A pair of recent articles in The Coast,  Halifax’s free, weekly, tax-payer funded newspaper, demonstrates the outlet’s continued anti-Israel infatuation.

On July 24, itran a ridiculous article penned by Brendyn Creamer, chronicling the exploits of the anti-Israel protestors who disrupted and hijacked Halifax’s pride festival on June 20. In this article entitled: “‘Pride belongs to us’: Pro-Palestine protest organizer speaks on parade demonstration,” Creamer compared the anti-Israel movement to the LGBTQ+ struggle for equal rights and public acceptance, claiming that those protesting on behalf of Palestinian Arabs are “standing in solidarity with people who, like many in the queer community, are faced with the full brunt of someone else’s hatred.”

This is a pretty bizarre take on a war that was started by Hamas, on behalf of the Palestinian people, when they surged into Israel on October 7 and slaughtered more than 1,200 innocents, many of them children. It’s even more absurd when one acknowledges that the Hamas charter – their foundational document that guides their ‘movement’ – calls for the complete genocide and destruction of not only the Jewish state, but of all Jews, everywhere. Contrast this to the Israeli charter which promises equal rights and freedoms to all citizens, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation, and it’s difficult to understand how anyone arrives at the conclusion that it is the Palestinian people who are the victims of ‘the full brunt of someone else’s hatred’ in this scenario.

Israel Is An Oasis For LGBTQ+ Community

In fact, the very idea that those concerned with not just human rights, but with LGBTQ+ rights would be anti-Israel demonstrates either a complete lack of understanding about the history and current reality of the region and its conflict and culture, or a fundamental and deep-seated antisemitism. The fact is that the largest pride parade in the Middle East takes place in Israel, and that Israel is a beacon of LGBTQ+ rights in a region that is otherwise generally hostile to those who identify as gay or lesbian. In fact, Hamas and the Palestinian authority have a long history of suppression, abuse and violence against anyone even suspected of being gay (like the Hamas leader Mahmoud Ishtiwi who was executed in 2016 after he was accused of being gay).

Jews Are Not “White Passing”

Finally, Creamer made the case that the only people who took issue with anti-Israel messaging at Pride Halifax were “white or white passing” and that support of Israel comes from a ‘place of privilege’. The suggestion that Jews, as a group, have ‘white privilege’ is of course, absurd on its face, since Jews were slaughtered by the millions in Europe for being ‘not white,’ and continue to be targeted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists to this day for allegedly ‘corrupting’ white society. The reality is that Jews are ‘white’ when it suits antisemites on the left to claim as such, but not white enough when it comes to privilege or membership in the collective white society. Creamer would do well to remember that it wasn’t until the 1970s that ‘no Jews allowed’ stopped being regularly posted at Canadian beaches and social clubs. To suggest that Jews live in a world of relative privilege is to ignore history and reality.

Another article entitled: “Police remove students from inside Dal administrative building Tuesday, without dismantling encampment,” published July 25, is the latest instalment from Local Journalism Initiative Lauren Phillips as she acts as stenographer for every two-bit anti-Israel activist in Halifax.

Phillips’ entire article was devoted to the ramblings of local anti-Israel protesters in Halifax, including at a press conference, a small demonstration, and their statements on social media, quoting them falsely and dishonestly accuse Israel of “genocide” multiple times, while refusing to offer any opposing voice even a single time, a consistent theme throughout Phillips’ past articles.

After reading these two anti-Israel articles, one is left wondering what the citizens of Halifax and Canadians nation-wide think about funding such offensive works with their taxes. This isn’t the first such piece to appear, and is just the latest such problematic article, as Honest Reporting Canada has issued several alerts in the recent past about articles to appear in The Coast.