Across North America, the far right and pro-Israel groups have been leading a repressive crackdown on Palestine solidarity. Canadians are watching in horror as the United States, under Donald Trump’s leadership, veers toward outright fascism. Here at home, Conservative leaders have threatened Trumpist policies of defunding of public universities and mass deportations, and our new Prime Minister is promising bubble zone legislation targeting Palestine solidarity protests.
While the tactics of repression may differ between the U.S. and Canada, they often share a common foundation: the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.
Pro-Israel lobbyists and government officials are pushing IHRA to shield Israel from criticism while it carries out a genocide that has to date killed over 55,000 Palestinians. Their latest tool? The Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.
Published by the office of Deborah Lyons, Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism in Canada, the Handbook is a roadmap for wide-spread adoption of IHRA in Canada, in law enforcement, the judicial system, businesses, and civil society groups. The Handbook poses a major threat to fundamental freedoms to criticize Israeli war crimes, apartheid, and settler colonialism, and promotes anti-Palestinian racism.
IJV’s latest resource, Silenced in Our Name: A Jewish Commentary on Canada’s IHRA Handbook will walk you through the Canadian Handbook section-by-section. It breaks down arguments for IHRA’s implementation, and highlights sections that go above and beyond any previous definitions of antisemitism for the purpose of criminalizing anti-Zionism. Read and share Silenced in Our Name today.