Anti-Palestinian hate spread by some Zionist University of Toronto open letter signees, says online collective
A screenshot of the Zionist University of Toronto open letter, signed by 555 individuals.
Written by: Aidan Jonah
An online collective, Combat Online Harassment (CoHA), says that 18 individuals who signed on to an open letter in defense of Zionism from members University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, have been found to spread anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic hate.
A list of the 555 signatories’ names can be found at the end of a document containing the open letter.
After the list came out, CoHA conducted research into the posts of the signatories, and says that these 18 signatories, two per cent of the signatories total and approximately 20 per cent of the 89 signatories which had active accounts while research was conducted, have spread anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and/or Islamophobic hate through direct posts on ‘X’, likes, retweets, and posts on other platforms.
So far, CoHA has posted four examples of anti-Palestinian and/or anti-Arab racism, which they provided to The Canada Files. They include:
Dr. Ilana Halperin, who shared a quote from former Israeli PM Golda Meir, who said:
“If the Arabs put down their guns there would be no more fighting. If the Israelis put down theirs there would be no more Israel”
Jennifer Hirsch, who liked a post from Hen Mazzig, who mocked reports of Save the Children that hundreds of Palestinian children in Jabalya were killed by the IDF. Mazzig’s post claimed “that [a] list of Palestinian victims are "random names".
Dr. Stephen “Sandy” Buchman, who liked a post stating that ordinary Palestinians “took part in the murder of Jews”, “spat at raped women”, “robbed massacred teenagers”, and that “those who support Hamas have become as toxic as Nazis”.
Dr. Gideon Hirschfield, who liked a post threatening both Gaza and the West Bank of occupied Palestine with "Immediate and complete destruction".
CoHA provided further examples which The Canada Files was able to verify. These examples, and more examples not viewed by TCF, some of which include Islamophobia, will be publicly released by CoHA at their preferred time.
When asked what drove them to pursue this research, CoHA stated that:
“Members of our team work in North American healthcare and have seen increasing amounts of racist anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic behavior from our colleagues. Simultaneously, we've observed an unsettling trend where physicians expressing pro-Palestinian views find themselves unjustly targeted with baseless accusations of antisemitism, resulting in detrimental consequences for their careers. Our work aims to highlight the double standard in the policing of voices; clearly racist and hateful views (ones we post), if coming from Zionists, face little to no repercussions.”
CoHA sees hate speech directed at Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, as a precursor to a potential future public health crisis:
“Hate speech directed at Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims not only violates the principles of respect and tolerance that should be upheld in all healthcare institutions but also poses a significant threat to the trust and safety of patients seeking care. Many studies have documented how behavior like this affects patient care and outcomes. Given that many of these communities already face marginalization and economic struggles, this has all the signs of a public health crisis in the making. This demands urgent attention and correction to ensure a safe, welcoming, and just environment for all.”
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Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah has broken numerous stories, including how the Canadian Armed Forces trained neo-Nazi "journalist" Roman Protasevich while he was with the Azov Battalion, and how a CIA front group (the NED) funded the group (URAP) which drove the "Uyghur genocide" vote in parliament to pass in February 2021. Jonah recently wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.
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