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| It's easier to label the Jew as a racist. Don't they say that Zionism is racism? Don't many “respected” academics and NGOs claim that Israel is a racist state? (Photo: INS) |
By Isaac Nahon-Serfaty
Full Professor
Department of communication
Member of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre
University of Ottawa
X: @narrativaoral
Someone I personally appreciate, told me recently that I was a racist. He added that my racism was the consequence of trauma. He also said that I was full of "crap." (sic) That I was nothing more than a communication professor (which I am, no surprise), consumed by my concerns about Jews and Israel. Furthermore, according to this person, my pro-democracy activism about Venezuela was just “bullshit” (maybe a masquerade?).
This person made all these accusations against me because I asked him at a conference to clarify his remarks about the Canadian government's appointment of a Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. He literally said the following in this presentation: “We had the last liberal government, the appointment by prime minister of two special envoys or representatives, one on Islamophobia, another on Antisemitism and Holocaust Remembrance – I can’t remember the full title. To my understanding these are not the alpha and omega of problems of hate speech or anything in society by any means. I mean, that’s the result of lobbying of certain groups and really political calculations. Are we really serious about hate? Why we don’t have a Czar on hate speech in general? […] I think a lot of this is performative, is tokenistic…”
Commenting on another question, he said that the fact that the Canadian criminal code had a special provision to prosecute the promotion of antisemitism that includes condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust, ends by ridiculing the law since it’s not applied, in a context where “how much money you have matters, who you can influence matters.” He was agreeing with another speaker in the conference who claimed that this provision about antisemitism was included because of lobbying and has “other purposes,” to use it as a “weaponization of antisemitism,” adding that the “criminal justice system serves them, belongs to them.” (I am quoting his words.) Who are “them”? I guess the usual suspects.
After his presentation, I privately said to my interlocutor that the mention of money in that context was unnecessary, signalling the stereotypical element of his comment. This led him to accuse me of being racist and obsessed with the Jews and Israel, “because you cannot see other things, you don’t know who I am” (sic). I was not judging his character or his professional record. I was expressing my questions and views about what he said in his speech.
The private conversation that took place outside the auditorium - with someone I had considered until then a friend, as well as a colleague - lasted almost one hour. Among other things, he asked me if I was sent by Hillel (a Jewish organization on campus) to spy on the conference (I told him that maybe I was a Mossad agent). I had on my jacket a pin with the Israel and Canada flags (he pointed to the flags to show me how consumed I was by Jews and Israel). We parted ways, trying to tone down the harsh exchange we had had.
A side note but relevant for this reflection. As in any good conference about countering hate, in this one they invited the “right” Jew to talk about antisemitism. To be the “right” Jew (the token Jew maybe?) you should begin by saying that what is happening in Gaza now is morally indefensible, and relativize the anti-Jewish/anti-Israel hate by assuming an ambiguous position (no mention to Hamas, the crimes the Palestinian terrorists committed on October 7 or the hostages). And, certainly, you need to affirm that “nobody is this room believes that Trump is really fighting antisemitism” on American campuses (a legitimate observation). He performed his duty as the good Jew, and everybody was happy.
Am I racist?
Returning to my exchange with the colleague, I kept asking: Am I really a racist? Is my supposed racism the product of trauma? I thought about other cases of university colleagues who would be “consumed” by identity questions. For example, those who defend the rights of Afro-Canadians. Or those who defend the LGBTQ+ communities or trans people. Would anyone call them racists? Certainly not.
But it's easier to label the Jew as a racist. Don't they say that Zionism is racism? Don't many “respected” academics and NGOs claim that Israel is a racist state? If someone defends the right of Jews to have their own state in the land that saw them born as a nation, then she or he must be a racist. No? It’s not logical? At least within a certain logic that has become popular these days when the word genocide is so often lightly used. If, in addition, the state you defend is “genocidal,” isn't it easy to call you a racist? The current opinion climate in universities has emboldened professors and students. Today it’s less risky to target the Jews or Israel.
Sometimes it takes an explosive event for truth to reveal itself. And here I was, facing a revelation. I'm not racist. Trauma? I don't rule it out. After all, I carry on my shoulders a past of expelled and mistreated Jews. How could I not have suffered trauma? In any case, I will never remain silent. I will always ask the uncomfortable questions to those who seek to trivialize hatred against Jews and against Israel. Don’t expect me to shut up.
PS: Maybe this text is an expression of my trauma.
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