On October 1, HRC subscriber Larry Shapiro was published in The Hill Times newspaper after HonestReporting Canada published an alert regarding an article by notorious anti-Israel columnist Erica Ifill, who not only falsely accused society of treating Israeli lives as more valuable than Palestinian, but sought to rehabilitate anti-Israel and pro-terrorist hate rallies, saying they have been “demonized”.

Shapiro rebutted Ifill, stating that her commentary follows the traditional denial from anti-Israel activists of humanity towards Jews, who are the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada. Ifill describing Palestinians as the primary victims of hate crimes is nothing more than denying Jews the sympathy they deserve. 

Re: “Who has the right to safety?” (The Hill Times, Oct. 9, p. 9).

Pretty well every pro-Palestinian writer subscribes to the idea that any sympathy shown to the Jews is an insult to the Palestinians. That’s why there were pro-Palestinian demonstrations outside venues where on Oct. 7, 2024—the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel—Jews met to mourn their loses. 

British journalist Brendan O’Neill described this in his Oct. 9, 2024, column for Spiked as, “Now they won’t even let Jews grieve in peace.” Even before Israel dropped its first bomb on Gaza, people were setting up camps and demonstrating simply to deny Jews the right to mourn their victims. 

Erica Ifill’s column maintaining that Jews get better treatment than Arabs is typical of this denial of humanity towards the Jews. Hill Times readers would benefit from learning that according to the 2021 census, the Arab population in Canada was 690,000, or 1.91 per cent of the total population, while the Jewish population was 335,295 or one per cent of the total population, yet Jews experienced 70 per cent of all hate crimes. Describing Palestinians as the primary victims of hate crimes is nothing more than denying Jews the sympathy they deserve. 

Larry Shapiro