Featured letter: Fredericton Palestine Solidarity stands against antisemitism

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On January 31, a Telegraph-Journal editorial linked our local street protests to the attack on Sgoolai Israel Synagogue in Fredericton, stating “yet here at home, many rallies held in [the October 7th attack’s] wake have demonstrated antisemitism is very much alive in our own time.”

Fredericton Palestine Solidarity stands proudly with our friends and neighbours against antisemitism and antisemitic violence. We have made statements in clear opposition to this attack, attended the synagogue on Jan. 28 in solidarity with our community, and donated as individuals to the repair of the windows. We cannot state more clearly our movement’s opposition to antisemitism. In the words of S.A Bachman: “Being pro-Palestine and against antisemitism go hand in hand. All systems of oppression reinforce each other, none can be fought in isolation.”

Indeed both antisemitic and islamophobic intimidation and violence have increased since Oct. 7. We cannot believe in a safe community that is free to speak its conscience without addressing both of these. Alarmingly, we’ve seen antisemitism used as a weapon to silence legitimate criticism of Israel across the world. Conflating criticism of the state of Israel with antisemitism effectively distracts from the dangerous rise in antisemitism among far right white supremacists. As written by Harvard Jewish elder Bernie Steinberg, “I have monitored, with vigilance, the kinds of speech that Israel-aligned parties are calling “antisemitic,” and it simply does not pass the sniff test. Let me speak plainly: It is not antisemitic to demand justice for all Palestinians living in their ancestral lands.”

In 1938, at the time of Kristallnacht – one of many waves of antisemitic violence in Nazi Germany – Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King maintained strict and racist immigration policies against Jewish people, a policy that did not change until the end of the Second World War. Canada and many other Western nations saw a genocide happening overseas and closed their borders, contributing directly to the horrors of the Holocaust.

Today, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada has limited the number of Palestinian refugees to be admitted to Canada to a mere 1,000 people when 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced. With the International Court of Justice ruling overwhelmingly that genocide in Gaza is plausible, now is not the time to close our borders, deny humanitarian aid, and continue to contribute military aid to Israel.

Never again means never again, for anyone, anywhere. Freedom and justice for all must include all oppressed Indigenous peoples of the world. As the great scholar Edward Said reminded us, “If you wish to uphold basic human justice, you must do so for everyone, not just selectively for the people that your side, your culture, your nation, designates as ok.”

If readers have questions for us or about our events, which have included an art night, several film showings, and panel discussions in addition to protests and vigils, we can be found on Instagram at frederictonpalestinesolidarity or contacted by email at fp.solidarity@gmail.com.

Angus Fletcher

Fredericton Palestine Solidarity