Students over donor money: the suppression of Palestine solidarity at McGill University and beyond

 

A virtual event with Roger Waters, and students from McGill and voices from other Canadian universities speaking about the role of donors in suppressing Palestinian solidarity on campus.

After Zionist donor Sylvan Adams described his “fantasy” to reunite Pink Floyd to promote isr*el, Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters, a Palestine activist and long-time supporter of SPHR McGill voiced his thoughts on Sylvan's disturbing influence on McGill's repressive policies.

Join Roger Waters in calling on McGill to stop repressing students & divest from genocide at McGill and at all campuses.

Voices from campuses from Newfoundland to British Columbia will be joining Roger and the McGill students.

Communities from coast-to-coast mobilize

 

On November 16th, communities from coast-to-coast mobilized at facilities and companies producing and profiting off of the F-35 fighter jets. The F-35 is Lockheed Martin’s flagship fighter jet and the most advanced warplane currently being used by the Israeli Air Force to bomb Gaza and Lebanon. Together, we’re exposing the fact that despite the Canadian government’s repeated claims to the contrary, Canada is still arming genocide.  (more...)

Communities from coast-to-coast mobilize

An incredible show of force this weekend! 16 protests at companies across the country producing components of the F-35 warplanes Israel is using to bomb Gaza. Watch and share this beautiful video recap and take action targeting the weapons company execs at https://t.co/TemZ0v69IO pic.twitter.com/obx3yhG2uy

— World BEYOND War Canada (@WBWCanada) November 18, 2024

Netanyahu Arrest Warrant

 

The other shoe drops

Dodging Nuremberg

 

We discuss the Nuremberg Trials, West Germany's failed 'denazification' process, and how the vast majority of Nazi war criminals escaped justice in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Sarah walks us through a deeper look at the Nuremberg Trials, focusing on the important legal frameworks and precedents that they set. We talk more about how the first trial was set up, some of the practical details of the proceedings, and their legacy.

Stephen Harper’s ‘moral clarity’ in defence of Israeli exceptionalism

 

Like most Western leaders, Harper has denigrated historical context and justified Israeli aggression against the Palestinians

A Toronto Sun editorial recently praised Stephen Harper’s “moral clarity” on current events in the Middle East. After quitting politics in 2015 the former Canadian prime minister worked with American Zionist billionaire and Trump backer Sheldon Adelson before serving on the boards of organizations like the Friends of Israel Initiative. In addition to his graduate degree in economics, Harper received an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University, presumably for his faithful commitment to Israeli exceptionalism.

For the moment, let’s table the current Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) slaughter of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and consider Harper’s past attitude to Israel’s military aggression. For example, Harper once described Israel’s brutal 2006 invasion of Lebanon as “measured” and justified while his government simultaneously demeaned Lebanese Canadians desperate to flee Israeli bombs.

Using its illegal Dahiya doctrine of disproportionate force and collective punishment of civilians, the IDF’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon killed 1,100 and wounded 4,400. According to a Human Rights Watch report, 80 percent of those casualties were civilians who had the misfortune of living near Hezbollah units and Palestinian refugee camps.

While IDF losses were light in 2006, Hezbollah surprised the world by damaging or destroying over 50 advanced Israeli tanks, an impressive feat that caused an IDF retreat. Unfortunately for Israel conscripts, today’s IDF seems to have learned nothing from that painful lesson.

Harper would never admit that Hezbollah was created in the early 1980s to protect Lebanon from Israeli efforts to invade that country and destroy Palestinian resistance groups based in border-area refugee camps. Those Palestinians refugees had fled Palestine in 1948 and 1967 to escape the grim fate of their peers at massacre sites like Deir Yassin (1948), Kafr Qasim (1956), and other Israeli outrages ignored by the Western media. In Harper’s view, displaced Palestinians have no right to reclaim their lost homes or seek justice  (more...)

Stephen Harper’s ‘moral clarity’ in defence of Israeli exceptionalism

Sabotage of Ottawa factory producing parts for Israel’s F-35 warplanes

 

Earlier this week a group of people sabotaged Gastops’ factory in Ottawa, the only place in the world where engine sensors are produced for Lockheed’s F-35 combat jets — including the ones dropping 2,000 pound bombs on Gaza. We cut the wiring inside all of the heat pumps on the Gastops roof, locked them out with official Ministry of Health and Safety lock-out tags, shut off the gas, broke the handles for their systems, and cut the lines to their backup communication system on the way out.

