Antisemitism Weaponized to Defend Colonialism

Canada and Israel are both settler-colonial states. Canada, having completed the expansion of its territorial holdings long ago, maintains its colonial nature through its bureaucratic structures. Indigenous people only make up about 4.1 per cent of the people living in Canada, but represent 20 per cent of inmates in Canadian prisons. Indigenous women make up 40 per cent. Despite only making up 7.7 per cent of the child population, Indigenous children represent 53.8 per cent of all kids in foster care. Pair this with a recent report by Isaac Callan at Global News that a child under the care of Ontario dies every three days.

Canada's colonialism also manifests in the standard of living afforded to Indigenous populations. Grassy Narrows First Nation has had its water polluted at least as far back as the 1960s, most notably with mercury. One study earlier this year found that the contamination has made methlmercury levels, in particular, extremely high. Quoted in a CBC News story, biology professor Brian Branfireun said "Other forms of mercury don't accumulate as strongly as methylmercury, but because it accumulates, it builds up to high levels in organisms, presenting that greater risk."

Israel, likewise, has spent its entire existence, especially the last year, colonizing Palestine. It's likely that over 200,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in some conservative estimates. Water quality in Palestine has long been an issue. A report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2019 found "More than 97% of the water pumped from the coastal aquifer in Gaza Strip does not meet the water quality standards of the World Health Organization." Israel's siege on Gaza has, obviously, not improved the situation. Polio has resurfaced in Gaza, partly owing to open sewage flowing into water.

These two issues are deeply linked with each other. Treatment of Indigenous people by Canada and treatment of Palestinians by Israel differs mainly in time frame. Its goals and methods often separated only by technology.

As a result, perhaps unsurprisingly, vehement defenders of the colonial system are using this accusations of antisemitism to condemn a student field trip to a protest against decolonization.

Enter Bryan Passifiume and the Toronto Sun. In a headline curated to mark outrage, Passifiume breathlessly reports "Parents demand answers for TDSB field trip to protest that turned into anti-Israel rally.' The protest was about the Grassy Narrows contamination. That's all well and good, Passifiume stresses, but this apparently crossed the line when protestors chanted "from Turtle Island for [sic] Palestine, occupation is a crime"

To round out the cast of outraged characters, Passifiume quotes B'Nai Brith, Spadina-Fort York MP Kevin Vuong and a post by the consul-general of Toronto's Israeli consulate. Not a single organizer actually at the protest was quoted in the story.

Nothingburger hardly begins to describe the actual story. Parents quoted in the story want colonization to be done in a "two-way dialog," allowing kids to engage and ask questions. Something that routinely occurs at a protest, but if one has never been, they would never know.

It would be far more helpful if Passifiume attempted to connect the two issues to explain why Grassy Narrows protestors would bring up Palestine, but he and the Toronto Sun don't want clarity. They want outrage. And outrage they got, especially after Passifiume followed it up with a piece dishonestly framing how blue shirts were apparently used to designate "colonizers."

Passifiume's source? The cousin of one student, who said her cousin is Jewish and was told to "get over it" by a teacher when anti-Israel chants began. That same source also relayed a story of her classmate from India who asked the teacher to stop referring to him as a "colonizer." This was all second-hand.

This topic, of how colonized people can themselves play a role in colonization in different contexts, is a subject matter that is entirely uninteresting to Passifiume and those outraged by his reporting. Often, "colonizer" is used to denote those doing the violent or managerial work to further colonization, while "settler" is used to denote members of a country who are not Indigenous. It's also entirely possible that this child received a satisfactory explanation, or merely felt the general use of colonizer as an attack on him. Or, it could have been used in a different context. It's difficult, exactly, to debunk or address this particular case because Passifiume's reporting merely spoke to the cousin of a classmate who attended and relayed information second-hand in both instances. Beyond the barest establishing of general context, it's impossible to seriously rebut this anecdote.

