This week, Rabbi Michael Dolgin of Temple Sinai, a member of ALCCA, penned a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, challenging the PM’s response to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
Rabbi Dolgin criticized the PM’s failure to address the ICC’s unprecedented decision to equate leaders of a democratic country (with an independent judiciary and a free press) with the leader of a terrorist organization bent on Israel’s destruction.
He urged the PM to reconsider his statement, emphasizing the need for Canada to stand with its allies and ensure the safety and respect of Jewish and Zionist Canadians.
Read the full letter below:
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau:
At the meeting I attended with you this summer together with other Reform rabbis from across Canada, I asked that you show consistency in your positions that Jews and Zionist should be able to be both safe and proud in our beloved Canada. Your response was “well said.”
Your response to the warrants issued by the ICC this week make me wonder if you were listening at all as we spoke. The ICC has never before issued warrants against democratically elected leaders. Further, it simultaneously issued a warrant against a deceased Hamas terrorist, Mohammed Deif. The implied purpose could only be to create a hateful false equivalence between the Prime Minister of Israel and the militant leader of a listed terror organization.
You could have indicated that a warrant against a democratically elected leader of a country with an independent judiciary and a free press was a cause for concern and study is required to determine Canada’s reaction. You could have noted that Canada had helped to establish the court and that you were saddened that it has been weaponized by those who would punish Israel for fighting a determined enemy sworn to her destruction who cynically uses innocent Gazans as human shields. Instead, you issued a statement that was as harmful as it is misleading. You accepted this corrupted institution treating a Canadian ally in the same way as a Canadian named terrorist and made the Jewish and Zionist community of Canada less safe. You suggested that arresting an Israeli political leader would be in step with your view of Canadian values. It is drastically out of line with mine and those of my community.
Your facile statement hurts Canada’s standing abroad and contributes to a hateful public atmosphere here at home for Jewish and Zionist Canadians.
I ask you to retract and/or revise your response to demonstrate that you support Israeli self-defense even while saddened by the suffering and loss of life on all sides and that you know that, while viewpoints strongly differ on the Israeli/Hamas war, Israel does not deserve to be a pariah state and her supporters here in Canada deserve respect and safety.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Michael Dolgin
Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto