Manitoba Legislative Building, Winnipeg. Photo from Flickr.

In May, the Manitoba government announced through a news release that it, along with the federal government, was partnering with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) to “provide specialized training to Crown attorneys on prosecuting hate crimes.”

Antisemitism is a real and pernicious problem in Canada, and prosecutors should be equipped to combat it. However, antisemitism is not the only form hate crimes can take, and CIJA cannot credibly claim expertise on Islamophobia, anti-Indigenous racism, or other manifestations of hate. The organization’s demonstrable anti-Palestinian politics should in fact disqualify it from being considered by both levels of governments as an authority on hate crime.

CIJA is a Zionist organization that represents and promotes Israeli interests in Canada. Zionism is a political ideology that, in practice, has resulted in the mass displacement of Palestinians to establish and maintain a Jewish ethnostate. It is the ideology that fuels the continued creation of illegal settlements on Palestinian land, the destruction of Palestinian homes, apartheid in Israel, and the oppression and slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Criticism of Israel and Zionism is frequently stifled by weaponized claims of antisemitism. Following the recent Glastonbury Festival in England, for example, punk group Bob Vylan had their US visas pulled for leading an enthusiastic chant of “Death, death to the IDF.” The BBC issued a statement saying “antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable........

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