When Condemnation Isn’t Enough: Combatting Normalized Hate Against Jews
- Mark Sandler
- Oct 5
- 4 min read
As Jews around the world observed Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement, yet another terrorist brutally attacked Jews, this time in Manchester, England. Only the courage of the rabbi and congregants and the intervention of the police, albeit with tragic results, denied the killer access to the synagogue itself.
Politicians were quick to condemn the attack, and express solidarity with the Jewish community. But we are well past being comforted by these expressions, in the same way that families victimized by gun violence in America are unimpressed with the mantra that the "thoughts and prayers" of political leaders are with them.
Why are these expressions by persons in authority largely meaningless? Simple. Because we know that the authorities have the power to do so much more about this recurring violence, but they don't.
Jews are being attacked because they are Jews. Our institutions are being attacked because they are Jewish.
And these attacks are taking place because hate is now normalized on our streets, in social media, in our universities and schools. Sadly, too often within some government agencies and within our professions.
Why is Jew hatred so normalized? Tolerated? Even defended?
Much of it relates to the sometimes malevolent, sometimes ignorant distortion of Zionism.
Zionism, properly understood, refers to the right of Jewish self-determination in our ancestral lands. This is part of the core identity of most Jews. The vast majority of Jews are Zionists, regardless of their divergent views on how to resolve the Middle East conflict or on where they are on the spectrum of Israeli politics.
However, the Middle East conflict, past and present, has allowed anti-Zionists to blur the line between protected and hate speech in several ways:
They define Zionism as a racist ideology that regards Jews as superior, and as a white settler colonialist movement with no legitimate claim of entitlement to any part of Israel. This definition enables them to demonize everybody who is a Zionist, without distinction, under the guise of promoting human rights and combatting racism. It also enables them to glorify terrorists as freedom fighters, despite the terrorists' genocidal actions and disdain for human rights.
They treat any supporter of Zionism, including anyone who refuses to accept Palestinian narratives around Israel's creation or fails to acknowledge that all Israel is occupied land, as an anti-Palestinian racist.
They label any expression that attacks Zionists as merely political and therefore immune from accountability, regardless of whether such expression exposes Jews to vilification and detestation. Some even attempt to cloak violence, threats of violence and acts of vandalism under the umbrella of free speech, although the law exempts such conduct from Charter protection. Extremists deliberately substitute "Zionist" for "Jew," however obvious it is that they mean the latter, to give them deniability when accused of antisemitism.
They refuse to acknowledge that anti-Israel rhetoric can ever cross the line from robust criticism of Israel, its government, and its conduct, criticism regularly levelled by many Zionists, to hate speech. Even though that line has been repeatedly crossed with impunity:
-"All Zionists are evil, genocidal and racist."
-"I pray for the death of all Zionists."
-"Sinwar, Sinwar, we have bullets for you."
-"From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be Arab"
-"Long live October 7" accompanied by expressions of support for the continuing terrorist activities of groups banned in Canada and their leaders.
This isn't protected speech. It is hate speech. This isn't robust criticism of Israel, its government, its policies, or its conduct of the war. This is unadulterated hatred. And yet, none of these incendiary communications have led to charges.
Thirty-six years ago, Chief Justice Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that criminalizing the wilful promotion of hatred through hate propaganda represents an appropriate limit on freedom of speech in a free and democratic society. He described the two types of injuries caused by hate propaganda: its devastating impact on the targeted community and its ability to attract adherents to its cause, resulting in discrimination and the risk of violence.
Hate speech radicalizes the impressionable. It emboldens armchair extremists to act out. Unchecked, it gives licence to antisemitism and other forms of hatred. And it produces a Boulder, Colorado. A Washington DC. A Manchester, England. And countless drive-by shootings, desecrations, assaults, threats, ostracization of Jews and our institutions. Because they are Jewish. They are being held collectively responsible for what the Israeli government does or is perceived to have done. That is antisemitism, pure and simple.
Add to this list the desecration of Holocaust memorials in Ottawa. Paris. Lyon. Attacking monuments that preserve the memories of Holocaust victims – ostensibly to protest events in Gaza – manages to demonize Jews and dishonour Holocaust victims and the lessons the Holocaust taught us, all at the same time.
In the aftermath of the attack on the Jewish community in Manchester, it is well past time for the Canadian and provincial governments to step up.
Not merely by condemning yet another attack on Jews. Not by sharing their "thoughts and prayers." But by concrete measures to combat antisemitism and extremism in ways we have identified.¹ Where to start? With significant improvements to the federal government's anti-hate legislation.² And with enforcement of existing criminal laws across the country.
And by the simple gesture by federal, provincial and municipal politicians of acknowledging that Zionism is not a dirty word and there will be zero tolerance for those who demonize all Zionists without distinction.
Endnotes
About The Author
Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.