Justin Trudeau’s pack of lies about BDS

Ali Abunimah Power Suits 18 January 2019

I spoke to The Real News about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s renewed attacks and smears against the BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – movement for Palestinians rights.

During a town hall meeting at Brock University in Ontario this week, one questioner asked Trudeau to retract his previous smears that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic.

Instead, the Liberal Party prime minister doubled down, claiming that the anti-racist BDS movement targets Jews.

Trudeau asserted “that anti-Semitism has also manifested itself not just as targeting of individuals but it is also targeting a new condemnation, or an anti-Semitism against the very state of Israel.”

Trudeau’s refusal to distinguish between Jews and Judaism on the one hand, and Israel and its state ideology Zionism, on the other, is, I told The Real News, itself an anti-Semitic move.

The prime minister also repeated the claim that “Jewish students still feel unwelcome and uncomfortable on some of our college and university campuses because of BDS-related intimidation” – a frequent smear by Israel lobby groups aimed at criminalizing Palestine solidarity activism by students.

I told The Real News that Trudeau was spouting a pack of lies about the BDS movement and echoing Israeli government talking points.

While he is claiming to defend “Canadian values,” I said that Trudeau is actually smearing Canadians, including Jewish Canadians, who fully support Palestinian rights.

Trudeau is taking his cues from Canada’s powerful Israel lobby – indeed in his answer Trudeau cited as one of his sources his “friend” Irwin Cotler, one of Canada’s top pro-Israel propagandists.

Canadian and US Israel lobbyists greeted Trudeau’s latest pandering with glee:

So did Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs who is leading Israel’s covert efforts to try to sabotage the BDS movement, including by spying on and smearing citizens in democratic countries merely for exercising their free-speech rights:
However, as opinion surveys show, Trudeau is out of step with a majority of Canadians who view BDS tactics as a reasonable way for Palestinians to pursue their rights in the face of the complicity and inaction of the so-called international community.

Watch my interview with Gregory Wilpert of The Real News above.

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Comments

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Douglas Curran replied on

The state of Israel has lost much support of Canadians through its policies of theft and denial of human rights of Palestinians. For many of us it is not a matter of being anti-Jewish, but that Israel itself has allowed itself to become the oppressor. I fall back on the memories of my Palestinian-raised Jewish Israeli boss who railed against the Zionists in his former country. His remarks echo those of a young Israeli who, in commenting on US financial support for Israeli,"If it weren't for them we would have had to make peace. Fuck them and their New York money. fuck them."

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Kerry McNamara replied on

(and don't forget, this is also a Prime Minister whose government recently nationalized several hundred White Helmet terrorists.)

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william chandler replied on

Israel CLAIMS to be a Democracy. But the only way it survives is by outlawing Free Speech (holocost questioning) and Free Association (BDS). Two foundation blocks of Democracy.
(1) Government has ZERO business interfering in Civilian boycotts.
(2) Boycotts are the most Democratic and PEACEFUL of actions.
(3) Boycotts are FREEDOM of SPEECH.
(4) Boycotts are FREEDOM of ASSOCIATION -- DISassociation.
(5) Boycotts are VOTING with dollars.
(6) Boycotts PEACEFULLY withhold "power/energy" from those with whom one disagrees without engaging in violence.
(7) In "Capitalism", the system we CLAIM to follow, where and with whom you spend your money is ENTIRELY up to YOU.
The Citizens United Supreme Court decision firmly established that the right to spend money is a form of free speech. That means that the right to NOT spend money is also a form of free speech. Organizing a boycott -- an act of NOT spending money -- is then protected free speech in the same way that soliciting campaign funds to spend on promoting a political candidate or partisan viewpoint is free speech.

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Douglas Curran replied on

I have rejected recent financial appeals from Liberal Party of Canada, explaining that I will not support a party that seeks to suppress legitimate dissension with Israeli extra judicial policy and attempts to infringe on Canadian rights of free speech and expression. No money for Trudeau the dupe and Israeli lobby!

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Alva D Plumlee replied on

There would be no BDS on Israel if they became a civilized country. The majority of the Israelis want to commit genocide against the Palestinians, demolish their home and confiscate their homes.They kill a Palestinian child almost every week and they kill numerous men and women.

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a.hall replied on

Justin Trudeau is also buddy,buddy with the Bronfman Crime Family.

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Hussein Hammami replied on

Trudeau is no statesman but a hypocritical politician trying to curry favour with the Netanyahus and Trumps who currently hold sway in the world.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.