The following letter and photos were left on site:

It’s worth noting that we disabled their heat pumps as it begins to get cold here in Ottawa and as displaced people in Gaza and Lebanon plead with us to help them secure shelter, blankets, clothing, as they freeze in displacement camps. Earlier this month an Ottawa neighbour lost her uncle while he returned to his home in Gaza attempting to bring back blankets for the children so they would not freeze to death. He was murdered by air strike while doing so, likely by an F-35 that Gastops supplies parts to.

People growing tired of politicians continuing to support the slaughter of civilians in Palestine and Lebanon will continue to escalate actions seeking peace and an end to these war crimes.  (more...)

Sabotage of Ottawa factory producing parts for Israel’s F-35 warplanes

Activists push for arms embargo against Israel, targeting Moncton firm

 

Apex Industries makes parts for F-35 fighter jets, which Lockheed Martin sells to the Israeli Air Force

Activists renewed their demands for the feds to impose an arms embargo on Israel over the weekend, with protests taking place in Moncton and across the country.

Protests focussed on Canadian companies that are involved in the construction of F-35 fighter jets, which the American weapons and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin sells to a number of countries, including Israel.

Activists state that the Israeli Air Force is using its fleet of F-35s to drop U.S.-made 2,000-pound bombs on Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. Activists say the advanced fighter jets contain millions of dollars worth of technology made by Canadian companies and subsidiaries.

In Moncton, protesters gathered outside of Apex Industries on Millennium Boulevard, which builds parts for the F-35 program. Company CEO Keith Parlee previously told the NB Media Co-op that Apex has “no control” over how its products are used.

Carol Scott, a member of Citizens for Peace-Greater Moncton, said activists from Saint John, Fredericton, P.E.I. and elsewhere in the region were expected at Saturday’s rally in Moncton. Protests also took place in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia at “facilities and companies producing and profiting off of the F-35,” according to Arms Embargo Now.  (more...)

Activists push for arms embargo against Israel, targeting Moncton firm

Surveillance Education

 

Any technology created by the US military industrial complex and adopted by the general public was always bound to come with a caveat. To most, the internet, GPS, touch screen and other ubiquitous technologies are ordinary tools of the modern world. Yet in reality, these technologies serve “dual-uses”; while they convenience typical people, they also enable the mass coercion, surveillance and control of those very same people at the hands of the corporate and military state.

Nolan Higdon and Allison Butler, authors of “Surveillance Education: Navigating the Conspicuous Absence of Privacy in Schools,” join host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report. They explore the software and technology systems employed in K-12 schools and higher education institutions that surveil students, erode minors’ privacy rights and, in the process, discriminate against students of color.

'International law is on a knife's edge'

 

In this episode of One on One, journalist and news editor Sondos Asem is sitting down with Francesca Albanese, an outspoken international human rights lawyer and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. She is the 8th person to hold that role, and the first woman.

She is a self-described “reluctant chronicler of Genocide”, as she has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza since 7 October. Within the past year, she has submitted two reports to the UN human rights council, where she outlined her legal opinion on why the attacks on the Palestinian population constitute genocide.

Middle East Eye spoke to her on 13 November, during her visit to London, where she was invited to speak at several university campuses.

Watermelon Index names and shames companies complicit in Israel's war on Gaza

 

Progressive International has launched a tool that allows workers to challenge company support for Israel

A new database of over 400 companies that operate in the UK and are deemed complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza has been launched by a collective of unions and organisations led by Progressive International.

The Watermelon Index, which the international left-wing organisation describes as “a tool for worker-led resistance against the occupation and genocide in Palestine”, will allow employees to connect with each other and with activists to challenge their bosses over connections to Israel.

Among the companies listed are Barclays, shipping firm Maersk, e-commerce giant Amazon, software company Microsoft and holiday rental outfit Airbnb. 

As well as these multinationals, there are a host of other operations with ties to Israel, in industries including finance, insurance, technology, logistics and energy. Progressive International is focusing its efforts within these sectors. 

A company’s complicity with Israel’s war on Gaza is measured through “the different kinds of support, including financial, military, diplomatic, cultural, trade and social” it provides, according to Progressive International.

The Watermelon Index also contains details of worker-led campaigns that are being mounted against the war, and includes tools that enable workers to organise and connect with each other.  (more...)

