group to which the murderer in Washington DC belonged, wrote in “Witness to Jihad,” Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, May 25, 2025, today’s students “learned it in the universities, from professors who repackaged Marxism to resonate in our modern age, using the Jews and Israel as their instruments of choice. But beyond the focus on Jews, this Manichean worldview declares entire classes of people reactionary and evil and suggests they ultimately must be eliminated for the sake of human betterment.”
Israeli violence is the violence that maintains a neo-colonial military occupation and inequality. Palestinian violence is the inevitable response to that; therefore it will only end when the occupation “from the river to the sea” — a call to destroy a sovereign state — ends. The oppressor can never be the victim. Within that narrative, the oppressed sometimes strike back brutally — but this is justified by the greater and more enduring brutality of the oppressor. That is why they justify what happened on October 7, 2023.
So the man who recently murdered the two Israeli embassy officials in Washington DC might say he has nothing against Jews, he just wants a “Free, Free Palestine” to replace the illegitimate Zionist entity. He might even point to Jews in Jewish Voice for Peace and Not in Our Name, as evidence.
But given how intertwined Jews and Judaism are with the Land of Israel, culturally, emotionally, historically, religiously, and now with the state itself, it is really, for most of us, a distinction without a difference. And rightly so. And this is what we are up against.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
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EU-Funded NGO Backed Online Platform Targeting Jewish Businesses in Catalonia
Supporters of Hamas demonstrate outside the Israeli Embassy in Madrid, Oct. 18. Photo: Reuters/Guillermo Yllanes Gonzalez
The controversial online platform mapping Jewish-owned businesses, schools, and Israeli-linked companies in Catalonia, a region in northeastern Spain, was promoted by an EU-funded non-governmental organization.
On Tuesday, NGO Monitor — an independent Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks anti-Israel bias among nongovernmental organizations — released new information showing that Engineers Without Borders – Catalonia (ESF-C) and Universities with Palestine (UAP) jointly promoted the BarcelonaZ project on social media, identifying themselves as its primary backers.
First reported by the local Jewish outlet Enfoque Judío, the interactive map was launched by an unidentified group claiming to be “journalists, professors, and students” on the French-hosted mapping platform GoGoCarto.
As a publicly accessible and collaboratively created online platform, the map marked over 150 schools, Jewish-owned businesses — including kosher food shops — and Israeli-linked as well as Spanish and international companies operating in Israel, labeling them as “Zionist.”
“Our goal is to understand how Zionism operates and the forms it takes, with the intention of making visible and denouncing the impact of its investments in our territory,” the project’s website stated.
According to NGO Monitor’s newly released report, ESF-C is a European Union–funded NGO running a Youth Internship Program subsidized by the Public Employment Service of Catalonia, with 40 percent co-financing from the European Social Fund Plus — the EU’s primary program for funding employment, education, and social initiatives.
The EU Financial Transparency System shows that ESF‑C partnered on two EU grants worth about $2.8 million from 2019 to 2023 and received at least $164,000 in funding.
Jewish leaders in Spain have strongly denounced the BarcelonaZ initiative, warning that it fosters further discrimination and hatred against the community amid an increasingly hostile environment in which Jews and Israelis continue to be targeted.
“The mapping and boycotting of Jewish businesses in Catalonia is an echo of some of the darkest chapters in history, including the prelude to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany,” the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s Director of European Affairs, Shannon Seban, said in a statement.
“The organizers of this initiative put a target on the backs of Spanish Jews, at a time when Jews are being hunted across the globe, as seen so horrifically in Australia just three weeks ago,” she said, referring to the deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which killed 15 people and wounded at least 40 others.
“Clear incitement to violence of this nature must not be platformed or tolerated by internet companies or government authorities,” Seban continued.
On its website, ESF-C describes its mission as promoting “a fair international society, which does not exclude anyone,” and highlights its commitment to “non-denominationalism and non-partisanship.” Yet, the NGO’s 2024 annual report also asserts that it “cannot ignore the Palestinian resistance, a clear expression of the struggle for freedom of all oppressed peoples.”
