Avi Benlolo: The insidious campaign to push Palestinian narratives, delegitimize Israel

Canada continues to drift into darkness. These past few weeks, I have written about what I would call the flag of terror (the Palestinian flag) shamelessly raised over our cities. This is the same flag worn this week by Hamas terrorists on their fatigues as they delivered the body of Sudthisak Rinthalak to the Red Cross. He was a Thai farmer kidnapped on October 7th who they murdered in cold blood. Shame on us for raising this flag that, for many people, connotes murder, rape and violence.

I also wrote about the attempt to normalize the Palestinian violent ideology at our country’s venerated Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. The museum is ignoring its own foundational principles of standing up against antisemitism (through its Holocaust exhibition) by turning its back on the public outrage against the now infamous “Nakba” exhibit. Will Isha Khan, the museum’s CEO, reply to my letter outlining the Jewish community’s concern? I am not holding my breath.

Small towns and municipalities are also caught in the crossfire. But some still recall Canada’s foundational values about the sanctity of freedom and democracy. This week, I thanked Mayor Philip Brown of Charlottetown and Mayor Matt Wren of Brockville for their refusal to allow the raising of the Palestinian flag and a commitment to stand against divisive symbols.

It’s imperative for city councillors across the country to recognize that the Palestinian flag — particularly in the current climate — is frequently used by extremist groups to glorify violence, intimidate Jewish residents, and delegitimize the State of Israel. Flag-raisings of this nature have led to public disorder elsewhere, emboldening hateful actors and compromising the safety of local communities.

At the municipal level, a troubling letter published in Milton Today exposed a stealth campaign to pressure Canadian cities to boycott companies doing business with Israel. The attempt in Milton only narrowly failed — but the Palestinian movement has shown its hand. It seeks to weaponize municipalities against Israel, normalize extremism, demonize Israel, and infiltrate civic institutions.

The letter, written by Ibrahim Baig, noted that at the Milton Town Council meeting on Nov. 3, Councillor Sameera Ali asked for the mayor to write the federal government “in support of a two-way arms embargo with Israel and of an expansion of the Gaza Temporary Resident Visa program.” Baig suggested that endorsing what he called an “Apartheid-Free Communities pledge” is simply required for the town to “ensure its contracts, partnerships and investments are not linked to companies contributing to illegal settlements or apartheid practices.”

The rot is seeping into every aspect of Canadian life with an objective of normalizing the violent Palestinian agenda; sowing hate and discord against the Jewish community and most significantly, hi-jacking Canadian institutions. Leaving aside our own government’s reckless recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state, it’s not just flag raisings, exhibitions and campaigns to mobilize municipalities against Israel and its Jewish community — a community that has contributed spectacularly to the building of this nation for generations. Not surprisingly, the rot is found at the highest levels of academia too.

This week, the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Education shamelessly announced a Ph.D. thesis proposal defence titled, “(De)Zionizing Schooling to Promote Palestinian Sumud: Examining Zionism in Winnipeg Schools After October 7th.” As in Milton, we can learn much about the Palestinian strategy aimed at spreading its ideology. The thesis abstract even admits that this is about “resilience” coming from the Arabic word, “Sumud.”

In an abnormal world, in the case of this thesis, one can shamelessly use phrases like “decolonial and de-Zionizing” in one’s abstract. One can claim that “school curriculum and mainstream media” normalize “Zionist-settler colonialism and genocide,” and be taken quite seriously by the university’s faculty of education.

“Zionist” has become code for Jew, and the false and defamatory assertion is that Jews are colonialists and settlers who are committing genocide. None of that is true. Jews pre-date Islam in the land of Israel by 2,500 years. They are not settlers nor colonists and have certainly not committed a genocide of any sort. If anything, the opposite is true under the Palestinian flag.

These are dark days for Canada. Will you stand for it?

Avi Abraham Benlolo is the Chairman and CEO of The Abraham Global Peace Initiative, a prominent Canadian think-tank.

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