CKUT's Off the Hour: Canadian Parliamentary Report on Antisemitism Sparks Criticism

Interview with Scott Weinstein, Independent Jewish Voices and Sam Bick, Israeli Apartheid Week organizer

by Rae Dooley and Courtney Kirkby

The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA) released their first report (here: http://www.cpcca.ca/CPCCA_Final_Report_English.pdf), over a year after it was meant to be released. The coalition is not a formally recognized government coalition, but that didn't stop them from using taxpayer resources alongside private donations to hold a conference in 2009 and produce this report. The coalition consisted of current and former members of parliament from three political parties.

The report attempts to make a distinction between new and old anti-semitism. Critics of this report understand the definition of "new anti-semitism" as a thinly veiled attempt to quell criticism of Israel and Israeli government policy and attack freedom of speech on university campuses. Beyond that, many see new anti-semitism as diluting anti-semitism and being more harmful to the Jewish population then helpful.

CKUT spoke with Scott Weinstein, spokesperson for Independent Jewish Voices [http://www.independentjewishvoices.ca/], one of several well-established Jewish groups not allowed to testify at the CPCCA conference where they gathered source material for this report, and Sam Bick, on of the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week [http://apartheidweek.org/], a city-based week of activities held on campuses across the world to provide a forum to discuss Israel-Palestine that was frequently mentioned in the CPCCA report.

Photo: Parliamentarians from six continents were on hand to release the Ottawa Protocol – a document which represents global cooperation in the fight against Antisemitism. The Ottawa Protocol is a major outcome of the 2010 Conference on Combating Antisemitism where Parliamentarians and experts from over 50 countries gathered in Ottawa from November 7-9th to take part in the 2010 Conference on Combating Antisemitism.

This originally aired on Friday Off the Hour on CKUT 90.3fm, 17h-18h.

bar baz