In a social media post, the NGO also accused Israel of “genocide” during its defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, describing its platform as “a resource designed to inform, raise awareness, and mobilize the educational and student community in Catalonia.”
“The attacks that began on Oct. 7 have involved water and electricity cuts, the boycott of essential water infrastructure, and the contamination of Palestinian water sources,” ESF-C wrote in an Instagram post, without mentioning the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.
“The violation of these basic rights is a key weapon used by the State of Israel to perpetuate genocide,” the statement read.
NGO Monitor also revealed that UAP is a network of Catalan faculty- and student-led anti-Israel organizations that co-sponsored the BarcelonaZ project.
Last year, UAP organized a “People’s Court” at Complutense University of Madrid on what it called the “Palestinian genocide,” with attendance from several terror-linked NGOs and individuals, including Samidoun, Masar Badil, Al-Haq, and Raji Sourani, NGO Monitor reported.
Several community organizations have filed complaints with GoGoCarto, demanding the site’s removal and arguing that it violates French laws against hate speech and discrimination.
Earlier this week, GoGoCarto announced it had removed the BarcelonaZ project from its website after local groups denounced the initiative as blatantly antisemitic and dangerous.
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Knesset member from Netanyahu’s party decries ‘new enemy’: Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens
(JTA) — In an address to the Knesset on Monday, Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz decried what he said was a “new enemy” rising within American politics: Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.
“We are used to enemies from outside. We fight terror tunnels of Hamas. We fight the ballistic missiles of Iran. But today I look at the West, our greatest ally, and I see a new enemy rising from within,” said Illouz, who is originally from Canada originally, in an English address. “I am speaking of a poison being sold to the American people as patriotism. I’m speaking of the intellectual vandalism of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.”
Illouz’s comments come as the Republican party has been roiled in recent months by debates over the mainstreaming of antisemitic influencers within the GOP.
טאקר קרלסון וקנדיס אוונס הם לא פטריוטים – הם ונדלים אינטלקטואלים. הם טוענים שהם נלחמים בשמאל הקיצוני, אבל הם בדיוק אותו דבר: אותה שנאה למערב, אותו רלטיביזם מוסרי ואותו ניסיון להחריב את המורשת שלנו ואת המערב. pic.twitter.com/ygN70WtGEw
— דן אילוז – Dan Illouz (@dillouz) January 7, 2026
In October, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson hosted far-right antisemitic influencer Nick Fuentes on his platform, igniting outrage from Jewish conservatives who warned of the growing reach of antisemitic voices.
Owens has long made antisemitic rhetoric a hallmark of her YouTube channel, which has 5.7 million subscribers. A recent analysis of her content by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that three-quarters of her videos that mentioned Jews were antisemitic.
“They claim to fight the woke left. They are no different than the woke left,” said Illouz. “The radical left tears down the statues of Thomas Jefferson, Tucker Carlson tears down the legacy of Winston Churchill. The radical left says Western civilization is evil, Candace Owens says the roots of our faith are demonic. It is the same sickness.”
Carlson and Owens are among the right-wing influencers who have made opposition to Israel a centerpiece of their output, at a time when support for Israel is declining among conservatives, particularly younger conservatives.
In November, Amichai Chikli, the Israeli Diaspora minister, echoed Illouz’s concerns in an interview with the New York Post, telling the outlet that he was “far more concerned about antisemitism on the right than on the left.” The comments were notable because Chikli is himself a right-wing, anti-“woke” warrior who, in a first for Israel, has stoked relationships with far-right European parties that in some cases have ties to the Nazis.
“One of the worst moments was when a popular conservative broadcaster called one of the most vile Holocaust deniers in America ‘one of the most honest historians.’ That legitimizes hate — it normalizes it,” Chikli told the New York Post, appearing to refer to Carlson’s past praise of the Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper.