It's possible to be concerned about the TDSB claiming students will not participate in a protest, only for them to then participate. However, the Sun's reporting is not concerned about communication. In what Passifiume, apparently, thinks is a silver bullet, he posted an email he received on Twitter (now known as X). It reads "Settlers are asked to wear blue, if possible." Passifiume's headline of his original headline where students were told to wear blue to mark them as "colonizers" has now been proven, factually, wrong... by himself. Settler students were asked to wear blue, "if possible." At the very least, we can all agree that "settler" and "colonizer" are two separate words.

Further, in this case, settler is clearly meant to address non-Indigenous attendees. Not just the Jewish ones, as the second-hand story from a student cousin implied. This confusion is only possible if you are completely ignorant of colonization in any way, shape or form. In other words, par for the course for the Toronto Sun.

But it didn't stop with Passifiume. Jesse Brown of Canadaland felt the need to throw his hat into the ring, he took to Twitter to relay Passifiume's quote about the Jewish girl and wearing blue. No mention that blue has been a regular motif in River Run demonstrations for years.

Canadaland, when Brown was editor-in-chief, also hosted a series called Canadalandback. So his ignorance of the intricacies of colonization is even less believable than that of any Toronto Sun reporter.

It's fair to ask if "You'll get over it" the correct response to a child expressing confusion about a political situation they don't understand. For the record, my belief is it's not. However, the more important question we should ask is, how are we to know the entirety of the context outside of this single anecdote? It's impossible to know the circumstances surrounding this second-hand quote by a journalist purposefully misrepresenting the issue.

Terrible journalism specifically crafted for propaganda purposes is a key stepping stone to political policy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the instance shows how teachers are "indoctrinating kids," and calls for an investigation. Education Minister Jill Dunlop said the event translated to "compromising the security and safety of students," somehow. As a result of this story, the Toronto District School Board is now reviewing its field trip policy after pro-colonial voices have condemned this, at most, misstep in implementation.

Omitted in this entire saga is that Grassy Narrows still struggles with systemic mercury poisoning of their land. Grassy Narrows First Nation is currently suing the Ontario government for violating their constitutional rights. Ford is probably more than happy to focus on this manufactured controversy– If only to avoid uncomfortable questions about the government's role in the crisis.

Brown and others crowing about this supposed instance of antisemitism, primarily where Israel is concerned, are happy to attach as many antisemitic incidents they can muster to pro-Palestine movements. There's no doubt that antisemitism is a concern that everyone should be committed to combatting, but a chant decrying colonialism is not any instance worth serious consideration. It's important to note that conflating anti-zionism with antisemitism is something Brown has a history of doing.

It's propaganda. Look no further than Brown's claim that an ethnic cleansing march took place in Toronto, while ignoring over 200,000 Palestinians systematically murdered by Israel.

In a 2023 essay written by Palestinian Mohammed el-Kurd, the writer and poet directly addresses the conflation of Zionism with Judaism that Israel and its proponents trumpet.

The Palestinian People have consistently made it crystal clear that our enemy is the colonialist and racist ideology of Zionism, not Jews. Our capacity to produce such distinction is admirable and impressive, considering the heavy-handedness with which Zionism attempts to synonymize itself with Judaism.

After nearly one year of Israel massacring Palestinians, the playbook remains the same. Modern colonialism, as a system, can do no wrong, and any attempt to rhetorically combat its implementation will result in condemnation from interested parties. Zionism is not, and will never be, Judaism. Christian Zionists outnumber Jewish Zionists 30 to one and some of the most dedicated and principled opponents to Israel have been anti-Zionist Jews.

If there is any actual critique to be made of this field trip, its that the school guaranteed that no student would be interested in participating in the protest. Put simply, any protest will have a chance of students joining if the student independently agrees with that protest's goals. It's impossible to control for that. But this news story is not concern over the failure of a policy to account for student's independence. It's meant to browbeat decolonial activists into submission by associating their cause with the Zionist's definition of antisemitism.