Photo: Sean Kilpatrick The Canadian Press “You can be a Zionist and strongly support the creation of a Palestinian state cohabiting peacefully with Israel. […] This is also my belief,” Justin Trudeau declared Monday on the sidelines of Yom HaShoah commemorations.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, defended the Zionist ideology, of which he claims, while reiterating Monday in front of members of the Jewish community that he still believes in it. two-state solution in Palestine.
“You can be a Zionist and strongly support the creation of a Palestinian state cohabiting peacefully with Israel. This is an opinion that I know is shared by many in the Jewish community and across the country. This is also my belief,” declared the Canadian Prime Minister on the sidelines of Yom HaShoah, the day of remembrance of the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War.
Justin Trudeau insisted that the term “Zionist” should not be interpreted as an insult, and that no one should be targeted because they subscribe to that ideology. “Threatening, intimidating or excluding Canadians because of their faith, their identity, or because they support the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral lands is absolutely unacceptable,” he said. “The Jewish people, like all people, have the right to determine their own future. »
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Criticized on campus
Criticism of Zionism is nevertheless omnipresent within the encampment currently set up in front of the University McGill, in Montreal, noted Le Devoir. Tents were erected around ten days ago by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who demand that the institution end all links with “the Zionist regime” of Israel. This protest movement born in the United States is also present on the grounds of the University of Ottawa, among others.
The Metropolitan University of Toronto, for its part, is targeted by the lawsuit of a student who alleges to have been greeted on her campus by a sign bearing the message “Zionism off our campus”. The Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CIJA) denounces an “anti-Semitic environment”.
The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, spoke on Monday during the same commemoration event as Prime Minister Trudeau. He railed against “the despicable violence and hatred on our campuses and our communities,” in reference to these protests.
“It doesn’t not unanimously, Zionism”
According to Pierre Anctil, a retired history professor at the University of Ottawa, to call oneself a Zionist means to agree with the creation of “a Jewish national home” or, in contemporary terms, to “support the existence , the security of the State of Israel.” “Zionism is not unanimously accepted, but it is socially and politically accepted in Canadian society as a legitimate, valid option,” he says.
However, there are deep debates within the Zionists themselves, as evidenced by the various rival parties in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. Some favor coexistence with a possible Palestinian state, called the “two-state solution,” while others advocate for the domination of a single state—Israel—over the entire territory.< /p>
That said, Jews themselves have opposed Zionism since the creation of Israel, recalls Yakov Rabkin, associate professor of history at the University of Montreal. He does not believe at all that being opposed to Zionism means being anti-Semitic, which is a form of racism. “We must distinguish racism from a political choice. There are Jews who are not Zionists, who reject the State of Israel, in its current form.”
“There are Quebecers who are for independence, others who are against it,” compares the expert who is preparing to publish a book on the subject, in an interview at Devoir.
On Monday, the Jewish organization B'nai Brith published its count of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada, numbering 5,791 for the year 2023, a sharp increase compared to previous years. “[A] new form of anti-Semitism [emerging in the 20th century] persecutes Jews by blaming them for the actions of the Israeli state, condemning them for their Zionist beliefs, or unduly harming the world's only Jewish nation-state , the State of Israel,” the report reads.
Among the racist incidents cataloged was an attempt to burn down a synagogue and community center Jewish on the island of Montreal, as well as shots fired at two Jewish schools in Côte-des-Neiges and Outremont.
With Zacharie Goudreault