Toward the end of October, the fervently pro-Israel B’nai Brith Canada issued a “Seven-Point Plan to Combat Antisemitism” claiming that anti-Jewish sentiment has “risen exponentially” since October 7, 2023. The proposed plan is, predictably, focused on stifling disagreement with the political ideology of Zionism.
On the heels of this initiative, the Trudeau government launched an “IHRA Handbook” that seeks to extend and strengthen the role of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism in a range of areas, including law enforcement. This infamous definition, as Independent Jewish Voices has put it, “equates criticism of Israel and of Zionism with antisemitism using this logic: antisemitism is hatred of Jews; Jewish identity and Zionism are inseparable; anti-Zionism is therefore a form of antisemitism.”
The degree of cooperation involved in the release of these two documents is unclear but there is no doubt that pro-Israel organizations like B’nai Brith work to ensure that not only explicitly anti-Zionist views but also any robust criticism of Israel will be treated as a form of hate speech and suppressed as such. It is equally clear that their efforts have a receptive audience among political decision makers. This raises the question of what accounts for the influence that the pro-Israel lobby exercises on governments, especially in Western countries.
Strategic interests
In talking about a pro-Israel lobby, I am referring to those organizations that claim to speak for the Jewish community, while concentrating on zealous advocacy for the Zionist project. In order to assess its influence, we need to consider how Western, and particularly US, strategic interests have generated support for Israel in the first place.
Although it originated as a settler-colonial project, Israel has also functioned as a weapon aimed at the entire Arab region in which it is situated. It was established in 1948 by means of a military defeat that it imposed on several surrounding countries and it expanded its area of control in 1967 on the same basis. As Adam Hanieh has argued, the 1967 conflict “shattered the movements of Arab unity, national independence, and anti-colonial resistance that had crystallized most sharply in Nasser’s Egypt (and) demonstrated that Israel was a powerful force that could be used to thwart any threats to American interests in the region.”
The founders of Zionism were aware that their colonial project would serve Western interests in this way. Theodor Herzl observed in 1896 that in Palestine “we shall be a sector of the wall of Europe against Asia, we shall serve as the outpost of civilization against barbarism.” Years later, Caspar Weinberger, US Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan, would echo this sentiment, when he proclaimed that “Israel is America’s unsinkable battleship in the Middle East.”
We can now see the error in attributing Western support for Israel to the manipulative power of a Zionist lobby. The West provides the support it does because of economic and geopolitical considerations, and organizations that are set up to advance Israel’s interests thus have an easy task. Indeed, the ‘tail wags the dog’ view of the relationship between Israel’s advocates and Western governments is a form of political disorientation that opens the door to antisemitic conspiratorial stereotypes we must decisively reject.
Despite this, the pro-Israel lobby still plays a distinct and important role. The favour it enjoys is an effect of the alignment of Western interests with the colonial project it promotes but, once it goes to work, it takes on very considerable causal significance.
Organizations that lobby for Israel play a particularly significant role at the present time, when Israel’s genocidal rampage is generating a shift in popular sentiment in favour of the Palestinians. They are much less focused on efforts to influence broad public opinion than on shoring up governmental support for Israel and doing all they can to stifle critical voices.
The pro-Israel lobby is very skilled at directly influencing political representatives. Last year, The Maple revealed that “the Centre For Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has sponsored trips to ‘Israel’ for at least 73 MPs currently in office, amounting to 22 per cent of all sitting MPs.” Moreover, “CIJA spent at least $894,000 on these sponsored trips, for an average of $12,257 per trip by MP.” The article provides a link to a table listing all of these MPs. We may be sure that this significant effort to influence politicians is part of a much broader initiative aimed at all levels of government.
The stock in trade of the pro-Israel lobby is the false accusation of antisemitism as a means of discrediting, intimidating and silencing Palestine solidarity. Last December, the CBC drew attention to “just some of the many instances across Canada in which employees and students have faced firings, suspensions or calls for them to not be hired based on their publicly stated political stance on the Israel-Hamas war.”
