Cause for deep concern: prof Gil Troy uses the term "Zionophobia" for criticism of Israeli policies.

PAT JOHNSON

The Western Jewish Bulletin, February 28, 2003

Zionophobia. That is what Gil Troy, a McGill University history professor, calls the obsessive criticism of Israel that is rampant in Canada and other western nations right now. The term suggests the passionate denunciations of the Jewish state may be motivated less by critical thinking than by variations of visceral reactions, including bigotry.

Troy was speaking Feb. 20, at Temple Sholom Synagogue, as the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. There was little cause for optimism in his presentation, as he reviewed recent anti-Israel events across Canada and in his adopted hometown of Montreal.

Troy said he has felt isolated in the history department of McGill since his book Why I am a Zionist was released. His colleagues do not criticize his views, he noted, but they explicitly avoid discussion of the Middle East when they are around him.

The cold shoulder is not so discreet elsewhere in Montreal, he noted. Concordia University, an adjacent English-language university in Montreal, has been a hotbed of the anti-Israel movement in Canada. When Troy has spoken out against the limits of free expression at Concordia and in defence of Israel, he has felt extremely isolated among his academic colleagues.

"As a Jewish professor who has spoken out, I can tell you I feel quite lonely," he said. Though his lecture was peppered with observations of a pervasive and growing anti-Semitism – often in the guise of criticism of Israel – Troy insisted the tenor of the debate in Canada should not be misconstrued as worse than it is.

"This is not Germany, God forbid, in the 1930s," he said. "We have to be very careful in our words."

He noted that some people called the riots at Concordia a pogrom, but Troy insisted there is no parallel between the violence at Concordia and the state-sanctioned murderous rampages that were staples of anti-Semitic eastern European villages. Most notably, he stated, the police in Montreal were attempting to quell the violence, not inciting it, as happened during the czarist regimes of Russia.

Still, there is cause for deep concern about events in Canada and elsewhere, he said. He divides anti-Semitism into three distinct categories. First, he said, is the violent anti-Semitism of terrorists and right-wing racist gangs. Second, there is the vulgar anti-Semitism such as the rhetoric on campuses in North America, where Jews are portrayed as a force seeking world domination. Third, there is the verbal anti-Semitism of some churches, academics, government officials and businesspeople, who dance dangerously close to inciting hatred. An example of this, he said, are those academics who argue for divestment from Israel; a strategy that was used against apartheid-era South Africa.

The hypocrisy of these critics, Troy argued, is astonishing. The same people who attack Israel are often those who claim to defend women's equality and oppose homophobia, overlooking the actual experiences of women and gay people in Arab countries and the comparative freedom these groups experience in Israel.

And though Troy seemed to suggest that Israel is losing the battle for Canadian campuses, he also seemed to imply that the issue didn't have a place on such boards as a student union.

"Silly me," he said. "I didn't know student unions were supposed to have a foreign policy."

Troy stressed, however, that he was not suggesting Israel is unassailable.

"Criticism of Israel is fine," he said. "It happens in Israel all the time."

What he sees in Canada is different, though. During the riots at Concordia University, which were sparked by protestors who prevented former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu from speaking on campus, there was more than mere criticism of Israel as a state. Troy said he has been told by witnesses who were there that the crowd shouted not only "Down with Netanyahu," but also "Death to the Jews." Pennies were thrown at Jewish students, in an antiquated gesture of anti-Semitic symbolism that has been all but forgotten in countries such as Canada, Troy said.

Zionophobia can be seen in the way Israel is treated differently than other countries in the minds of critics, Troy suggested. A year before Israel was created as a Jewish-majority state, Pakistan was created as a Muslim-majority state. Yet nobody who criticizes Pakistan insists that the country re-absorb former Hindu citizens or that it cease to exist because it reflects a cultural or religious homogeneity.

Anti-Semitism is behind some of the criticism of Israel, Troy said. Yet defenders of Israel are expected to refrain from suggesting such motivations, he argued. The burden of proof, according to Troy, is placed on Jews to prove that the critics of Israel are motivated by anti-Semitism, and not on critics to prove that they're not. Yet the singularity with which armchair ciritics of foreign affairs single out Israel for criticism is all out of proportion to Israel's place in the world, he said. "Only Israel is singled out as it is," said Troy.

While critics accuse Israel of being an apartheid state, Troy said that argument is specious. "We're the indigenous people," he said.

Troy also noted that the meeting took place on the eve of the first yarzheit, the anniversary of the death, of Daniel Pearl, the American Jewish journalist who was murdered by Muslim extremists last year.

The Concordia incidents are the most obvious of an anti-Israel movement on Canadian campuses, but the issue continues to rage in universities across Canada, including a meeting slated for Feb. 28 at the University of British Columbia, which promises to be a confrontational meeting featuring NDP members of Parliament Libby Davies and Svend Robinson. That seminar, entitled Beyond the Headlines: Palestine/Israel, takes place at noon in Angus 226 at UBC. Those interested are asked to meet beforehand at Hillel House in order to plan strategy around the event.

Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and commentator.