Watermelon Index names and shames companies complicit in Israel's war on Gaza

Related:

The Watermelon Index

The Permindex Connection

 

In the spring of 1963, a series of planning sessions was held at an exclusive resort club in Montego Bay, Jamaica, called the Tryall Compound, built at the close of World War II by Britain's Chief of Special Operations Executive (SO E) William Stephenson. Present at various times for the planning sessions were: Major Louis Bloomfield, still an officer, then of British SOE; Ferenc Nagy, a wartime cabinet minister in the pro-Hitler Horthy government in Hungary and later its prime minister; Georgio Mantello, a Romanian-born Jew who had served as trade minister under Mussolini; Col. Clay Shaw, a former officer of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services and in 1963 the director of the New Orleans International Trade Mart; Jean de Menil, a White Russian emigre and president of the Houston-based Schlumberger Corporation; and Paul Raigorodsky, another White Russian emigre who had served as Special Representative to Europe for NATO and was a high-ranking official of the Tolstoy Foundation.

Without exception, each of these people was also a member of the board of directors of Permindex (Permanent Industrial Expositions). The subject of their meetings: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22, 1963.  (more...)

The Permindex Connection

Attempt to censor Francesca Albanese part of larger Israeli campaign to hobble UN

 

Let’s call upon Bob Rae and the Canadian government to condemn the attempts by Israel and its supporters to incapacitate the UN

Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, just wrapped up a speaking tour of eastern Canada. But pro-Israel lobby organizations have tried every trick in their well-thumbed playbook to bar the internationally-renowned human rights jurist and scholar from doing the job she was assigned by the United Nations for a three-year term in 2022. Hurling the usual epithet “antisemite,” they tried to get the Canadian government to bar her from this country. They endeavoured to get her speaking venues cancelled. They urged government officials not to meet with her. They issued missives deriding her and fed disparaging stories to friendly media.

But these opponents failed to silence her message.

Charged by her employer with reporting to the UN and its affiliates on policy relating to the occupied territories, Albanese has been a rigorous critic of Israeli violations of international human rights law, especially against its Palestinian population. She has condemned Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In an early report, she called on UN member states to push Israel to end the occupation. After Israel’s assault on Gaza began in October 2023, Albanese demanded an immediate ceasefire, warning of the risk of ethnic cleansing. On March 26, 2024, Albanese provided further evidence in aid of the International Court of Justice’s accusation of a plausible genocide.

But the blitz by Israel and its supporters on Ms. Albanese is much more than an attack on a single person. It is nothing less than a wholesale offensive against the United Nations itself, at least as it relates to Israel.  (more...)

Attempt to censor Francesca Albanese part of larger Israeli campaign to hobble UN

U of T faculty members criticize university’s User Guide on protest policies

 

UTFA issues letter to Vice-President and Provost Trevor Young

On October 22, the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) issued a letter to U of T’s Provost and Vice-President Trevor Young criticizing the User Guide to U of T Policies on Protest and Use of Campus Spaces created in August.

In the letter, the UTFA executive committee had “strong concerns about the Administration’s violations of the Memorandum of Agreement.” The UTFA claims that the protest policy “violates the freedom of association and collective bargaining rights of UTFA and other campus labour unions.”

The protest user guide is a guideline for students and other U of T community members regarding protesting on campus. The guide was released almost two months after the 63-day pro-Palestine encampment at King’s College Circle concluded.

In late October, U of T updated the guide to include a preamble and case studies that show “examples of student activities which may violate policy.” 

Based on pre-existing policies, the user guide states that while the university is “guided by a commitment to the right of its community members to express and discuss ideas freely,” “there are limits” to that expression.

The guide states that university policies prohibit anyone from occupying or entering U of T property without permission; setting up tents, encampments, fences, barriers, or other structures on campus; making noise that hinders the speech of guests or that interferes with activities at U of T; putting up signs, posters, or flyers — including those that use chalk, markers, paint, and projections — outside of designated areas; or taking any other action that would be a security threat to U of T campus and community. 

The guide states that anyone who participates in “these prohibited activities” may face “consequences under law and U of T policies, including arrest, suspension, trespass from property, and expulsion.”

The guide cites the Ontario Superior Court order from July 2 — which granted U of T permission to remove the encampment and stated that any police authority could “arrest and remove any person who has knowledge of this Order” for “interfering with… access to University property.”  (more...)

