Corey Balsam 🍉

National Coordinator @IndJewishVoices. Capoeira Angola. Polyglot. Montréalais. He/him. #FreePalestine

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

While there is much to contest in yesterday’s address on antisemitism, credit to @MarkJCarney for leaving Israel mainly out of it and for not entertaining the absurd claim, promoted by some community leaders and clergy, that Canada’s mild criticism of Israel is somehow responsible for domestic antisemitism…

Let’s be real: Antisemitism is not being driven by Canada’s mild condemnations or inadequate attempts at holding Israel accountable to international law.

Antisemitism is driven by far-right actors, and by Israel’s actions themselves: its devastating genocide in Gaza, apartheid policies, land theft in the West Bank, flattening of entire villages in southern Lebanon.

Legacy Jewish institutions that continue to proudly identify with Israel and defend it from criticism have lost the plot on fighting antisemitism. Defending a genocidal apartheid state from criticism does nothing to keep Jewish Canadians safe. #cdnpoli

https://t.co/4lwhQ1ZQCJ

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

IJV Montreal members have spoken out against the misrepresentation of this protest, thanks to @atRachelGilmore for unpacking the media distortion of this story

[State of Palestine @Palestine_UN]

Genocide.

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

Nearly 200 former senior diplomats have sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney urging him to act now and impose robust sanctions on Israel.

Join us in writing to @MarkJCarney, @AnitaAnandMP and your MP to demand that they listen to former diplomats and sanction Israel now! https://t.co/1VJR47cvig

[Don Davies @DonDavies]

Israel is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Bombing schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues. Attacking health workers, civilians. Assassinating journalists. Occupying + seizing land. Blockading. Practicing apartheid.
Time for sanctions, boycotts, divestment & isolation.

[Avi Lewis @avilewis]

The President of the United States is openly threatening to commit genocide against 90 million people.

Prime Minister Carney: if there was ever a moment to denounce this illegal war, withdraw your support, and call for accountability for war crimes—it’s now.

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

In response to President Trump's genocidal threat against Iranians that "an entire civilization will die tonight", @MarkJCarney said today that Canada expects all parties to abide by international law, which includes not targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

But the U.S. and Israel have already flagrantly violated these laws in their bombardment of Iran, including the destruction of an 80 year old synagogue in a residential neighbourhood of Tehran.

Words are not enough in the face of these atrocities. What action will our government take to stop the senseless killing of civilians?

[Hend Amry @LibyaLiberty]

Jewish troops will be looking for Muslims hidden in the attics of Christians. Let that sink in.

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

Mazel tov to IJV members @avilewis and Niall Ricardo, for their elections to leadership positions in the NDP!

With Lewis as leader, Ricardo as president, and Leah Gazan among its most high profile MPs, the NDP is now Canada’s most Jewish-led party.

Despite this, the largest Jewish advocacy and pro-Israel lobby group in Canada, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), is kvetching, whining or complaining, rather than kvelling. In a statement released shortly after Lewis’ win was announced, CIJA had the audacity to suggest that Lewis’ victory has made the NDP a hostile place for Canadian Jews.

CIJA and pro-Israel lobby groups have long promoted a belief that politicians cannot take fighting antisemitism in Canada seriously while also supporting and advocating for Palestinian human rights. But this is a false dichotomy. Lewis and Ricardo show us clearly that there is a different way forward for Canadian political leaders, where we can have clear-eyed condemnation of Israel’s genocide and apartheid, while simultaneously standing for justice for all, including Jews.

Read our full statement: https://t.co/8TK95G1Mgi

[Jeremy Appel @JeremyAppel1025]

Jewish advocacy is when you attempt to undermine the only Jewish party leader the second he becomes leader.

Btw, when Lewis wins a seat, the NDP caucus will be 1/3 Jewish.

[Haaretz.com @haaretzcom]

Judge: Palestinian minor who died in Israeli prison was 'likely starved,' but case closed
https://t.co/0bZoodmHnY

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

Bill C-9 is a dangerous and overreaching piece of legislation that will threaten fundamental rights for all Canadians. As Jews committed to justice and solidarity, we reject the idea that increased policing of peaceful protests will protect our communities. This Bill fights freedom of expression, not hate, and further entrenches police powers to crackdown on political dissent and progressive movements.

Read our full statement here: https://t.co/MIj6KNc6RP

[Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East @CJPME]

Breaking: @MarkJCarney's government just voted against Bill C-233, which would have stopped the flow of weapons to Israel via the United States loophole. Canada has chosen to protect those profiting from genocide. We will not forget how MPs voted in this urgent moment.

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

Summer camps like the ones described here are a core part of the infrastructure of anti-Palestinian indoctrination within our communities. Many openly encourage support for the Israeli military and engage in violent anti-Palestinian racism.

Zionist lobby groups like CIJA don't want Canadians to know about what goes on in these camps, so as usual, work to delegitimize those drawing attention to them. These camps must be investigated and held to account for the hateful attitudes they foster. @OCACamps

[Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East @CJPME]

A massive CBC investigation has just confirmed what we’ve suspected all along: The Canadian government knew our weapons were reaching Israel through the "U.S. Loophole"—and they were quietly investigating the legal fallout while publicly lying to us about it.

