For the past 34 years, the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada has monitored a nearly constant upward trend in the incidents of anti-Semitism, though the trend seems to have plateaued in the last five years. At the same time, the organization has also noted a trend within the trend.
As the level of anti-Semitism continues to remain constant, the nature of the events has changed, moving increasingly into the digital and online sphere.
“It is now clear that the landscape of anti-Semitism has become one of social media and online message boards, rather than spray paint and swastikas,” states the League’s Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2015.
The CJN optained a copy of the report ahead of its May 3 release.
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Altogether, 1,277 incidents were reported in the audit, down from a record 1,627 in 2014 and nearly the same as the 1,274 incidents recorded in 2013.
The vast majority of incidents in 2015 – 1,123 – were described as harassment, such as verbal slurs, stereotyping, systematic discrimination in the workplaces or schools, hate propaganda and threats of violence.
While manifestations of anti-Semitism have kept up with the times by moving online, incidents of vandalism dropped to their lowest level in 15 years, while violent occurrences dropped by half, from 19 in 2014 to 10 in 2015.
One notable incident involved the shooting death of Edmonton police Const. Daniel Woodall, a member of the city’s anti-hate unit. Woodall was killed in June while attempting to serve an arrest warrant on an individual being charged with criminal harassment for allegedly bullying a local family. The audit is dedicated in his memory.
B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn noted that “prior to that day, the [anti-Semitic] harassment had been non-violent in nature. Hateful words inevitably lead to hateful actions. Const. Woodall’s sacrifice is a tragic reminder of the danger of hate and racism when left unchecked in our society.”
According to the audit, there has been only a five per cent variation in the number of incidents over the past five years. The year 2014 was an exception, with 1,627 incidents, but it is considered the worst year for anti-Semitism in Canada since records have been kept. The spike in incidents correlates to the Israeli conflict in Gaza that year, the audit notes.
The league’s findings parallel those of the Toronto Police, although the numbers the audit reports are substantially higher.
According to the Toronto Police Service 2015 Annual Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report, Jews continued to be the single-most targeted victim group in the city, with 31 occurrences that involved Jews and another that targeted an Israeli, out of a total of 134 occurrences.
Similar to the audit’s findings, police noted that the total number of incidents involving Jews dropped in 2015 from the year before, although in both years Jews were the single-most targeted group.
Unlike the League for Human Rights, which reports incidents across the country, Toronto police only record incidents that could be considered criminal offences.
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Among the incidents noted in the audit were one that took place in January 2015, when “mezuzahs were smashed in North York.” In February, numerous cars in Montreal were vandalized with swastikas and envelopes containing a bullet were left on windshields along with the threat that “you’re going to get one next in your head.”
The audit noted a rise in incidents in October, connected to the federal election campaign. “Offenders particularly target[ed]the Conservative Party’s support for Israel by drawing comparisons between Harper, Netanyahu and Hitler,” the audit found.
In November, white nationalist groups accused Jews of promoting the immigration of Syrian refugees as part of a plan to undermine white society.
The audit found increased co-operation between “white nationalist and racialist elements,” which had largely been isolated and independent from each other. These groups opposed Muslim immigration and blamed Jews for changing the country’s make-up in pursuit of the goals of a global Jewish elite.
At the same time, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel grew on university campuses. “The movement itself has been shown to lead to anti-Semitism,” the audit states.
Asked why anti-Semitism persists despite the presence of education programs and the social stigma attached to racism and intolerance, Mostyn said that “anti-Semitism is so difficult to combat because of the inherent logical inconsistencies of the rhetoric, and lately, the veiled attempt to couch it as legitimate political activism.
“There is clearly not enough social pressure against anti-Semitism in particular, or we wouldn’t see years like 2014, when a foreign conflict led to individual Canadian Jews being targeted in the streets. Today it is socially acceptable to engage in antisemitism as long as it’s justified as opposition to Zionism and Israeli policy, even when the arguments used are classic anti-Semitic tropes,” he said.
The audit noted that in advancing the BDS agenda, activists ignore the increasingly anti-Jewish rhetoric of the Palestinian leadership, including statements by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Jews “defile” the Al-Aqsa Mosque with “their filthy feet” and that Allah will reward those who “will not allow” Jews to “defile” Jerusalem.
“The fact that boycott activists are willing to ignore jihadist rhetoric specifically aimed at the destruction of the Jewish People speaks to an underlying anti-Semitic motivation that should be concerning to all Canadians,” the audit states.
As for the growth of online anti-Semitism, the audit pointed out that not only do people writing on the Internet have a potentially huge audience, but it is difficult to get the anti-Semitic message removed once its posted.
“There is a never-ending online flow of clearly hate-motivated writing, with new content being added daily as people become more secure in the knowledge that very little can be done to take action against them,” the audit states.
The league called for a re-examination of the void left with the repeal of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which addressed Internet hate propaganda.