Canada NDP member calls out Israeli center for supporting crimes

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On August 26, Jagmeet Singh, a Canadian third-party politician, sent a number of New Democratic Party (NDP) supporters an email calling to support Palestinian rights. On the other hand, The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) noted last week in an email: “Thousands and thousands of you joined in to act against the outrageous letter from NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh that demonizes everyone who identifies with and feels a connection to the Jewish state. Policies like those we saw in the letter breed antisemitism here at home – they put Jews in danger.”

Singh's email listed 13 demands of the Liberal government on Palestinian rights, including the referral of the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court, the condemnation of the construction of illegal settlements and demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, and the cessation of all trade and economic cooperation with illegal settlements.

In response to that, CIJA urged its supporters to “Tell the NDP to stop using this divisive rhetoric that infantilizes Palestinians, demonizes Israelis, and ignores the reality on the ground" as they released a statement to the press and launched a lobbying campaign.

Singh attended a CIJA lobbying session on Parliament Hill last week to celebrate a state recently found to be committing a crime against humanity by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch but Singh refused to cooperate with a recent call by 40 groups to disassociate the NDP from the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group.

The letter signed by Noam Chomsky, Linda McQuaig, Svend Robinson, and Roger Waters, released to the public two weeks ago, expresses that “it is incoherent for the NDP to echo human rights groups finding of Israeli apartheid and simultaneously participate in a group promoting ‘co-operation’ with Israel.”

A 2018 EKOS poll sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices and United Jewish People’s Order found a significant proportion of Jewish Canadians criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians with 48% feeling that accusations of antisemitism were tools to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli policies.

Hamilton MP Matthew Green has stood up to the CIJA's bullying towards Singh, tweeting: "If CIJA thinks running a smear campaign in the Toronto Sun against us will cause us to turn a blind eye to the Apartheid regime in "Israel" they are sorely mistaken.”