Canadian media and politicians fail to protect human rights for all

Corporate media and politicians in Canada showed us whose lives matter. The fact that they didn’t protect every single human life should scare the crap out of you.

This past week, an unprecedented amount of Israeli civilians have faced violence that they, solely as Israeli citizens, have historically NEVER faced.

This means that in the last 75 years of Israel's existence as a settler-colonial nation, not once has the violence on Israeli civilians been this bad. This is obviously a devastating and unacceptable human loss at the hands of Hamas.

In response to this unprecedented violence, the Israeli government has been using the full force of one of the world's most advanced armies to attack all Palestinians.

We join so many organizations in calling for a ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli government because we know civilians should not be harmed.

It is worth noting, though, that this week marked the most intense violence Israelis have faced in their 75 years of nationhood. Meanwhile, Palestinians have endured consistent oppression, dispossession, and both direct and indirect violence as a daily reality throughout those same 75 years through the systemic oppression and violence from the Israeli government.

Politician and Media Fail #1: Statements Perpetuating Harm

Politicians in Canada who condemned the attack on Israeli civilians while choosing to leave out that the Israeli army has (for 75+ years) and is actively attacking and violating the human rights of Palestinians, is a statement perpetuating more violence and division.

The failure by our media and politicians to show up swiftly and immediately in support of civilians from Palestine and Israel is terrifying and should concern all of us, regardless of whether we are directly impacted by this issue.

Here’s why: While everyday Canadians may need time to form an informed opinion, the full-time job of corporate media and politicians is to know things. There are so many researchers, copywriters, and strategists who work together before a stance, especially one on an issue this heated, is taken.

So, by failing to make a statement in solidarity with all civilians, they have inadvertently shown us their true colours. Which is they can talk a big game about upholding all of our human rights, but there is clearly either a hierarchy of whose human rights should be upheld, or their support has very little to do with human rights at all.

Speaking generally to most politicians and most corporate media. Individuals within both systems have issued impressive human rights-centered statements

Political and Media Fail #2: Context for Condemning the Wrong Flag

Israel’s entire existence has had two sides - one a safe haven for a community of Jewish people that have been - like so many BIPOC globally - harmed by white supremacy. On the other side, is the ugly truth of how Israel’s leaders chose to make Israel a safe haven, which was by systemically oppressing and violating the rights of another community - the Palestinians. Remember, you can face systemic oppression and systemically oppress other people.

Could Palestinians living in the region and Jewish people seeking refuge have co-existed and shared the land? Probably. Before colonialism and white supremacy, many communities coexisted alongside each other. Divide and Conquer was and is a technique used by systems of oppression to keep us fighting each other, rather than the oppressor.

But the truth is, 75 years in, we don’t think it’s likely that Israel as a government can coexist with Palestinian civilians. A government - especially Israel backed by the USA - has more power, and with great power comes great responsibility — something Israel has squandered at every opportunity. Instead, the government keeps choosing to perpetuate the horrors of systemic oppression, similar to the horrors the Jewish community has historically faced, onto another community of people, rather than coexist.

Why did politicians and our media condemn Canadians from organizing peaceful demonstrations to Free Palestine? Why did seeing a group of predominantly Muslim people gathering together scare so many leaders and media (in a way that white supremacy-led convoy and cross-country anti-trans march did not)?

Are we assuming that because Hamas are Palestinian, all Palestinians must be Hamas? That they’re all in some sort of group chat with each other? Is it somehow 2001 again, and instead of learning from our mistakes, we’re choosing to repeat them again?

Palestine as a country predates Hamas as a militant group. But Israel has always been violent. So it’s interesting that of the flags, the one condemned was that of the oppressed, and the one put on the White House and the Peace Tower was the one of the oppressors.

But perhaps there is some secret Settler Colonial State Group Chat that Israel, Canada and the USA are in that we don’t know about ‘Best Practices for Oppression’.

