Heroes of my wife. My wife was a parliamentary secretary. Very close to the former Prime Minister of israel. An unexpecteds a welcome onebut on a personal as well as a scholarly basis. Attributejoin to professor rosenfeld. He is a model of moral and intellectual leadership. Conference,this this gathering of International Scholars the preeminent gathering of its kind internationally. Foras made of the institute the contemporary study of antisemitism, a preeminent institute in that regard. [applause] his work reminds me of something. If youll pardon me a personal reference. You could not have mentioned the one thing in the introduction that is always missing, and understandably so. That is the debt that i owed to my parents. The reason for that is that it was my father that taught me, before i understood the profundity of his remarks. When he would say to me justice is equal to all the other commitments other commandments combined. This, he said, you must teach of your children. It was my mother, when she heard my father saying this, would say to me, if you want to pursue justice, you have to understand, you have to feel the injustice about you. You have to go in and about your community and beyond and feel the injustice and combat it. Otherwise, the pursuit of justice remains a theoretical abstraction. And i suspect that as a result of these teachings, i got involved in the two great human rights struggles of the second half of the 20th century. The struggle for human rights in the soviet union, against apartheid and the Political Prisoners that became the identity of those struggles. Union, andsoviet Nelson Mandela and south africa. The reason i am connecting this to alvin is because his work with respect to the scholarly inquiry and the moral intellectual leadership that he is providing is really not just just the struggle against antisemitism, but in the larger sense of the word, the struggle against injustice. That is what brings us together. That is what my mother would have liked to have seen us do as rs call forathers justice, but my mothers warning about pursuing justice by combating injustice. That is what we are doing as convening today. I am pleased to share with you this evening some thoughts, some concerns, some reflections, and yes, even some hope. Someone said to me, mi going to be adding to that brooding omnipresence that we have heard, about the shadows of antisemitism, the dangers and threats and the like. But i want to say that i am also hoping to end on a hopeful ending. And i am encouraged by the fact that we do have these gatherings of scholars coming together. Our struggle is not an atomized struggle in silos, but we can come together in a common cause and beyond. Context that i want to share these remarks with you this evening about the jewish condition and the human condition. About assault on jews and assaults on human rights. About the state of jews in the world today, and the state of the world inhabited by jews. About antisemitism as being not only the oldest and most enduring of hatreds. I would say the paradigm of radical hatred is the holocaust. But the most toxic, the most , a lethal obsession. As it happens , we meet an important historical moment of remembrance and reminder. We are meeting on the anniversary of the coming into effect of the nuremberg race laws. They ended up being a precursor to taking us down the road to the holocaust. We meet also on the 71st anniversary year of the liberation of auschwitz, the most brutal extermination camp of the 20th century. I reminder of horrors too terrible to be believed, but not too terrible to have happened. 1. 3 Million People were murdered at auschwitz. 1. 1 million of them were jews. Let there be no mistake about it. Jews were murdered in auschwitz because of antisemitism. But antisemitism did not itself die at auschwitz. And jews and the related antisemitism have emerged, an and have emerged for some time. What i would calle the bloodied canary in the mine s haft of the global evil. While it may begin with jews, it doesnt end with jews. The underlying thesis of my remarks this evening, and i regret i have been reading this thesis for some time now is that we are witnessing a new global escalating, sophisticated, ireland and sophisticated, virulent, and even lethal antisemitism. Grounded in classical antisemitism, but distinct visible from it. Would receive its first institutional the radical expression in the u. S. Zi onism is racism, that has gone dramatically beyond that. The thenu. S. Ambassador to the United Nations said about it, that it gave the abomination of antisummit is an the appearance of International Legal sanction. But as i said, it has gone dramatically beyond that. A new antisemitism which needs almost a new vocabulary to define it. But which can best be defined in a set of metrics that are anchored in humans rights and International Law in general. Words, traditional or classical antisemitism is a discretion of, assault upon, the rights of jews to live as equal members in any society that they inhabit. And we have developed metrics to identify and evaluate this traditional or classical enticement to some. Classical antisemitism. The antidefamation league, in a study in 2014, using 11 of these traditional metrics, such questions as do jews have too much power in the media . They determined at the end of that global study, that antisemitism what a persistent and pervasive virus. But i want to suggest that there is this new antisemitism with a set of metrics that were not even included in the antidefinition antidefamation league. First, if i may, excerpt from a some 60 years ago at the beginning of the 21st century. When in observing the developments in the old and new antisemitism and the intersection between the two, stated in a rather prescient way, a process and connection and intersection elevate inte