A feminist bookstore with an activist bent is being threatened with a boycott because of the controversial buttons it sells.
The Toronto Women’s Bookstore—which has long sold textbooks for some U of T courses—sells several buttons beside its cash register, most with a political theme.
The buttons that touched off the controversy, which sell for $2, have slogans like “End the Occupation Now,” “Palestine—Homeland Denied,” and “Free Palestine—Time for Peace, Time for Women.”
Dr. Ari Zaretsky, an assistant professor in U of T’s psychiatry department, saw the buttons after a visit to the Harbord St. store.
Zaretsky contacted the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), which produced buttons with the phrase “Stop the Homicide Bombings” atop a Star of David. When the CJC brought the buttons to the store, the Toronto Women’s Bookstore refused to sell them.
The bookstore refused to comment on the matter in an interview. A statement issued by the store made no comment about refusing to sell the anti-suicide bombing buttons, but defended its sale of “Stop the Occupation” buttons.
“We continue to carry the buttons, as they are consistent with our mandate,” the statement read, adding that the mandate of the bookstore included “working in an anti-oppression framework that supports liberation struggles, anti-racist movements, struggles against anti-Semitism, and human rights work.”
The statement mentioned the bookstore’s “work with individuals and groups within Jewish, Palestinian and social activist communities,” including several Jewish groups that oppose the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“We are dismayed by the attempts to silence dissent on this issue in Toronto. Those criticizing the bookstore have equated criticism of Israel with being anti-Jewish. We believe that an end to occupation is part of the struggle against anti-Semitism,” the statement read.
U of T Hillel, a campus Jewish organization, was unable to comment on the matter before press time.
“How can a bookstore that promotes peace refuse to carry a button that begs for the end of the senseless killing of innocent women, men and children?” asked Canadian Jewish Congress Ontario chair Ed Morgan. Frank Dimant, the vice-president of B’nai Brith Canada, said that the conduct of the bookstore was “part of the continuing parade of anti-Semitism on campus”
“To sell buttons in support of violence is beyond comprehension,” Dimant said, adding that “it voices its support for these kinds of hideous attacks” such as suicide bombings.