Chikli also warned against the rising influence of Fuentes and Cooper among young Americans.
“Antisemitism has become fashionable for Gen Z,” Chikli continued. “They listen to podcasts, not professors. When people like Nick Fuentes or Darryl Cooper are treated as thought leaders, that’s dangerous. These are neo-Nazis.”
The Times of Israel asked Illouz whether he was worried about appearing to interfere with American politics. “Defending the alliance between America and Israel is not interfering,” he said. “I am in touch with many pro-Israel conservatives who know that Candace and Tucker are a threat to America as much as to Israel.”
Top GOP officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have largely dismissed calls from Jewish conservatives, including Ben Shapiro, and others to draw a line against antisemitic influencers.
“Do you think you are the first to try to delegitimize the Jewish people? We are the people of eternity,” said Illouz toward the conclusion of his address, adding that “we will be here long after your YouTube channels are forgotten dust.”
The post Knesset member from Netanyahu’s party decries ‘new enemy’: Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens appeared first on The Forward.
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Texas Joins Legal Action Against American Muslims for Palestine as Move to ‘Counter Hamas Terrorism’
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point USA summit since the death of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, US, Dec. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Cheney Orr
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced the state would join Virginia and Iowa in the filing of a legal brief against the nonprofit activist group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and other organizations which he characterized as “radical” in order “to combat Hamas terrorism.”
“Radical Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas must be decimated and dismantled, and that includes their domestic supporting branches,” Paxton posted on the social media platform X.
“Terrorism relies on complex networks and intermediaries, and the law must be enforced against those who knowingly provide material support,” Texas’s top legal officer added in a statement. “My office will continue to defend Americans who have been brutally affected by terrorism and ensure accountability under the law.”
In November, Texas began more aggressive legal efforts against organizations long alleged by researchers and law enforcement to be part of a domestic Hamas support network in the United States. Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Nov. 18, the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist organizations.
A month later, Paxton filed a motion defending the designation in court, countering a suit by the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters of CAIR. “My office will continue to defend the governor’s lawful, accurate declaration that CAIR is an FTO [foreign terrorist organization], as well as Texas’s right to protect itself from organizations with documented ties to foreign extremist movements,” Paxton said at the time.
In its latest statement, Paxton’s office described how on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the groups AMP and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) “declared that they were ‘part of’ a ‘Unity Intifada’ under Hamas’s ‘unified command.’”
“Those who have been victimized by Hamas’s terrorism brought claims against the radical groups under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act,” the statement continued. “Attorney General Paxton’s brief is in support of the victims and was filed to ensure terrorist supporters are brought to justice.”
The legal brief references the “unity intifada” and “unified command” sentiments before stating, “They should be taken at their word. And just like their predecessor organizations — convicted or admitted material supporters of Hamas — they should be held accountable.”
The brief charges, “Defendants here are alleged to have provided material support for Hamas, the brutal terrorist regime that not only oppresses millions in Gaza but that also murdered more than a thousand innocents and kidnapped hundreds more. States have an interest in ensuring that valid claims brought under material support statutes are allowed to be litigated in court and that any violators are held accountable.”
Last year, Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares — whose name appears at the lead of the brief — sought to press AMP to reveal its funding sources, which a judge ruled it needed to do May 9, 2025.
The latest brief provides a history lesson about how AMP and NSJP “did not begin their material support for Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023; rather, their material support has been going on for decades — both as the current organizations and through predecessor entities. Indeed, AMP was founded after a predecessor organization and five of its board members were convicted of providing material support for Hamas.” The brief describes the network beginning when “first, the Muslim Brotherhood founded the ‘Palestine Committee’ in 1988 to fund the terrorist organization Hamas.”
This network included “several organizations providing Hamas financial, informational, and political support,” the legal document explained. “Among those organizations were the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), organizations founded and controlled by senior members of Hamas leadership.”