The Anti-Racism program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) today released a joint report on anti-Palestinian racism (APR) in Canada, documenting 988 incidents of APR in 2023—a staggering near-doubling from 506 incidents reported in 2022. In an alarming find, the study revealed that APR surged proportionately eightfold following October 7, 2023, coinciding with the launch of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Titled Anti-Palestinian Racism in Canada: 2023 Annual Report, the study expands on last year’s inaugural report, underscoring the systemic nature of APR in Canadian society. The new annual study points to widespread defamation, erasure, and dehumanization of Palestinians, especially among right-wing media and right-wing non-profit organizations. The study concludes that many of the incidents of APR in 2023 were driven by attempts to apply the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. IHRA puts on chill on discussion around Palestinian rights and resistance because it conflates criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism.
“We knew that anti-Palestinian racism was a growing problem in Canada, but the explosion of APR in the final months of 2023 was sobering,” explained Thomas Woodley, Director of Operations for the CJPME Foundation. “Some forms of APR grew over 10-fold, as right-wing commentators sought to dehumanize Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza, and sought to portray solidarity demonstrations in Canada as security threats.” The ARPCF emphasizes how anti-Palestinian racism operates not as isolated incidents but as a systemic problem across political circles, institutions, media, and society. (more...)
New Report Finds Sharp Rise in Anti-Palestinian Racism in 2023
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