rsectionality that underpins my remarks this evening. Compared to most previous antijewish outbreaks, this new antisemitism is often less directed against individual jews. Its primarily targets the collective jews. The state of israel. I might add parenthetically, he was a former Prime Minister of sweden, that emerged as one of leading scholars with respect to old and new mi symptoms of. And new antisemitism. Such attacks start a Chain Reaction of assault on individual jews and jewish institutions. He concludes, in the past, the most dangerous antisemites were those that wanted to make the world free of jews. The most dangerous today are those that wanted to be free of a jewish state. In that context, i want to summarize some 5 metrics of the new antisemitism. I have elsewhere outlined 12 metrics, but i dont want to unduly bore you. I will limit it to 5. The 5 that i want to discuss this evening are one, genocidal antisemitism. Political antisemitism. Four, antijewish terror. And finally, the one that i think is the most sophisticated, maybe the most dangerous what i would call the laundry or masking of antisemitism under universal public values. I hope then to not leave it in an analytical framework, but to suggest some initiatives that we may take as a group of scholars to both not only better understand, but to better address and redress this new antisummit is some. Antisemitism. Let me begin with the first metric, what i would call genocidal antisemitism. This is not a term that i use lightly or easily. It is a term that i am picking right out of the Genocide Conventions prohibition against the direct and public incitement to genocide. As the Supreme Court of canada ase in thea major c matter of upholding the constitutionality of our antihate legislation. The court said that the holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers, it began with words. Judgment, where a rwandan had come to canada in 1992 and sought Refugee Status in canada. Day, the courthe ordered his extradition back to rwanda. He had said, how can i, on the grounds of incitement to genocide . His argument was, i came to canada in 1992, i was seeking Refugee Status. The genocide in rwanda did not begin until 1994. How can you convict me . The court held that the very incitement of genocide constitutes the crime under International Law. Whether or not acts of genocide follow. View,ortant, and in my compelling precedent, in terms of combating state sanctions. I might mention, because i think it is important to do so, that we are on the eve of the 22nd anniversary of the rwandan genocide, that began on april 7 in 1994. I say this because what makes the genocide in rwanda so unspeakable is, not only the horror of the genocide itself, that would be bad enough. What makes it so unspeakable is that that genocide was preventable. Nobody could say we did not know. We knew, but we did not act. Just as in the case of darfur, nobody could say we did not know. We knew, but we did not act. Fifthe just passed the anniversary of the killing fields in syria, where close to 500,000 have been killed. 12. 5 million have been displaced. Close to 5 million are refugees. Isis came in at the end of the scorched earth policy. It began with the criminality of assads regime. [applause] and those of us who said at the time, invoking the responsibility to protect, that whenever you have a situation in any country, or with any war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and the government in places unable or unwilling to do anything about it or in the case of syria, the author of that killing field, then there is the responsibility on part of the International Community to intervene and protect the innocent civilians. Fourhose of us who called years ago for stereo, where dead, andonly 7000 displaced, we were told that if you intervene, this will lead to civil war. Jihadists coming in. Everything we were told would happen if we intervened happened because we did not intervene. With regardl thing, to the struggle against antisemitism, we cannot be bystanders. Road toanders pave the the genocide in rwanda, darfur, and the killing fields in syria as the bystanders contributed to the paradigm of a radical evil, the holocaust. Looking at the phenomenon of founddal antisemitism, i there were some seven manifestations of genocidal antisemitism. I am not going to go through all of them, just several, to give you an appreciation. This audience does not need it now an elaborate explanation. The first expression of genocidal antisemitism came at the beginning of the 21st century. Expressionthe first by that person. 3, 2000, when the Supreme Leader of iran, the ayatollah, said there could be no resolution of the without the problem state,ion of the israeli the annihilation of the jewish state. This continued in terms of the calls for the excising of the cancerous tumor, israel. And the several weeks ago, the testing of ballistic missiles, as it had been with jihad ofsiles, with its emblem wipe israel off the map, three weeks ago. What is so disturbing about these, is that they are standing violations of the prohibition against this direct public incitement to genocide, anchored in the Genocide Convention and International Law. In effect, state parties have a responsibility. It is not a policy option to iranthe leadership of accountable. Fromt to distinguish it people and public of iran, who are otherwise the targets of mass domestic repression. Similarly, the International Community is not addressing that , as well. The second manifestation of genocidal antisemitism are the covenants and charters and declarations. Arrogant, unnis surrogate. I am not telling you anything new when you say that hamas own public charter calls for the destruction of israel and the killing of jews, you can find that in article seven. But what is less well known and surprised my