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February 28, 2003
Cause for deep concern: prof
Gil Troy uses the term "Zionophobia" for criticism of
Israeli policies.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Zionophobia. That is what Gil Troy, a McGill University history
professor, calls the obsessive criticism of Israel that is rampant
in Canada and other western nations right now. The term suggests
the passionate denunciations of the Jewish state may be motivated
less by critical thinking than by variations of visceral reactions,
including bigotry.
Troy was speaking Feb. 20, at Temple Sholom Synagogue, as the guest
speaker at the annual general meeting of the Jewish Federation of
Greater Vancouver. There was little cause for optimism in his presentation,
as he reviewed recent anti-Israel events across Canada and in his
adopted hometown of Montreal.
Troy said he has felt isolated in the history department of McGill
since his book Why I am a Zionist was released. His colleagues
do not criticize his views, he noted, but they explicitly avoid
discussion of the Middle East when they are around him.
The cold shoulder is not so discreet elsewhere in Montreal, he noted.
Concordia University, an adjacent English-language university in
Montreal, has been a hotbed of the anti-Israel movement in Canada.
When Troy has spoken out against the limits of free expression at
Concordia and in defence of Israel, he has felt extremely isolated
among his academic colleagues.
"As a Jewish professor who has spoken out, I can tell you I
feel quite lonely," he said. Though his lecture was peppered
with observations of a pervasive and growing anti-Semitism –
often in the guise of criticism of Israel – Troy insisted the
tenor of the debate in Canada should not be misconstrued as worse
than it is.
"This is not Germany, God forbid, in the 1930s," he said.
"We have to be very careful in our words."
He noted that some people called the riots at Concordia a pogrom,
but Troy insisted there is no parallel between the violence at Concordia
and the state-sanctioned murderous rampages that were staples of
anti-Semitic eastern European villages. Most notably, he stated,
the police in Montreal were attempting to quell the violence, not
inciting it, as happened during the czarist regimes of Russia.
Still, there is cause for deep concern about events in Canada and
elsewhere, he said. He divides anti-Semitism into three distinct
categories. First, he said, is the violent anti-Semitism of terrorists
and right-wing racist gangs. Second, there is the vulgar anti-Semitism
such as the rhetoric on campuses in North America, where Jews are
portrayed as a force seeking world domination. Third, there is the
verbal anti-Semitism of some churches, academics, government officials
and businesspeople, who dance dangerously close to inciting hatred.
An example of this, he said, are those academics who argue for divestment
from Israel; a strategy that was used against apartheid-era South
Africa.
The hypocrisy of these critics, Troy argued, is astonishing. The
same people who attack Israel are often those who claim to defend
women's equality and oppose homophobia, overlooking the actual experiences
of women and gay people in Arab countries and the comparative freedom
these groups experience in Israel.
And though Troy seemed to suggest that Israel is losing the battle
for Canadian campuses, he also seemed to imply that the issue didn't
have a place on such boards as a student union.
"Silly me," he said. "I didn't know student unions
were supposed to have a foreign policy."
Troy stressed, however, that he was not suggesting Israel is unassailable.
"Criticism of Israel is fine," he said. "It happens
in Israel all the time."
What he sees in Canada is different, though. During the riots at
Concordia University, which were sparked by protestors who prevented
former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu from speaking on
campus, there was more than mere criticism of Israel as a state.
Troy said he has been told by witnesses who were there that the
crowd shouted not only "Down with Netanyahu," but also
"Death to the Jews." Pennies were thrown at Jewish students,
in an antiquated gesture of anti-Semitic symbolism that has been
all but forgotten in countries such as Canada, Troy said.
Zionophobia can be seen in the way Israel is treated differently
than other countries in the minds of critics, Troy suggested. A
year before Israel was created as a Jewish-majority state, Pakistan
was created as a Muslim-majority state. Yet nobody who criticizes
Pakistan insists that the country re-absorb former Hindu citizens
or that it cease to exist because it reflects a cultural or religious
homogeneity.
Anti-Semitism is behind some of the criticism of Israel, Troy said.
Yet defenders of Israel are expected to refrain from suggesting
such motivations, he argued. The burden of proof, according to Troy,
is placed on Jews to prove that the critics of Israel are motivated
by anti-Semitism, and not on critics to prove that they're not.
Yet the singularity with which armchair ciritics of foreign affairs
single out Israel for criticism is all out of proportion to Israel's
place in the world, he said. "Only Israel is singled out as
it is," said Troy.
While critics accuse Israel of being an apartheid state, Troy said
that argument is specious. "We're the indigenous people,"
he said.
Troy also noted that the meeting took place on the eve of the first
yarzheit, the anniversary of the death, of Daniel Pearl,
the American Jewish journalist who was murdered by Muslim extremists
last year.
The Concordia incidents are the most obvious of an anti-Israel movement
on Canadian campuses, but the issue continues to rage in universities
across Canada, including a meeting slated for Feb. 28 at the University
of British Columbia, which promises to be a confrontational meeting
featuring NDP members of Parliament Libby Davies and Svend Robinson.
That seminar, entitled Beyond the Headlines: Palestine/Israel, takes
place at noon in Angus 226 at UBC. Those interested are asked to
meet beforehand at Hillel House in order to plan strategy around
the event.
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
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