Dear Editor,
With regard to Rhonda Spivak’s article decrying Israel Apartheid Week, I submit the following:
It’s funny. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) killed more than 1,400 Palestinians (400 children), maimed more than 5,000 and left 20,000 homeless after Israel’s 21-day siege of Gaza, last December and January. And Israel has admitted to using phosphorus shells during the Gaza operation.
In contrast, Israel Apartheid Week kills no one. It maims no one; it makes no one homeless — yet on campuses across Canada, if the Conservative government has its way, people will not be allowed to speak out and name the atrocities that Israel has committed and continues to do to the Palestinians. Apartheid is not too strong a word to label Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians. Even former prime minister Ehud Barak calls it that. I am Jewish and support the right of Canadians to have Israel Apartheid Week