U of T faculty members criticize university’s User Guide on protest policies

The racist cloak of invisibility

 

Supporting Israel's war crimes has given Canadian commentators and politicians the licence to go full bore racist

Not many people like being called racist. Call someone a racist and they usually first and foremost, act offended. This is a basic fact. Try it if you’re curious.

Being a racist, though, is something different. It’s very easy to do racist things without even feeling bad about it. Racism in a society built on white supremacy is everywhere. Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere — literally everywhere you might look, you will see racism. And to get any level of power in Canada is very hard for white people if they aren’t, at some level, racist.

When someone is called a racist, they will either be proud of their racism (a minority) or pretend to be offended (a majority). The majority might be actually offended, perhaps even cry that you’ve called them out. So to do racism more comfortably, they need a cover.

And right now, Israel has given a perfect cover to So. Many. Racists.

To be So. Incredibly. Racist.

While it’s been clear from the start of Israel’s aggression that Israel’s leadership believes that Palestinians are inferior and subhuman, the general consensus among western media and politicians that Israel can do no wrong sometimes hides this very important starting point. Indeed, no country hurls itself towards doing genocide without a pre-campaign of mass dehumanization. Otherwise, average people wouldn’t stand to see such violence meted out against fellow humans.  (more...)

The racist cloak of invisibility

Nazi Acquisition and Training Organization

 

Chuka leads a conversation on NATO and its role in bringing former Nazis into the Western fold during the Cold War.

Once again, U of T fails to keep its students safe

 

Why is the University of Toronto protecting far-right, Islamophobic extremists?

On September 6, far-right agitators confronted pro-Palestine student protesters at King’s College Circle. Among these agitators was Meir Weinstein, the former leader of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) — whose American branch was designated as a terrorist group by the FBI. Members of the JDL have been convicted of multiple bombings and an attempt to hijack a plane.

At the same confrontation, the far-right protesters openly displayed violent and dehumanizing slogans such as “Make Gaza a parking lot.” They also hurled racist and Islamophobic slurs, and yelled “Get out of Canada. This is our country.” Ron Banerjee, a notorious Islamophobe, led the chants. Furthermore, these extremist agitators unfurled flags of Kahane Chai, a Jewish entity that advocates for expelling Arabs from Israel, and is a far-right terrorist group as designated by Canada. 

Other vigilantes from JForce, a private security firm and self-described “defenders of Israel,” roamed the campus in groups dressed in black uniforms and tactical vests. Meanwhile, Magen Herut — an extremist group based in Canada — was also spotted on campus, creating an intimidating atmosphere for Muslim students.

As the President of the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA), it is clear to me that the U of T administration has failed to protect its Muslim and Arab students, along with their peers and allies. To me, this failure demonstrates an indifference to these students’ safety and reveals institutional biases.  (more...)

Once again, U of T fails to keep its students safe

Winnipeg plant one of largest F-35 parts producers in Canada

 

Magellan Aerospace builds the horizontal tail assemblies for the controversial aircraft

Of the more than 100 companies in Canada that produce components for the F-35 combat aircraft, Mississauga-based Magellan Aerospace is one of the largest. Notably, it is also majority owned and chaired by billionaire N. Murray Edwards, the 35th richest person in Canada, who controls oil sands giant Canadian Natural Resources Limited, or CNRL, and the mining company Imperial Metals, responsible for the catastrophic Mount Polley tailings disaster.

However, most of Magellan’s fighter jet manufacturing does not take place in Ontario, where much of the Canadian F-35 supply chain is concentrated, or even in provinces like Alberta or British Columbia, where Edwards’ many other interests are located. Instead, Magellan’s main F-35 production happens in a large factory in the St. James neighbourhood of Winnipeg, right next to the city’s airport.

In 2013, the general manager of Magellan’s Winnipeg operations said the plant was “doing the largest volume of work on the F-35 in Canada.” This claim was reiterated in 2016 when the Winnipeg Free Press reported that that “Magellan’s St. James plant is one of the largest participants in the F-35 program in Canada.” Shortly after, the Winnipeg plant was again described as the “largest Canadian structural supplier to the controversial jet.”

Specifically, Magellan’s Winnipeg factory manufactures the horizontal tail assembly for the F-35A: the main variant of F-35 that Canada recently committed to buying 88 of, and that serves as the basis of Israel’s special subvariant, the F-35I. The company won an initial contract to build the essential parts in 2009, with the first completed tail assembly installed onto an F-35 at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth factory in 2013.

