A girl wearing an Israeli flag stands next to a memorial for the victims of Sunday’s shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach.Hollie Adams/Reuters
Irwin Cotler was a minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada and Canada’s first special envoy for preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism. Noah Lew is a lawyer, special adviser to Mr. Cotler, and a director of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
In the wake of the horrific antisemitic terrorist attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney – in which 15 people were murdered and more than two dozen injured – politicians and other public figures commenced the now-typical routine of issuing condemnations.
The routine began after the unspeakable mass atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023 – the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust – on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. It kicked up again, more recently, on Yom Kippur, after a synagogue shooting in Manchester.
At this point, political staffers would be prudent to draft the condemnations in advance of upcoming Jewish holidays: “I condemn the antisemitic attack on [insert Jewish institution or event] on [insert holiday] in [insert location].”
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Here in Canada, disturbing headlines have become all too common: a Jewish school shot at, a synagogue firebombed, Jewish individuals harassed and attacked. When will our leadership and our society wake up and realize that condemnations are necessary, but are also simply not enough?
Canadians often look at the gun violence that plagues the United States with scorn and disbelief; its predictability and preventability make it especially tragic and senseless. The U.S. refuses to address the underlying cause – the proliferation of guns – and in 2023, nearly 50,000 Americans died from gun violence, and it was the leading cause of death for minors. After mass shootings, American politicians and public figures almost ritualistically offer their thoughts and prayers. Then they move on, until the next time – and then the pattern continues.
Yet, our approach to violent antisemitism in Canada and throughout the West has been almost identical to America’s approach to gun violence. Antisemitic attacks and incidents have become similarly routine and predictable across liberal democracies. After each incident, politicians issue condemnations, but fail to adequately address the underlying cause: antisemitic incitement and disinformation.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer lights a candle to mark Hanukkah at Downing Street in London on Tuesday.WPA Pool/Getty Images
What we are witnessing is an increasing mainstreaming, normalization, and even legitimization of antisemitism, as well as the absence of outrage – let alone the indulgence, acquiescence, and inaction in the face of standing incitement – to Jew hatred and violence.
The heinous attack at Bondi Beach was not a stand-alone event. It was the direct result of antisemitic rhetoric that, since Oct. 7, 2023, has become not just socially acceptable, but almost fashionable.
If Canada is serious about preventing a similar attack from taking place on the streets of Toronto, Montreal, or elsewhere, it must address the antisemitic incitement that fuels these atrocities. This must begin with openly recognizing the undeniable link between fomenting hatred against Israel and hatred against Jews.
Israel must not be immunized from criticism, and criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country is not antisemitic. But the demonization and delegitimization of Israel and the dehumanization of Israelis and Jews is the primary cause of antisemitic violence in the world today.
What happened at Bondi Beach is the result of mobs chanting anti-Jewish slogans outside the Sydney Opera House on Oct. 9, 2023. It is the result of mobs chanting “globalize the intifada” in the streets around the world. It is the result of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda campaigns by Iran, China, Russia, Qatar, and other repressive autocracies, who are using social media and similar avenues to destabilize the West through disinformation and hate. It is the result of many anti-Israel activists and human-rights NGOs spreading the charge of genocide, rooted in Soviet propaganda and falsely levelled against Israel for decades.
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Antisemitic incitement works by convincing people that Jews are so evil that to oppose and harm them is actually a moral act. Nazi propaganda described Jews as vermin, as subhuman, and as the destroyers and betrayers of Germany to convince the masses to support or, at the very least, turn a blind eye to their slaughter.
Contemporary anti-Israel propaganda does the same – describing Israel and those who support its right to exist (in Canada, 94 per cent of Jews) as genocidal and racist colonizers – to convince the masses to exclude, oppose and harass them. It is not surprisingly that this leads some to ultimately seek to murder them.
Until our leaders, across the political spectrum, recognize and address head-on the dramatic rise in antisemitic incitement, violent antisemitism will continue to be a predictable, preventable – and deadly – scourge.