Canadian artists fear backlash for speaking on Israel-Palestine
Canadian artists fear backlash for speaking on Israel-Palestine
Thousands signed petitions but many fear losing work or being labelled anti-Semitic By Radheyan Simonpillai
Brennan Suche
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Yonge-Dundas Square on May 22 to protest Israeli government actions in Gaza
Documentary filmmaker and activist John Greyson, writer Rinaldo Walcott, and musicians Mustafa and Broken Social Scene are among the Canadian artists who put their names to petitions showing unprecedented support for the Palestinian cause during Israel’s bombing campaign on Gaza last month.
But sustained pushback from pro-Israel groups still prevents many from speaking out for the fear of losing work or being labelled anti-Semitic.
Stanford University recently threatened a liberal law student’s ability to graduate over a satirical post to an email listserv aimed at the campus chapter of the Federalist Society.
June 4, 2021
When news broke that Google’s now-former head of diversity Kamau Bobb had authored an antisemitic blog post back in 2007, the outrage was understandable. Comments like Bobb’s “If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war” are bigoted coming from anyone. But his role as “global lead for diversity strategy and research” at Google made Bobb’s sentiments striking in their hypocrisy.
Rather than firing him, Google reassigned Bobb to a different, STEM-focused role. It’s a decision bound to upset some people, particularly given the frequency with which antisemitism is downplayed as a problem.
The controversy stems from a satirical flyer Nicholas Wallace J.D. ’21 sent to a law school mailing list on Jan. 25, advertising a fictitious event that…