A small army of policeman kept their eye on the hundreds of demonstrators who filled Metro Hall Square on a cold and dreary night on Monday, raising banners and yelling slogans-all for a man who was likely asleep at the time, thousands of miles away.
The protestors were angrily voicing their objection to the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had been invited to speak at the 74th United Jewish Communities General Assembly, held Nov. 11-15 at Metro Hall in Toronto.
Such are the passions raised by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that even a declined invitation was enough to provoke heated demonstrations in our city.
The protest was staged by newly formed group the Coalition Against Israel’s War Crimes, which includes roughly twenty organizations, including U of T’s Students for Peace in Iraq (SPI). The coalition denounces Israel’s policy against Palestinians as acts that are tantamount to crimes against humanity.
Khaled Mouammor, a spokesman for the coalition, says the case against Sharon centres largely on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, “which culminated in the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.” It is charged that Sharon willingly caused the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians when he allowed a violently anti-Palestinian militia known as the Phalange to enter Palestinian refugee camps outside of Beirut, which was under complete Israeli military control at the time.
The result was two days of violence, rape, and murder, which left up to 3,500 civilians dead. Sharon, who was Israel’s defence minister at the time, was later found indirectly responsible for the massacre by an Israeli government tribunal.
“It was decided that we would hold a series of events to bring to attention what this man stands for, and secondly to pressure the government to prevent him from entering Canada,” said Mouammor.
In addition to the protest on Monday, the coalition held a series of run-up events and has launched a campaign to have Canada’s attorney general Irwin Cottler indict Sharon for war crimes.
William Musgrave, a third-year student at U of T and a member of pro-Israeli campus group Betar Tagar, dismisses the accusations against Sharon, however.
“The truth of the matter is, he was never internationally indicted.” he said, “He was indicted by the Israeli courts…and it was a very minor indictment.”
From the outset, it was highly unlikely that Sharon would attend on Monday. He is facing huge political challenges at home and his coalition government is on the verge of collapse. In the end, he addressed the UCJ at Metro Hall via a pre-recorded video while the demonstration carried on outside.
The fact that the protests went ahead even though the coalition knew Sharon would not be there has led some to question the motives behind the demonstrations.
“It’s so close to anti-Semitism it’s outrageous,” said Musgrave. Anti-Semitism is a sensitive issue at the best of times, but last week thousands of anti-Semitic pamphlets were found distributed on campuses of all three Toronto universities, including each of U of T’s campuses. Musgrave believes that protesting outside a gathering of Jewish community groups sends a clear message.
“Effectively, it’s protesting North American Jewish communities,” he said.
Besides condemning Sharon, the speakers on Monday-among them a Jewish Holocaust survivor-denounced Zionism, the founding ideology behind the state of Israel, claiming it has led to the displacement and repression of millions of Palestinians who also call the region their homeland.
Attacking Zionism is only further evidence of anti-Semitism, according to John Jaffit, director of Campus Affairs for Betar Tagar.
“If you’re against Jewish national self-determination, which is Zionism,” he explained, “you’re anti-Semitic…whether you’re a Jew or a non-Jew,” he said.
Judaism and Zionism are not the same thing, however, and Claire Hurtig, leader of SPI and one of the organizers of the rally on Monday, sees accusations of anti-Semitism as a way of deflecting criticism from Israel’s human rights record.
“Just because someone is a Jew doesn’t make them a Zionist,” said Hurtig, who is herself Jewish. “We take offence that things like the occupation [of Palestine by Israel] are done in our name.”
