TORONTO — A comment by Ontario New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath on Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) has aroused indignation among Jewish community groups.
Horwath recently described a Feb. 25 provincial motion condemning IAW, tabled by Thornhill Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman, as being “divisive by nature.”
All 30 members who were present in the 107-seat legislature, including members of the NDP, voted for the resolution to condemn IAW, which has spread to 40 cities around the world since its launch in 2005 at the University of Toronto.
Attempts to reach Horwath were unsuccessful.
Expressing disappointment over Horwath’s position, B’nai Brith Canada’s executive vice-president Frank Dimant said, “The fact that [she] is denouncing the anti-IAW motion, while at the same time members of her caucus voted in favour of it is hypocritical.”
He added, “The unanimous support for the resolution to condemn the hate-fest known as Israeli Apartheid Week, which often leads to anti-Semitic outbursts, was a very important non-partisan stand against anti-Semitism in Canada.”
Describing Horwath’s comment as “unhelpful double-speak,” Dimant said she should have taken “a more principled position.”
Howard English, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s vice-president of strategic communications, issued a sharply worded statement.
“The false Israel apartheid label is divisive, not the condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week. IAW, based on distortions of history, is designed to stifle dialogue,” English said.
“Its objective is singling out Israel among all nations on earth, bringing Israel to its knees, and setting the stage for its demise. Nothing could be more divisive than that.”
Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Canada-Israel Committee, said: “What is truly divisive on campus and elsewhere is the canard of characterizing Israel as an apartheid state.
“It is the apartheid campaign that stifles dialogue. Its divisiveness blocks progress toward peace.”
Fogel said that IAW’s “hateful language” polarizes Canadian campuses in “a toxic and destructive way, isolating and delegitimizing students who are supportive of our sister democracy in the Middle East.”
