Not In Our Name Holds an Information Picket to Denounce Canadian Support for Racist Apartheid Education

Photos of the action

On November 19th at 4:30pm, Not In Our Name (NION), a group of Toronto-based Jewish dissidents, are holding an information picket outside of the Royal York Hotel at 100 Front Street, where Canada's most prominent and wealthy supporters of Israel will gather to raise funds for The Elizabeth and Tony Comper Interdisciplinary Institute for the “Study of Antisemitism and Racism” at Haifa University. NION’s picket is endorsed by the Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA).

NION’s picket is to protest a fundraiser that will reinforce an already unequal education system. Jewish Israelis benefit from access to an elite system, while Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are frequently prevented from attending classes, writing exams, and fulfilling the academic requirements for graduation. Palestinians are forced to attend separate universities that operate on shoe-string budgets. Furthermore, according to CAIA member Naomi Binder Wall, "Israeli universities use the services of political scientists, archeologists, sociologists and other social scientists to concoct a pastiche of pseudo history, misinformation and propaganda for the past and present crimes being committed against Arab and Palestinian people. Meanwhile those, like Haifa University historian Dr. Ilan Pappe, who question those myths, are silenced and attacked. Haifa University’s administration attempted to strip Dr. Pappe of tenure for his work on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948.”

Not in our Name (NION) is a collective of progressive Jews who work against the apartheid practices to which Israel has subjected the Palestinians both in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As Jews, they are picketing an event which raises funds for an institute which purports to study anti-Semitism and racism because, according to NION member Judith Weisman, “anti-Semitism is a form of racism and we as progressive people are opposed to all forms of racism. We are very committed to maintaining the anti-racist essence of opposition to anti-Semitism, against its use by supporters of apartheid to muzzle criticism of Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian people.”

The fundraising event will be attended by the Tribute Committee, whose members include Gerry Schwartz, CEO of Onex whose subsidiary CMC produced the military components used in Israel’s wars against Lebanon and Palestine; Irwin Cotler, the former Justice Minister who was influential in pushing forward the Martin government’s rejection of United Nations resolutions affirming Palestinian human rights; Frank Dimant of the vociferously anti-Palestinian B’nai Brith; and many other powerful supporters of apartheid. Navyug Gill of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) notes: “Many of the individuals attending this fundraiser are diehard opponents of Palestinian human rights. It is unconscionable, given their unconditional support for Israeli apartheid and the dehumanization of Palestinians, for them to posture as proponents of anti-racist education.”

Academic inequities are just one aspect of the apartheid policies that are being opposed by an international boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against Israeli Apartheid. This picket takes place at the culmination of the Toronto component of the International Week Against the Apartheid Wall, initiated by civil society groups in Palestine and involving people in more than 20 countries across the world. “Amidst intensifying Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip,” explains NION member Judy Deutsch, “the international community needs to isolate this apartheid regime, not raise funds for it.”

Media Contacts:

Judy Deutsch (Not in Our Name): (416) 929-8349
Judith Weisman (Not in Our Name): (416) 921-6391
Naomi Binder Wall (Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid): (416) 407-7935
Navyug Gill (Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid): (647) 273-1666