colleagues in the canadian parliament, was when i read into the record, not just this, but that antisomatic tropes which underpin it. , or calling jews, responsible for the french revolution, the first world war, the second world war, the league of nations, there is not an evil in the world in which the jews are not there. See you have a juxtaposition in the hamas covenant of old and new antisemitism. Similar to hezbollah. We know there are public threats as well, with regards to the destruction of israel. Leader notbollah just talks about israels disappearance, but shows how the old and the new come together. He said, if all the jews were gathered in israel, it would be easier to kill them all at the same time. But on a lesser note, but no , he says if we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, week, and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology, and religion, we would not find anyone like the jew. Notice i do not say the israeli. This statement provides moral justification and ideological justification for dehumanizing the jews. She went on, the israeli jew becomes a legitimate target for extermination and also legitimizes attacks on nonisraeli jews. You see to manifestations of genocidal and i semitism. I will leave it at that. , writse religious ling for extermination, judaism, are held out to be the perfidious enemy of where they call israel emerging as salman rushdie, an object of a state. So it is under this phenomenon antisemitism, that israel becomes the only state in the world today, and the jewish people, the only people in the world today but other standing targets of genocidal and i semitism. I did not even going to the other manifestations of it, which include populist antisemitism, those expressions, jews, jews to the ,as, which we heard in berlin and in social media, and so on. That brings me to the second metric. I am referring now to demonological and i semitism. The globalizing indictment in this metric of israel and the jewish people as the embodiment of all evil in the world today. Of israel as a racist, imperialist, colonial will colonialists, genocidal, apart hide it, not the people and state. The embodiment of the worst evil of the 20th century, and constituting all evil in the 21st century. And so it is, that israel and the jewish people become not only the only state and only people that are the standing target of genocidal and i semitism, but the only state and the only people that are systematically accused of being genocidal themselves. The whole serving as a form of prologue and justification for the incitement and assault upon israel and the jews. All of it serves as a validator for a third indicator, political and i semitism. Antisemitism. The denial of certain rights to the jewish people. Is anocidal antisemitism call for the destruction of israel and the jewish people, and in the second metric, israel and the jewish people are the embodiment of all evil, warranting the assaults, then political and i semitism is a denial of israels right to exist to begin with, or a denial of its legitimacy, or a denial right towish peoples selfdetermination, if not their denial as a person. As Martin Luther king jr. Put it, it is the denial of the jews to the same right, the right to selfdetermination, that we accord african nations and all peoples of the jet low. Is antisemitism. Which brings me to a fourth metric, the phenomenon of antijewish terror, underpinned by antijewish state incitement, and the glorification of that terrorism and even the rewarding of that terrorism by both hamas and other authorities. Let me say, the 21st century ino began on Rosh Hashanah october 2000 with the worst thewish terrorism worst terrorism, we have in fact ever witnessed over a period of time. In the first two years, from the onslaught of what was called the second a sanitizing term, because the notion is, some kind of resistance to an occupation. With a validating expression. What it really was was the worst kind of terrorism that we have witnessed in contemporary history. Some 600 jews were murdered in the first two years of that. That is equivalent to a half a dozen 9 11s. Time, there was a series of major attacks that because thelace attempt to bomb the israeli towers, which could have been a 9 11 in that particular sense, the attempt to poison, i could go on. What i am saying is, you had specific, antijewish terror, which included also the targeting of synagogues and Jewish Community centers and hebrew universities. Could go on in the terrorist attacks. Regrettably, what we have been ignoring oras been marginalizing or sanitizing of such attacks. Let me give you such a personal experience and i will close this metric. Thes in israel over decemberjanuary break. Attend a jewish parliamentarians conference. I arrived on december 20. I arrived at the airport, picked up the jerusalem post. On the front page, it said three terrorist attacks. My daughter and grandchildren live in that city, so these attacks took place while i was flying over to israel. Called my daughter and they said it is ok daddy, it was a neighbor of ours. She fought the terrorists off. Fast forward, january 1, i am going to visit my son, who recently moved to israel. And he is living in tel aviv. House, there was ent terroristrul attack. And on the third, just as i was about to leave israel, being there for several weeks, you may have read about a pregnant woman and had been stabbed thankfully she and the fetus were fine. That happened to be a cousin of mine. I am there and a threeweek. They, and all of these terrorist attacks occur. Israelis are experiencing this antijewish terror day in and day out. And it, when i would look experimented with this, we have a channel in our tv for the israeli news. Every single day for months, the news is let off with another terrorist attack in israel. Every single day