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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.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.