Anti-Israel groups in Canada are encouraging protest action against Jewish camps for their “explicit support for the Israeli military” and “genocide.”
“When children’s camps support a genocidal state, it’s time for gigantic change,” the groups (including Canada BDS) wrote in a joint statement on Friday.
The groups claim to have “identified” at least 17 summer camps throughout Canada that “support the State of Israel in some way.” Of the 17, 10 are in Ontario, three in Quebec, and 1one each in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia.
The pro-Palestine groups said that the camps actively fundraise for “war relief” efforts. For example, they reported that Camp Moshava Ennismore in Toronto has hosted an IDF soldier “who posted clips of himself in Gaza ‘joking’ about eating humanitarian aid,” and that Camp Timberlane (also in Toronto) posted at least one photo with a member of the Israeli military in Israel.
The protest groups then went on to accuse three accredited camps in Quebec and one in Nova Scotia of “explicit support for the Israeli military,” citing, for example, the fact that one of the camps commemorates Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day), or that some camp counselors are IDF veterans, or simply Israeli citizens.
Accusations of a 'Zionist who publicly supports Israel'
Additionally, the groups claim that Ontario Camps Association’s (OCA) Executive Director Joy Levy “is a Zionist who publicly supports Israel [and] its military, and promotes anti-Palestinian racism.”
Other examples of so-called “support” include the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, or the use of Hebrew in camp materials.
The protest groups even took fault with “food appropriation,” accusing Camp Solelim of appropriation of West Asian and Palestinian culture by advertising “The smell of zatar sprinkled on top of pita roasted over an open campfire…”
In a separate statement, the pro-Palestine groups said that the camps are not problematic “because they encourage connection to Jewish identity” but because “they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial State.”
Given that the camps all have accreditation under their respective provincial camping association, the protest groups called for supporters to send letters to the leadership of the Quebec and Nova Scotia camp associations to tell them to revoke the accreditation of camps that hire, host, or support current or former Israeli military personnel.
They also urged followers to send a letter to the Board of Directors at the Ontario Camps Association to “hold Levy, their executive director, accountable for anti-Palestinian racism and support for a genocidal military, and demand an end to accreditation for camps that hire, host, or support current or former Israeli military personnel.”
Levy, on behalf of OCA, released a statement on Friday expressing deep concern about the campaign’s claims, which it called “discriminatory and antisemitic in nature.”
Libels and tropes related to Israel, Zionism, and Jewish people
“The accusations, aimed at our executive director, members of the OCA team, and several member camps, draw directly on stereotyped libels and tropes related to Israel, Zionism, and Jewish people – including ‘genocide’ and ‘colonizers,’ symbolic categories that are so often spread with specifically malicious intent.”
“The stated objective of that campaign is to pressure accreditation bodies to revoke or reconsider the standing of Jewish camps and to seek disciplinary action against staff,” Levy said, adding that such campaigning undermined the welfare and safety of Jewish children and the legitimacy of the leadership of the OCA (and elsewhere), Jewish camp administrators in Canada, and Canadian Jewish life in general.
“OCA is a provincial standards and accreditation body. We do not adjudicate international geopolitical conflicts, nor do we evaluate member camps based on their religious or cultural identity,” she added.
“We will not allow antisemitism, intimidation, discrimination, or harassment to take root within Ontario’s camp community.”
This is not the first time that Jewish summer schools have been the focus of anti-Israel campaigning. A few months ago, the database Find IDF soldiers, which documents Canadians who served in the Israeli military, released a new database named GTA to IDF, which details the institutions that the soldiers attended, implying that these institutions are breeding grounds for IDF conscription. Two specific camps – Moshava Ennismore and Ramah – were named.
“Publishing a directory of Jewish schools, community centers, and communal organizations framed as if their ties to Israel are incriminating is inciting and dangerous,” Austin Parcels, manager of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, told The Jerusalem Post at the time, adding that such lists become “a catalogue for hostile actors who are looking for targets.”
“These are Jewish organizations. Treating that basic fact as if it reveals something hidden or corrupt is an attempt to manufacture suspicion around Jewish identity itself. When you turn the most elementary fact of Jewish identity into suspicion, you are not revealing anything. You are giving people who want to harm Jewish institutions the ammunition they are looking for.”