i watch the canadian news, there is a whole snow to these terrorist attacks. Is this the sanitizing of antijewish terror, it is it in bold is the terrorist to not only continue striking israel, but to continue to strike elsewhere. Because when we did not intervene at the beginning of this century, we then found that that antijewish terror, the tentacles would move on to europe and elsewhere. To responsibility here intervene on behalf of our common humanity must include in it israelis and jews. Alsoi say israelis, i refer to Israeli Arabs who themselves have been injured or killed sometimes in these terrorist attacks. Though not necessarily targeted for that purpose. Now i come to the final metric, the one that is most sophisticated. That is the laundering or underg of antisemitism universal, public values. Because of the restrictions of time, i will give one example of arenas in which this laundering takes place. The first, the laundering under the protective cover of the u. N. , International Law, the culture of human rights, and againstthe struggle racism. Laundering a fifth, under the Indigenous Peoples framework, as well. Let me begin under the protective cover of the United Nations. Not saying anything new for this audience when i say yet again in december this year, the annual ritual was repeated, some 20 resolutions of condemnation ininst one member state International Community, it happens to be israel, and three resolutions against the rest of the world combined. Indictment, as of standing breach of the United Nations charter. But that is not the only disturbing phenomenon. As someone who is a member of the canadian delegation to the United Nations, there is not only a Critical Mass of there is a Critical Mass of exposure to that indictment. That culminates in 20 resolutions of condemnation, perceived over a three month period to the various communities. These delegations are composed not just the diplomats, there composed of parliamentarians, scholars, faith leaders, academics, journalists, even students. There is a Critical Mass of exposure to that ongoing process of indictment. I can tell you, many of the people who come to these elementary delegations come as a tabula rasa. When they listen to that drumbeat of indictment over three months, with resolutions passed that read alike findings of fact and conclusions of wrong, then they internalize delegitimizings dynamic. We need to readdress and redress this situation that the u. N. Let me tell you what took place at the exact same time they got no coverage and no remembrance at all. Then thatwhich began the attemptd since, to betray israel then as the enemy of all that is good, and the repository of all that is evil. And so it was that in 1974 and 1975, israel was held up to be the enemy of labor. Evidence . Theresolution of International Labor organization, condemning labor labor unionism. Also, saying they masspoisoned palestinians on the west bank. Of israeli desecration israel for itsg oppression of palestinian women. Recently, israel became the only state in the world condemned for its oppression of women. I mean, you cant make this thing up, unless you are sitting at the United Nations council for human rights. Peace, condemning israel as a nonpeaceloving nation, an enemy of human rights. The resolution of the commission condemningghts, a major human rights violator. In a word, in a world in which human rights then, let alone 40 years ago, had emerged as a new, secular religion of our time. The condemnation of israel, meant that israel had emerged as a new geopolitical antichrist of our time. So much for that first example. The second, is laundering under the authority of International Law. I could regale you on this forever, but let me just take one example. It was mentioned earlier today, and deserves a recall. Year, ther last contracting parties of the fourth Geneva Convention, the repository of international to put onen law, met state in the International Community in the dark. Syria ort iran or north korea. In the darkte put when the contracting parties convened was israel. Precedence. This was the third time the contracting parties of the Geneva Convention had met in 50 years, and each time, they put andstate in the docket, each time, that state is israel. Let me tell you, this jurisprudence is also taught in law schools of countries around the world. But without the caveat they may refer to it as jurisprudence. Way, this was the only state in the world so indicted. I may borrow, but i dont want to misappropriate another persons pain, but sometimes when i heard about black lives matter, and it is true, thetimes when i witness daily stabbings in israel and the like, someone should also say, and israeli lives matter, as well. We are all part of a common humanity. Contextch in its own that we have to remember and address those situations. Made,d reference will be the laundering or delegitimization at the human rights council. Purposes of angry hidden history, this is the 70th anniversary now of the founding of the u. N. Commission on human you can make the exact time in terms of 1946, the 10th anniversary now of the u. N. Council on human rights, which was set up to address the singling out of israel that had occurred of the u. N. , and to adhere to the u. N. Principle of equality of nations. Was even more prejudicial in its singling out in an excessive way. I could go through the resolutions of special sessions, but i want to give you my own personal experience with how this is taken place. You know about the operation protective edge, the u. N. Council established a commission of inquiry to look into it. What it did not tell you, or was was not always known, there were some 18 references in the resolution establishing that commission of inquiry into edge inns protective israel and gaza. 18 separate references to araeli criminality