Magellan had this contract renewed several times since, most recently in late 2022, right before Canada announced its plan to finally pull the trigger on buying the fighters. Over the lifespan of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, Magellan’s Winnipeg plant is expected to ship more than 1,000 horizontal tail assemblies, accounting for half of all tail assemblies for the F-35A. In 2019, Magellan reported that the plant was ramping up deliveries to 60 per year. In total, it is anticipated that these contracts will be worth about $1.5 billion in revenues.  (more...)

Winnipeg plant one of largest F-35 parts producers in Canada

Why we boycott Israel: ‘One day everyone will have always been against this’

 

More than 6,000 literary workers have pledged to stop working with institutions that support the horrors in Gaza

Over the past year, the world has watched in horror as the first live-streamed genocide has unfolded before our eyes. 

For those of us who see life as precious, feelings of rage, pathos, overwhelm and powerlessness have been fixtures of witnessing. 

In this context, more than 6,000 literary workers have signed onto a campaign pledging to boycott “Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians.” Signing onto this boycott is one small step we can take to help to stop the actions of a state which has, with arms and funding provided by the U.S. and Canada, turned Gaza into what UNICEF has called a “graveyard” for children.

In doing so, writers have joined a campaign launched over 20 years ago by the majority of Palestinian civil society, including writers, trade unions, artists, and intellectuals. They have called for those in cultural industries to refuse working with Israeli academic and cultural institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people and are upholding apartheid and genocide.

The refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity.  (more...)

Why we boycott Israel: ‘One day everyone will have always been against this’

Giller protests sparked a literary movement to end ‘art-washing’ of Israeli crimes

 

Arts organizing helped massively reduce Scotiabank’s investment in Israeli weapons maker. Now, activists are pushing for more

The Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious literary award, is generally a decorous and reserved affair. But last year, it was pro-Palestine protesters, not books, that stole the limelight.

Twice, protesters invaded the stage to protest for Palestine: once early on in the evening, holding signs stating “Scotiabank funds genocide,” and then again as the $100,000 award was being presented to author Sarah Bernstein for her novel Study for Obedience.

Rick Mercer, the evening’s usually-amicable host, had grabbed at the protesters’ signs as the tuxedo-clad attendees booed at them. Both times, the protesters were shuttled off the stage, and were later handed over to police to be criminally charged for the interference.

The protest kicked off a demand that has become louder and louder among artists, authors, filmmakers and organizers over the past year: for our cultural institutions to financially detangle themselves from an unfolding genocide.

“It really sparked this moment of creating a crisis within Canlit,” said Jody Chan, an organizer with Canlit Responds, a group that would go on to play a central role in the organizing.  (more...)

Giller protests sparked a literary movement to end ‘art-washing’ of Israeli crimes

U of T faculty members called into Dean’s office for supporting Palestine on social media

 

Professors express concern over the admin’s actions, the “Palestine exception” on campus

Over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the start of Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza started on October 7, 2023, following Hamas’ attack on Israel. 

Since then, some faculty members have been called into their respective deans’ offices for posts in support of Palestine. The Varsity spoke to three U of T professors to find out why some faculty are being called in.

A U of T professor — who requested to speak anonymously due to fear of retaliation — told The Varsity that they had been called in by a vice-dean, for retweeting an Instagram post by student coalition Tkarón:to Students in Solidarity with Palestine. 

“Naturally, it was an Instagram post that I retweeted and I just added some words to that post to say that the cracks are starting to reveal themselves,” said the professor. “And by that, I meant that there were many connections that the institution at the University of Toronto has with Israeli institutions, and [there’s] also work that is conducted by U of T faculty and students on illegally occupied land.”

The retweeted post spotlighted U of T’s Archaeology Center’s projects in Israel. The center’s website used to have an “Archaeology of Israel” page that was later removed. The page talked about “[building] connections between archaeologists at the University of Toronto and those across Israel” and highlighted field schools and residence opportunities for students and faculty in Israel.   (more...)

U of T faculty members called into Dean’s office for supporting Palestine on social media

Erasing Palestinian Life in Gaza: Israel’s Genocide EXPOSED

 

“Israel aims to cancel and erase Palestinian life!” UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, and director of Forensic Architecture, Eyal Weizman, expose the mechanics of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Speaking to Palestinian journalist from Gaza, Ahmed Alnaouq, Francesca references her new UN report titled “Genocide as Colonial Erasure”, which documents how Israel is wielding its genocide as part of a broader, systematic and intentional state-organised forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.