Behind closed doors, a Crown corporation report (the CCC) was tracking these parts and citing ICJ genocide warnings. In public? Ministers looked us in the eye and said it wasn't happening.

This isn’t a mistake—it’s international-scale gaslighting.

We have a chance to end the deception. Bill C-233 is up for a vote in Parliament this March. It’s the "No More Loopholes Act," and it’s how we stop unregulated military trade for good.

🔗 ACT NOW: Link in bio to email your MP and read the full reports from CBC and The Maple.

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

Thank you, Senator @yuenpauwoo , for speaking out against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians on Holocaust Remembrance Day. To honour the legacy of the Holocaust and our people’s history, never again must mean never again for anyone.

[Zachary Foster @_ZachFoster]

Hi,

Hi, I'm Jewish. Many of my closest friends are Jewish. I love them all. My whole family is Jewish, I love them all too. My community is Jewish. Love them all. I love Judaism. I host shabbat dinners, celebrate Jewish holidays, sing Jewish prayers, study Torah & Talmud, and love Jewish culture, history and expression.

But I'm not a Zionist. Zionism was an ideology that said, let's create a Jewish state in a country that's 97%+ non-Jewish.

That's why, when Zionists bought land in Palestine from the 1900s-1948, they uprooted the people living on the land because they weren't jewish.

That's why, when Zionists created cooperatives in Palestine in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s, they insisted on "Hebrew Labor", i.e., "Jews only" -- no Arabs allowed.

That's why, in the 1930s, Zionists expelled Palestinian Arabs from working at Jewish companies and business. Jews only! https://t.co/oXfyJsXdja

That's why, in 1948, Zionists militias ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians from their homes.

That's why, from 1949-1956, Israeli forces shot & killed b/w 2,700-5,000 overwhelmingly unarmed Palestinians trying to return to their homes after the war. Because they were the wrong religion/ethnicity (source: Benny Morris, Border Wars, p.416).

That's why Israel expelled another ~30-40,000 Palestinians from Israel from 1949-1959. https://t.co/1d4VqUk5lc

That's why Israel expelled another ~250,000 Palestinians from Gaza & the West Bank when it occupied those territories in 1967.

That's why Israel continued to expel Palestinians from the occupied territories from 1968-1993, many hundreds of thousands of them. They had the wrong DNA. https://t.co/16FarJ83q4

The Zionists wanted to create a Jewish State with a Jewish majority in a land of overwhelmingly Palestinians. That's why Israel has become such a pariah state over the years, because it's insistence on jewish rule in a country with so many Palestinians. That's why Zionism has led Israel to become an apartheid state, according to every relevant human rights organization (@ICAHD in 2010, @UNESCWA in 2017, @YeshDin in 2020, @AdalahCenter in 2020, @btselem in 2021, @hrw in 2021, @fidh_en in 2021, @alhaq_org in 2022, @Addameer in 2022, @AlMezanCenter in 2022, @cacalqudsuni in 2022, @AdvocacyJlac in 2022, @miftahpal in 2022, @ICJ_org in 2022, @DAWNmenaorg in 2022, @amnesty in 2022), since it cannot grant the ~5-6 million occupied Palestinians Israeli citizenship. Israel chose apartheid and Jewish supremacy over democracy.

Zionism also explains why Israel is now committing genocide (according to @amnesty, @hrw, @btselem, @MSF, IAGS, @alhaq_org, @UNHumanRights, @UN_HRC, @pchrgaza, @AlMezanCenter, @WarOnWant, @PHRIsrael, @fidh_en, PHROC, @LemkinInstitute, @theCCR, @ECCHRBerlin , @unitedforrights @JURDIasso, @TheElders, @Oxfam ), because, what a Zionist dream it would have been had Palestine been a land without any people on it! the ideology incentivized genocide.

So, please don't conflate Judaism -- that has existed for 3,300+ years -- with your 150-yr-old anti-Jewish ideology founded on the principles of forcible displacement & genocide

Judaism will last as long as their are humans on the planet. Zionism is imploding in real time.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2]

If the driver was Palestinian, IDF protocol is to shoot him at point blank; prevent medics from aiding him; make him bleed to death; demolish his family's home; revoke movement/work permits for his entire family; & hold his body hostage

A settler gets a free pass! Apartheid...

[Corey Balsam 🍉 @BalsamCorey]

Truly shocking that @CanBorder detained @rfalk13, a 95yr old Jewish legal scholar and former UN Special rapporteur, on his way to the Palestine Tribunal on 🇨🇦 Responsibility.

Here's a brief interview I did with him in 2009 as an intern with @aicnews:
https://t.co/q3mPCGxYKh

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

The IHRA definition isn’t about fighting antisemitism. It’s about silencing criticism of Israel.

On Monday, IJV’s @BalsamCorey told the @SenateCA Human Rights Committee: it’s time for Canada to dis-endorse IHRA.

#NoIHRA #cdnpoli