Lawyers that the CBC interviewed spoke of “an environment in which many are afraid they will lose their jobs or face consequences to their education if they express a political stance in favour of one side—Palestinians—during this war.” Jackie Esmonde, a labour lawyer at Toronto-based firm Cavalluzzo Law, said that “in the last month and a half, I’ve probably spoken with someone at least once a day” with such concerns.
The pro-Israel lobby is directly responsible for many accusations against those who speak and act in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and it works to generate a climate in which such forms of victimization are normalized. Speaking to CBC News anonymously, two employees of the Zionist Simon Wiesenthal Center said, “the centre’s educators who teach workshops and courses in schools have been instructed to report students who make comments critical of Israel to the organization.”
The CBC report quotes these employees as saying, “the idea is to contact the school, inform the school they have an antisemitism problem and pressure the school to shut down the Palestinian support [by] accusing them of antisemitism, encouraging more pro-Zionist workshops or lessons.” One of them added, “If you’re not pro Israel, then you’re antisemitic.”
Banning and criminalization
At present, the pro-Israel lobby is moving beyond discrediting and intimidating those who challenge the political ideology it promotes. It wants to see Palestine solidarity actions banned and anti-Zionism criminalized. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center states that “through our education and professional development programs, we provide police forces with the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to better combat hate against the Jewish community… By fostering close partnerships and offering specialized support, FSWC equips law enforcement personnel with the tools they need to confront and mitigate the impact of hate crimes and antisemitism in their communities.”
When it comes to police and prosecutors, the effort to shape their responses to pro-Palestinian activism in ways that serve the Zionist agenda has produced results. As The Breach has shown, the Toronto Police Hate Crimes Unit is focused on a major effort to “strategically incapacitate” the Palestine solidarity movement.
In October, Crown prosecutors in Ottawa withdrew charges against a woman who ripped the hijab from a pro-Palestinian protester. One of the reasons for this was that the protester, Hayfa Abdelkhaleq, was chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and, according to Assistant Crown Attorney Moiz Karimjee, this might “reasonably be inferred” as “a call for genocide of the Jewish people.”
This disgraceful pandering to supporters of Israel reveals a complete disregard for criminal assaults motivated by racism and Islamophobia. What, after all, might be “reasonably inferred” from a physical attack on a Muslim woman that involved pulling off her hijab? This points to the disturbing link between the work of the pro-Israel lobby and the promotion of anti-Palestinian racism.
In July, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) took Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles to task for bowing to Zionist pressure in a situation that was quite outrageous. Stiles had posted on X to express “her appreciation of Palestinian cultural displays at the Taste of the Middle East Toronto Festival, including one depicting a historical map of Palestine.” Faced with “smear attacks” by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center and Honest Reporting Canada she removed the depiction of Palestine.
As CJPME noted, “the response from these pro-Israel groups is emblematic of anti-Palestinian racism, which seeks to erase Palestinian narratives and equate the acknowledgement of Palestinian culture with hostility towards Jewish people everywhere.”
This was most certainly not an isolated case and we should note that a ban on the wearing of the keffiyeh, a traditional scarf that became a symbol of Palestinian resistance, is still in partial effect at the Ontario legislature. Earlier this year, the speaker of the legislature ruled that wearing the keffiyeh was a political act and banned it. Only under considerable pressure was the ban limited to the legislature chambers, a ‘compromise’ that is indicative of a climate in which the very expression of Palestinian identity exists on the fringes of legality.
When people argue that Canada is a settler state that is deeply racist in nature, there is no threat of criminal sanction, yet, the same evaluation of Israel is labelled hate speech and the call for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” can invite legal consequences. This incongruity is very largely the work of the pro-Israel lobby.
The Canadian establishment doggedly enables Israel and finds it advantageous for supporters of the Palestinian struggle to be contained. However, the lobby’s role in equating Jewish identity with Zionism and labelling opposition to this colonialist ideology as antisemitic is a potent factor that we should not underestimate.
The pro-Israel lobby is a determined, resourceful and dangerous enemy that we must challenge and defeat as we build a powerful movement of solidarity with the struggle for a free Palestine.
John Clarke is a writer and retired organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). Reprinted from Canadian Dimension.