A new 800 page report published by Forensic Architecture titled “A Spatial Analysis of the Israeli Military’s Conduct in Gaza since October 2023”, uses innovative digital technology to illustrate Israel’s wholesale destruction of the Gaza Strip which has left “no safe place” for Palestinians under siege and bombardment, according director Eyal Weizman.

Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza co-founder of We Are Not Numbers.

Nazi Endowments

 

We're joined by Alberta-based journalist Jeremy Appel to discuss the disturbing number of donations and endowments left in the names of Nazi collaborators at the University of Alberta.

New report calls on government to suspend licenses of five Canadian charities

 

A report released last week reveals that millions of dollars in Canadian charitable donations have been funneled to organizations implicated in supporting illegal Israeli settlements, violent settler groups, and military activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Under the Guise of Charity was produced by Just Peace Advocates, Independent Jewish Voices Canada and Miles Howe. We speak with author Miles Howe.

Illusions of Donald Trump

 

In today's show, we'll be considering the consequences of the US presidential election that saw Donald Trump back in power.

 The Nelson Mandela quotation that, It's in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it certainly applies to the US president elect. But will he choose to create a better world? His early appointments suggest he may do the opposite.

So, in our first report, Latifa Abouchakra, considers the choices facing Donald Trump as he assembles his team before he's officially sworn in on January 20th next year.

Our second report considers whether Donald Trump's rhetoric about free speech, will be matched by action after he's sworn in as president on 20 January next year.

Israel’s War on the Foreign Press

 

Loffredo joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to review his reporting covering Israel in the U.S., the Occupied Territories and Israel itself—as well as his frightening detainment by the occupying forces.

Jewish Actionists Demand Ceasefire

 

November 15/24 - Jewish actionists arrived at the Israeli Consulate in Toronto this morning to demonstrate their unheard demands - immediate ceasefire.

Press Release: “As Canadian Jews, we demand an end to this complicity. Israel and Canada have blood on their hands. “It is horrifying that Canada is continuing to arm and fund Israel’s genocidal violence through its ongoing arms trade,” said Rachel Small, Member of Jews Say No to Genocide and Canada organizer with World Beyond War. “The blood on both Canada and Israel’s hands could not be clearer, and today that has been made visible to everyone at the Israeli consulate.” It is inexcusable that Canada is still shipping key components of the war planes and combat helicopters being used in Gaza.”

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Jerusalem Calling

 

This week's episode of Active Measures covers Trump's Israel First cabinet, the beginning of the end of the war in Ukraine, and a major development in China's Belt and Road initiative.

Jewish professor fired for anti-Zionist posts

 

Across the US, students and faculty are continuing to resist repressive measures by university administrations intended to stifle or even criminalize speech in support of Palestinian rights, as the genocide in Gaza continues.

Along with elite US institutions calling riot cops on their own students who have been holding sit-in protests, or attempting to prevent students from holding protests altogether, some universities have tried to categorize the political ideology of Zionism as a protected identity class in order to define anti-Zionist speech as racist hate speech.

“As long as I’ve been a teacher, I’ve been teaching about Palestine – it’s always been either central or integrated into the work that I do,” Maura Finkelstein told The Electronic Intifada Podcast.

Finkelstein, a scholar of anthropology and a writer, taught at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania for nine years.

She had been teaching a course on the anthropology of Palestine, a class that she says had been approved by the college.

But even though she was tenured, she was fired in May 2024 over her social media posts in support of Palestinian rights and against the political ideology of Zionism – a move that has been seen as a warning to other anti-genocide professors.

The firing followed months of targeted harassment by Israel lobby groups and individuals who pressured the university to fire Finkelstein, accusing her of “Jew hatred” over her anti-Zionist principles. Finkelstein is Jewish.

Women wardens you've never heard of

 

Prostitute, Sadist, Dog Lady, Etc.

Canadian company Gastops partners with Raytheon to profit from Israel's slaughter of Palestinians

 

On November 16, 2024, activists from across Canada responded to a national call to action against corporations that participate in the production of military equipment for Israel, particularly the F-35.

One such company, Gastops, is based in Ottawa, the nation's capital. Gastops produces engine sensors that are used to reduce maintenance time for the F35. U.S. arms manufacturer Raytheon, which profits in many ways from Israel's genocidal war on Palestinians, has made a major investment in Gastops.

