Future historians will study how a settler colonial regime, engaged in a vicious genocide, managed to promote the false narrative of themselves as the “victim”. Academics will marvel at how this narrative was adopted and parroted by Western politicians, institutions and the media, even those claiming to be progressive.
They will be dumbfounded how the U.S.-Israeli aggression on Gaza committed massacre after massacre, but would then escape criticism by rushing to recycle some debunked claims from nine months earlier. And observers will also note how the outrageous weaponization of “anti-Semitism” by the Zionist lobby resulted in an increase of real anti-Jewish racism in the West.
Two recent examples in Canada illustrate how this process functions with amazing efficiency. One is the outrageous smear campaign against a Palestinian community member in Vancouver, in which the BC NDP premier participated, and the other is the deleting of a photograph about Palestinian embroidery by Ontario’s NDP leader. In both cases, pro-Israel lobby groups had come out swinging to denounce what was legitimate political protest in the first situation, and basic cultural expression in the second.
We know the Zionist groups are becoming more desperate by the day, and really can’t comprehend why a large segment of the population refuses to support their genocidal campaign. As such, their attacks on activists are also becoming more vicious and unhinged.
Earlier this month, activists in BC held a protest at an international women’s softball tournament that featured a game between Canada and Israel. An open letter denouncing the targeting of Dania Barakat noted that she “has been subjected to vicious smears and doxing by organized pro-Israeli racists. This happened after she participated in a July 3, 2024 protest against Team Israel, who were shamefully welcomed in Surrey to play in the Canada Women’s Softball Cup tournament.”
We are not surprised when Zionist advocates launch these kind of fabricated charges against activists, but what is really galling is how so many of our politicians are willing to “pile on” without even the most cursory checks of what actually happened. Nonetheless they use their social media accounts to spread these outrageous smears and help inflame campaigns that have resulted in people losing their livelihoods, their future careers and even being charged with “hate crimes”. Their behaviour has real-life consequences, consequences that are devastating for the individuals involved (curiously in the Vancouver area, most of the individuals targeted have been women).
In Ontario, NDP leader Maria Stiles quickly deleted a photo of a booth promoting Palestinian embroidery after being chastised by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center FSWC as follows: “The ‘beautiful Palestinian embroidery’ that you speak of represents the erasure of Israel and its Jewish people…It is unbecoming of a political leader to celebrate such a display, which causes harm to Jews in Canada and Israel.”
She complied and removed the photo, thereby promoting the racism that even forms of Palestinian cultural expression are forbidden. One of the embroidery pieces had dared to show the map of historical Palestine, and this was too much for FSWC, who demanded an apology.
As Zionism moves close to its inevitable demise, the Israeli state and its supporters are attacking anyone and anything that dares to stand up and support Palestine. But their movement tactics are bankrupt, as bankrupt as the Eilat port, and we are certain this vicious ideology will soon be in the dustbin of history!
(cover photo Michael YC Tseng)
