Letters to the Editor: Distinguishing antisemitism from legitimate criticism

Dalhousie president Richard Florizone was in Israel last month to sign a memorandum of understanding with an Israeli university to create an ocean studies centre. (Press photo)

Dear editor:

Contrary to what’s implied in recent letters to the Gazette, Prime Minister Harper’s speech to Israel’s parliament distinguished between legitimate policy critics and those who hold Israel to standards demanded of no other democracy in the world. As the Prime Minister stated: “Criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily antisemitic.”

It’s worth noting that such “critics” often ostracize and single out the Jewish state with tactics that—throughout history—were directed against individual Jews, including exclusion, isolation and collective punishment. Indeed, this is what comes to mind when one hears calls for Dalhousie to reject partnerships with Israeli scientists, medical researchers, and professors—a disturbing infringement of academic freedom.

Sadly, there are even those who go so far as to reject Israel’s right to exist, effectively calling for the Jewish people alone to be denied national self-determination. This is the “new anti-Semitism” of which Prime Minister Harper spoke—a term that has likewise been used by Liberal leader Justin Trudeau to describe bigotry against the Jewish state. As former Soviet human rights activist Natan Sharansky observed, we should be skeptical of “criticism” of Israel that involves demonization, double standards or the delegitimization of Israel’s very existence. Ironically, such toxic rhetoric only undermines legitimate debate over Israeli policies and the Middle East—about which many of Israel’s fiercest critics claim to be concerned.

Sincerely,

Mark David,

Dalhousie LL.B., 1982