On the national day of action, Dimitri Lascaris reported from a protest held steps away from Gastops' headquarters in Ottawa. As Lascaris explains, the Trudeau government is violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention by allowing Gastops' engine sensors to be delivered to Israel's airforce in a time of genocide. 

How Mossad interference delayed ICC prosecution

 

It’s been 293 days since the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Israel to halt all killing and other genocidal acts against the Palestinian people.

And it was 177 days ago that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, two of the Israeli leaders directly responsible for the genocide.

But Israel is only accelerating its extermination of Palestinians through continued bombing and starvation and expanding its attack on Lebanon, while the ICC has failed to issue any arrest warrants. 

We speak to Craig Mokhiber about why all paths to accountability for Israel appear to be blocked. We’ll also discuss what a second Trump administration might mean for Palestinians.

Mokhiber is the senior human rights official who resigned from the UN more than a year ago over the world body’s inaction to halt the genocide.

National F-35 Day of Action

 

Incredible actions in Vaughan and Hamilton this morning, with more happening across the country today as part of the National F-35 Day of Action!

Visit armsembargonow.ca/f35 to join another action or take action from home!

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Canadian Billionaire Owns Israeli Team With Among ‘Most Racist’ Fans

 

The New Israel Fund has labelled Maccabi Tel Aviv FC fans as among the “most racist” in Israel.

Ten years ago, Canadian billionaire and Maccabi Tel Aviv FC owner Mitchell Goldhar promised to take action against racism among the fans of his club.

In the summer of 2014, the Jerusalem Post reported that Maccabi fans had directed racist chants against one of their own players, Maharan Radi, during a training session.

In a statement, Goldhar said: 

“Hatred, intolerance or abusive behavior against anyone on the basis of their race is malicious and morally corrupt [...] Racism at large is not my specific responsibility, though I will stand strongly against it. But when racism is directed at any individual or organization for which I am specifically responsible, particularly at Maccabi Tel Aviv, I will use every instrument and resource available to me to protect them.”

He continued:

“I have instructed the legal adviser to take all steps necessary to identify and prosecute any individual involved, directly or indirectly with racist behavior affecting Maccabi Tel Aviv. Further, any individual involved with racist behavior of any variety is at odds with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s principles and thus by definition cannot be a supporter or fan of our team.”

In 2019, Radi explained that some of his teammates tried to talk to the supporters who had directed the racist abuse against him. Radi said that a few days later, the team captain told him: “There’s nothing we can do, they just hate Arabs.”

Fast forward to 2023, and according to a report by the New Israel Fund (NIF), Maccabi racked up the second-highest number of reports of racist chanting during the 2022-2023 season, behind only Beitar Jerusalem, whose racist “ultras” group, La Familia, is notorious in Israel and the rest of the world.

The NIF explained: “Fans are not deterred from violating Israel’s laws against racist chanting, largely because these laws were not enforced.”

Then along came a fixture in Amsterdam.  (more...)

Canadian Billionaire Owns Israeli Team With Among ‘Most Racist’ Fans

Canadian tax subsidies to pro-Israel ‘charities’ violate international law

 

Canadians are subsidizing an ever more fascist movement promoting a holocaust in Gaza. In the latest outrage that’s come to light, a vigilante group intimidating students in Toronto has been allowed to register as a charity and therefore offer donors tax credits.

Recently, a complaint was delivered to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) asking it to audit Magen Herut Canada (MHC). Herut’s roots are with the pre-Israeli state Irgun terror group. In 1948, Albert Einstein and other prominent Jewish intellectuals labeled Herut “a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.” In the late 1980s Herut became the Likud party.

MHC operates as a vigilante force. Its members recently descended on the University of Toronto to intimidate students opposing the genocide. They’ve also provided “security” at pro-Israel events.

MHC members usually have experience in policing, security or the military and the group offers free workshops of Krav Maga, a training used by the Israeli military. They publicly fundraise for protective gear and to pay members’ security fees.

MHC states openly that it works closely with private security firm JFORCE, which protects Israel events, protests and dignitaries. It’s unusual for a registered charity to have close ties to a private corporation since taxpayer subsidized charities aren’t allowed to underwrite for-profit firms.

While an egregious example, MHC is only one of many publicly subsidized groups promoting Israeli violence.  (more...)

Canadian tax subsidies to pro-Israel ‘charities’ violate international law