into resolution establishing this investigative inquiry, and not one reference to hammas. That was its framework. Let me give you my own personal experience. In 2006 fromcall the u. N. Commissioner at that time, a former colleague of mine, and distinguished judge of the Supreme Court of canada, and became the United Nations commissioner for human rights. She said i am calling to ask you to be a member of a commission of inquiry that we are setting up to look into killings of palestinians in northern gaza. Beaid to louise, will this going to tehran . It was because of the rocketing they came from hamas in northern gaza, the rocketing of the israel,s in southern that israel, and responding to the constant rocketing barrage, anrettably and tragically, errant artillery shell killed palestinians. You can be a member of the commission she said, and make such submissions as part of it. I said, i have read the resolution establishing the commission of inquiry that you are asking me to join. The resolution says, that israel willingly murdered 18 palestinians. So what is there to investigate . I dont intend to be a fig leaf for the u. N. , or a jewish fig leaf for the u. N. Which leads me to the final laundering, and that is, the laundering under the struggle against racism. Lets face it, one of the worst things you can say about a person or country is to call them a racist. The very label supplies the indictment. No further proof, a sensibly, is required. And if it is, as in the case of israel, then you refer to israel as an apartheid state. Referencing israel as an apartheid state is not an accidental reference. Because those who drew up those indictments and know very well that apartheid is defined in International Law is a crime against humanity. If you say israel is an apartheid state, it is a crime against humanity. If it is a crime against humanity, then it has no right to be. And if that is not enough, you call not only does it have a right to be but an obligation and we should recall that five years ago, a Public Opinion survey was done in europe where countries were asked, do you believe what israel is doing to the palestinians that the nazis did to the jews and 40 of the europeans polled said yes. Followed therefore from this laundering of delegitimizing. And what we find in this last part of the struggle, goes back also to durbin, 16th anniversary we are going to be commemorating and where the Tipping Point. The laundering didnt began, but began way back in 40 years ago and but what happened was the Tipping Point and ill close with an excerpt of the marches that used to take place in the streets of durbin, which dramatically convey the impact of that laundering and the chanting went as follows, the struggle against apartheid in south century and africa is struggling and requires a dismantling of israel as an apartheid state and the blueprint for what we are witnessing today in the Campus Culture and the like, which brings me now to the final part and so the question, what needs to be done and in particular, what can we do. M going to do oneliners because of time. I think you can fill in the planchings better. The first thing is, we need a more inclusive definition of antisemitism whose metrics are not anchored in the traditional butlassics of antisemitism includes the metrics of the new antisemitism. They were found in the definition of antisifmentism and two years ago, we discussed how it has been removed from the web site. But i want to say it is still and part of the u. S. State Department Definition and part of the london parliamentary definition to combat anti semitism. That is the first thing we need to do to have a more inclusive definition. The phenomenon of intersexuality, which is movement n and today, which underpins the phenomenon that we find in academic groups, because if you look at it, the organization of Health Academics this is the ature of intersexuality. Section the op inter defined as a human rights and israel is the oppressor and it results in a situation where the movement was joined by the environmentalist, the womens groups, the black glupes groups and so on. One of the things about this when i think about this, in a way, the soviet movement pioneered this, when you think back, you had academic for soviet jury and scientists for soviet jury, we then what we came to be known on behalf of it which is part of the struggle for human rights and when the proteo typical for the struggle was the struggle. This has been turned on its head and it has been turned on its head and recently, a group of students that we hosted at our home told us regarding the recent dynamic, it wasnt just directed against israel, it was directed against the jewish students in the sense they were seen as part of the white Privileged Group that was also dominating the underprivileged or repressed groups. As i said, you know, its not that we dont know the case or we dont know the case about the Israeli Palestinian we arent having standing to make the case because we are seen part of the part of the oppressor class. And it is much deeper than we might think. A third thing that we need to do by the way, return to inter ality. Section nd so that the jewish struggle is not defined as israel is an ethnic state but part of the struggle. The third thing, we need to combat, if not prevent the state sanctioned incitement to hate and genocide. The recommendies are there. Not one state party has undertaken what is not a policy obligation but in fact an injustice. A fourth thing is we need to ffirm and implement the ottawa protocol. How many people have read the protocol . Very few. And this is ill say there are more that didnt put up their hands. But one of the problems is that some of these things are not sufficiently known, appreciated and act upon. This contains within
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