My latest letter to Israeli ambassador to Canada

Below is a slightly modified version of a letter I have just sent to the Israeli ambassador to Canada. If you are a Jewish Canadian or American (or a citizen of any other country) appalled by treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel itself, I urge you to write to the relevant ambassador with your own concerns. Dear Ambassador Iddo Moed, I am a Jewish Canadian very concerned about continued persecution of Palestinians living both in Israel itself and the West Bank, as well as continued attacks on Gaza and deprivation of Gazans’ basic needs. I am also a retired professor of international human rights and comparative genocide studies. I have written to you before (July 29, 2025) and pointed out how much Israeli treatment of Palestinians reminds me of German treatment of Jews (including my own father and members of his extended Jewish family) 1933-42, before the policy of mass extermination was instituted. While many Jews find comparisons of Israeli policies with Nazi policies offensive, the way to stop these comparisons is for Israel to obey international human rights and humanitarian law. For the record, I support the right of Israel to exists as a state. I also support its right to self-defense. I despise Hamas, and I believe that its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 was an act of genocide. Nevertheless, I have long been concerned about Israeli violations of Palestinians’ human rights. (See my 2016 book, State Food Crimes, for an analysis of elevated rates on malnutrition in Gaza and the West Bank long before the October 7 attack). Among the particular developments in Israeli treatment of Palestinians that have recently caught my attention are the following: 1.The “hanging law,” officially known as the “Death Penalty for Terrorists Law.” https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/05/israels-discriminatory-death-penalty-law-marks-grave-human-rights This law violates many laws of fair treatment of prisoners. It applies only to those convicted of denying the existence of the state of Israel, thus leaving unpunished those many Jewish settlers in the West Bank guilty of murdering Palestinians. The video of Itamar Ben-Gvir and his colleagues celebrating the passage of this hanging law is an absolute disgrace. So are the gold noose pins that he and his colleagues wore. No one of a certain age in North America can see these pins without being reminded of white Americans lynching Blacks via hanging. Nor can I think of these pins and Ben-Gvir’s celebration without being reminded of the many Nazi hangings of Jews, other prisoners, and internal opponents of the regime. 2.Sexual and other violence in Israeli prisons. The respected Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, has recently published a report entitled “Living Hell: The Israel Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps.” https://www.btselem.org/publications/202601_living_hell Once again, I am reminded of Nazi concentration camps, where death from disease, starvation, and outright murder was rampant, and sexual violence against Jewish women tolerated. That there is illegal violence in Israeli prisons against Palestinian prisoners is no surprise. The Israeli journalist, Ari Shavit, served as a prison guard in 1991, 35 years ago, and wrote about violence against prisoners at that time. He also reported that the young Israeli guards compared their jobs to the jobs of people guarding their own parents and grand-parents in Nazi concentration camps. (Reprinted in his 2013 book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel). 3.The proposed construction of a theme park in a Palestinian neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/16/palestinians-demolish-family-homes-jerusalem-kings-garden-theme-park/ This is the latest symbolic travesty in a long history of illegal dispossession of Israeli Palestinians from their homes and land. According to reports, Palestinians were forced to tear down their own houses to make way for this theme park (or alternately, to pay exorbitant sums to others to do so). This reminded me of how the Nazis dispossessed Jews of their homes and property in Germany. 4.The abusive manner in which Israeli troops and authorities recently treated members of the flotilla trying to take humanitarian aid to Gaza. Whether this flotilla was actually useful, or merely symbolic, these individuals were trying to call the world’s attention to the suffering of Gazans. I am outraged by this treatment; which Canada’s own Foreign Minister has criticized. You may wonder why I am bothering to write this letter to you, given your government’s utter contempt for international human rights and humanitarian law. I do so because I believe it is my responsibility, as a scholar and as a Jewish Canadian, to try to do everything in my power to influence your government to stop its highly abusive and illegal policies. As you know, many North American Jews agree with me. The long-term future of the state of Israel depends upon respectful co-operation with the international community to establish a Palestinian state. Current Israeli policies condemn your country to a state of perpetual warfare.

Denmark 1938: Canada 2026

Denmark 1938: Canada 2026 Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “History doesn’t repeat Itself, but it rhymes.” History is certainly rhyming now. One way it’s rhyming is in the predicaments of people living in bystander states, who can do very little if anything to prevent the rise of fascism. I am one of those people. Like Danish anti-fascists watching in horror as Hitler intensifies his imperialist grip at the same time as he persecuted many people who used to think they were German, so I watch in horror from Canada as a fascist takes over the United States. Here’s the free-verse rhyme: Hitler/Trump; Germany/United States. I’ve seen a couple of opinion pieces about this in the New York Times lately. Ian Buruma, the distinguished European journalist, said in a piece on February 22, 2026 “We are nowhere near the disastrous circumstances of Berliners in 1945, 1939, 1935 or even 1934.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/opinion/history-hope-delusion.html/ I think he’s wrong. The first Trump administration brought us to Germany in 1934. Many Germans, including some Jews, had voted for Hitler in 1933 because they thought he was a bulwark against communism—which in Germany was a real threat at the time. 1933 was the last free election in Germany until after WWII, so we don’t know what “ordinary” Germans might have wanted as they watched Nazism unfold. But we do know what “ordinary” Americans were willing to tolerate in 2020. The second Trump administration brought the US a fascist monster. The moneyed elites are well aware of this. They know there is no internal threat in the United States. But they also know that the US’s dysfunctional political system, which leaves opposition parties without leaders between elections, makes it easy for Trump to lead a full-blown fascist revolution. Hispanics, Blacks, immigrants (even legal ones with green cards or work permits), are now the enemy. Muslims are all terrorists, despite Zohran Mamdani’s temporarily successful charm offensive in the Oval Office. Jew are OK -- for now-- as long as the organized and wealthier Jewish community is so preoccupied with Israel that it will support anything Trumps does, completely lacking in compassion for the victims of today’s fascism. The rest of us—the unorganized Jews opposed to both American and Israel fascism—struggle to make our voices heard. Nicholas Kristof asked recently. “Does Trump Risk transforming America into a Rogue State?” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/opinion/iran-war-trump.html/ America has been a rogue state for a long time, blithely overthrowing governments whenever it feels like it: witness Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, the fruitless and brutal war in Vietnam, etc. But what’s newly rogue about the US is its brutality toward its own citizens and residents. Even the previously exempt—white citizens and residents—now have to fear ICE. If a masked man with weapons and no identification assaults you, you no longer get to call the local police for help. I am 77. Many of my friends here in Canada think it’s time to opt out and just watch in despair as the Americans destroy the world. But I think that even if you are old, you must at least try to stop fascism. I have two sisters-in-law in their 70s in California. One attends a weekly vigil at an immigrant detention center near her home. The other attends an “ICE court” as she calls it, once a month, asking the victims of ICE raids to give her their email addresses so she can send them information about how to obtain legal assistance. As for me, as an observer in a foreign country, all I can do is write and hope that somewhere, someone might be influenced by my words to do a little bit more to stop fascism. Although if anyone knows of a planned demonstration against the US Consulate in Toronto, I’d like to attend. Meantime, history continues to rhyme. It’s 1938 in Denmark.