The Campaigns Targeting Canadian Doctors Who Want to Discuss the Health Crisis in Gaza

 

A conference on refugee healthcare lost sponsors, and a talk for employees at Canada's public health agency was cancelled, after Palestine advocates were branded as "antisemitic"

Canada’s only refugee health conference saw sponsors pull out and registrations at their lowest levels ever, after it was accused of supporting antisemitism for featuring Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, among the planned speakers.

“This year, because we included Palestine, one of the most central and neglected refugee populations, we have faced unprecedented attacks,” Dr. Anna Banerji said in the run-up to the event.

Banerji is a pediatrician who treats refugee children in Toronto. Since 2009, she has organized the North American Refugee Health Conference, which this year included a lineup of high-profile speakers, like Dr. Gabor Maté, and took place in Niagara Falls from Sept. 11–13.

But organizers say that putting on this year’s event involved challenges like never before, after the pro-Israel advocacy organization HonestReporting Canada (HRC) described the conference as planning to host “peddlers of hateful anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda.”

“Sponsors have withdrawn and speakers have been threatened,” said Banerji. “A few have been afraid to participate, but most have had the moral courage to continue.”  (more...)

The Campaigns Targeting Canadian Doctors Who Want to Discuss the Health Crisis in Gaza