Toronto Public Library branch removed a poem by a celebrated Palestinian poet killed in an Israeli airstrike in December, following pressure from pro-Israel lobby group B’nai Brith Canada, a move that advocates are calling a clear example of anti-Palestinian racism.
News circulated on social media last week after B’nai Brith posted on X (formerly Twitter). The organization claimed the display presented “a biased and unbalanced anti-Israel perspective,” adding that the poem, If I Must Die, “glorifies martyrdom” and pressured the library to remove it from the display.
B’nai Brith, which celebrated the poem’s removal, did not respond to Ricochet’s request for comment.
Willa Holt, communications coordinator for Independent Jewish Voices, calls the decision to remove the poem from a publicly-funded library “shameful.”
“B’nai Brith values the state of Israel above all else, prioritizing a nationalist view of Jewishness that does not speak to me,” Holt said.
“Palestinians should be represented in educational resources and to silence a prominent Palestinian – one who was murdered by the same regime B’nai Brith supports uncritically – is a cowardly and unjustifiable move during an ongoing genocide.”
Holt says B’nai Brith is doing more harm than good for Jewish Canadians by “conflating any anti-Zionist statement, and any critique of the Israel state, with antisemitism,” creating confusion and obscuring real instances of antisemitism. (more...)
Toronto Public Library accused of anti-Palestinian racism after abrupt removal of work by Gazan poet
If I must die, let it be a tale. #FreePalestine #Gaza pic.twitter.com/ODPx3TiH1a
— Refaat in Gaza 🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) November 1, 2023
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