Political and Media Fail #3: Police Monitoring to Only Protect Jewish People From Antisemitism

It’s well documented that when Israel/Palestine news reaches our media, there is a rise in both Islamophobia/Xenophobia and Antisemitism.

Yet, police departments and mayors across Canada issued statements saying they were monitoring for any acts of antisemitism - which, absolutely, they should do because we know it's going to increase.

But what about Palestinian-Canadians / Muslims? Why didn't the statements include them? Are these not also our neighbours, colleagues, and friends?

Look, if you know us, you know our stance on community safety, but if any of you were on the fence about who the police protect - your takeaway at this moment should be not all of us.

(to be extra clear, so we aren’t accused of being terrorists, yet again, your takeaway should not involve pitting Jews vs. Palestinians against each other, as both communities live among us and deserve to feel safe).

How many more times must Canadians see evidence of the deep divisions in our country, grounded around the same thing - systems of oppression like white supremacy - over and over again, before we come together and demand better from our leaders and systems for all of us?

This isn’t a Jewish vs. Palestinian problem. To pit these two communities, both deserving of safety and a home, against each other is unacceptable.

This is an Israel problem. Israel needs to be held accountable for 75 years of violence against Palestinians. And countries who have been funding Israel and their army have to be held accountable for this as well.

But if we were to dig just a bit deeper, we’d realize that Israel only really exists because our world has white supremacy, colonialism (Christian supremacy), and capitalism problems.

We can see it in how the international community and individual politicians ran to the aid of an apartheid state over the oppressed. We can see it how, domestically, within the borders of Canada, we prioritized Jewish lives and safety over Palestinian lives and safety.

Canada, we need an alternative to the status quo and an antidote to hate: socialgoodcrew.ca

First, some history:

Addressing Common Information Gaps

• Systems of oppression, whether capitalism, colonialism, or patriarchy, are interconnected. Power and privilege are relative. All systems of oppression utilize similar tactics to control, dominate, and maintain the power of a privileged few.

  • You don’t need to be white to uphold white supremacy culture. A South Asian woman, for instance, can uphold white supremacy while also being oppressed by it.

• In many Western countries (now and historically) Jewish individuals face discrimination as a religious minority. However, in the Israel-Palestine context, Jewish Israelis, supported by state structures, live with way more security and rights compared to Palestinians who face systemic oppression and live in a chronic humanitarian crisis. It's vital to grasp these power dynamics within their specific contexts.

• Our lived and ancestral experience is valid, but experiencing racism is not the same as understanding a system of oppression.

• Disinformation is knowing something is not true but either directly or indirectly presenting it as a fact. Misinformation is when you genuinely believe something that is wrong to be true and spread it.

• There are Palestinians who support Hamas, but just because you are Palestinian doesn’t mean you support Hamas.

• There are Jewish people who support what Israel is doing. But just because you are Jewish doesn’t mean you support Israel’s apartheid of Palestinians.

Why do powerful nations help other nations? They tell us it’s because of ‘human rights’, but if that was the case, wouldn’t the human rights of all people living within these powerful nations be upheld?

The reason most powerful nations actually show up isn’t due to a commitment to altruism, but rather it’s related to geopolitics. It’s about resource hoarding, greed, and power. While it's often presented to the public as a morally superior stance, and sometimes the human rights of SOME (the whole point of human rights is it’s for ALL of us, not SOME) might be advanced as a byproduct, it’s likely not the deciding factor.

Don’t believe us? Do you know why France and Britain declared war against Hitler in 1939? Was it because they believed antisemitism was a violation of human rights and unacceptable? Those two colonizers/human rights violators? Of course not.

It was because they spoke to Hitler and told him they would stay out of it so long as he didn’t invade Poland. Hitler, ever ambitious with his plans of evil, violated that agreement. Thus, WWII began in 1939, when Poland was invaded by the Nazis - not when the human rights of Jewish civilians began to be systemically oppressed.