PETITION TO THE TORONTO DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

 

 

Dear Ms. Russell-Rawlins, Ms. Witherow, Mr. Gold, Mr. Spyropoulos, Ms. Curtis, and Mr. Snider;

 

It has come to our attention that last week, you wrote a letter to all TDSB staff in response to the Free Palestine protests held at Marc Garneau C.I. Your letter addressed how there are ‘differing opinions’ regarding some of the slogans used at the protest.

 

The most egregious slogan used at the demonstration was "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free”. In your letter, you describe this as a mere expression of Palestinian human and land rights, but this is a completely inaccurate characterization of the phrase. Instead, this slogan is a call for the elimination of the State of Israel. If there is to be a sovereign state of Palestine whose territory is to extend from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, then the State of Israel as a Jewish State would necessarily have to disappear. In other words, the necessary implication of this slogan is that there is something fundamentally immoral about the very existence of a State of Israel, and that Israeli Jews are alien intruders in a country that doesn't legitimately belong to them. This slogan, therefore, reflects the antisemitic trope that Jews have no indigenous homeland, and are at root, foreigners and interlopers everywhere they go. So this slogan doesn't just "mean different things to different people"; it has a clear antisemitic foundation.

 

Moreover, this slogan is clearly associated with terrorist organizations, as evidenced by the poster below, which is frequently used at demonstrations calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. The photo is of terrorist Leila Khaled, who participated in the hijacking of TWA flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970.

 

As a Jewish community, we are watching closely. We are waiting to see the TDSB properly educate its members about the history of this slogan and its meaning.

 

When a marginalized group clearly and repeatedly states that particular words or actions are racist, threatening, and traumatizing, it is not the role of other groups (or even fringe members within that group) to say they are wrong. The Jewish community is telling you, with zero room for misinterpretation, that the phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is threatening to us. Mainstream Canadian Jewish organizations have made this clear, including CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs), and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. B'nai Brith has made the same issue clear in recent statements.

 

The letter you sent fails to explain the damage caused by “From the River to the Sea”, and fails to address teachers’ support of the protest on social media with entirely biased views. This follows a series of events where the TDSB has failed to properly support the Jewish population as an equity seeking group, and has failed to discipline its staff members whose words and actions threaten the Jewish community. The opportunities to unequivocally address antisemitism within the board have repeatedly come and gone, as the Jewish community watches in horror.

 

Jews are a clear minority group, comprising merely 6% of the Toronto population, yet accounting for 34% of hate crime targets in Toronto. The TDSB must properly recognize its Jewish population as targeted and equity seeking, and stand strongly in the face of antisemitic tropes of Jews as powerful and privileged.

 

The TDSB must summon up the courage to deal seriously with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bigotry. By now it's well known to everyone at the TDSB executive team that Mr. Davila's emails contained no fewer than four links to materials pro-terrorist websites, including the autobiography of serial airplane hijacker Leila Khaled, to the archived propaganda of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (designated as a terrorist entity by Public Safety Canada) and an interview with PFLP leader Ghassan Kalafani. The Jewish community is very concerned about the message the TDSB is sending through differential consequences administered to TDSB staff who commit acts of anti-Black racism (justifiably dismissed from employment within three weeks of the incident) and TDSB staff who create a poisoned working and learning environment by circulating "educational resources" that link to pro-terrorist websites.

 

As predicted months ago, the lack of transparency and decisive action around anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bigotry has cleared the path for more bigotry, as Jewish staff, students, and families are forced to continue working with colleagues who openly stand against them.

 

To be clear: it is entirely possible to stand up for Palestinian voices without using pro-terrorist slogans or linking to terrorist websites. This should not be a difficult line for the TDSB to draw and enforce, and it should not be open to “multiple meanings.”

 

 

TDSB, it is time to stand up and do better. We petition you to:

 

● Appoint staff to develop resources on antisemitism and anti-Israel hate.
● Provide professional learning exclusively on antisemitism to all TDSB staff
● Seek out guidance from external bodies, including mainstream Canadian Jewish organizations and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
● Start with the secondment of someone from a mainstream Canadian Jewish organization, into the TDSB Equity department, that was promised by the TDSB, several months ago.
● Publish information about antisemitic attacks and their follow-up beyond the walls of the TDSB.
● Provide recognition of Jews as a recognized minority, that is targeted and equity-seeking, in all TDSB research efforts and reports.
 

Undersigned,