Canada's Stand on the Travesty at the Hague

Canada's Jewish community is looking for help but Trudeau only offered a photo op

Brian Henry is back with an examination of Canada’s response to the outrageous “trial” that was held in the Hague this week. The Republic of South Africa brought charges against the State of Israel under the Genocide Convention. Thank you to Brian for his fourth insightful contribution to Canadian Zionist Forum.

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On January 10, Prime Minister Trudeau met with 30 Jewish leaders at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto. He assured them, “Our commitment to you – and to Israel, as a Jewish and democratic state – is unwavering” (here).  That sounds nice. But what is he actually going to do?

Image: Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau meets Jewish Leaders at Congregation Beth Tzedek

Hamas continues to hold more than 100 Israelis hostage and Israel is fighting a war for its continued existence while much of the world condemns it for doing so. Hamas’s slaughter of 1,200 Jews has emboldened antisemites here in Canada and around the world.

The 30 Jewish leaders left Beth Tzedec as disgruntled as they went in. Trudeau apparently promised nothing. (Details are hard to come by as the PM’s remarks were off the record.) I suspect our Jewish leaders felt they’d all been co-opted for a photo op, so that Trudeau could Tweet about how much he cares about Canada’s Jews. 

But then on January 12 we had some action, albeit the bare minimum. Trudeau announced that Canada opposes the “the premise” of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, whatever that means.

The UK has called the case “completely unjustified and wrong.” The United States calls it “meritless.” Germany has been even more forthright. It’s denounced the “political instrumentalization” of the genocide charge and intends to intervene with the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s behalf.

Former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, wrote an opinion piece in the National Post pointing out what a mockery of the law this prosecution is. Former Supreme Court Judge Rosalie Abella wrote a piece for the Globe and Mail, pointing out the obscenity of this case even more strongly. She wrote:

Hamas’s explicit and unapologetic goal is to eliminate Jews. The elimination of Jews is genocide. That is why Hamas murdered, raped, beheaded, kidnapped and tortured Jews on Oct. 7, 2023: to eliminate them, because they were Jews. It is a legal absurdity to suggest that a country that is defending itself from genocide is thereby guilty of genocide (here).

If, as the Liberals frequently claim, they care deeply about the rule of law, they should care that South Africa is abusing the law to fight on Hamas’s behalf. Their obvious intent is to pressure Israel to leave Gaza with Hamas still in charge, still able to rebuild and launch repeats of the atrocities of October 7, as Hamas has promised to do.

Such a situation would leave Israel in an untenable position, with the people who live closest to the border with Gaza never able to move back to their communities and the entire country under permanent terrorist threat.

As for international law, if the UN’s highest court orders a ceasefire, terrorists the world over will take note and act accordingly. Such a ruling will tell them, “If you can bury yourself deeply enough in civilian infrastructure, station your command posts in hospitals, use schools for arms depots, dig bunkers below apartment buildings, and station fighters in mosques, it becomes illegal to root you out. In fact, attacking your positions is the crime of crimes, if only you can insure enough civilian deaths will follow, your opponent becomes guilty of genocide.”

Despite South Africa having no case, the ICJ may not find in Israel’s favour. The judges on the court come from such luminaries of (in)justice as China, and from Lebanon, which is at war with Israel. The roster of judges includes John Dugard, former UN Rapporteur on human rights and a notorious antisemite

. Image: South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola

Not all the ICJ judges are ill-disposed toward Israel, but in the UN system, Israel’s usual role is to act as the scapegoat, to carry the sins of the world. Hence, we get the UN’s habit of condemning Israel by name more than every other country in the world combined.

So, there is real danger in this trial, for Israel and for Jews the world over.

Our Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly issued a statement reiterating that Canada does not accept “the premise” of South Africa’s case. But her wording is vague enough to allow Canada to reverse itself should the court find against Israel.

Joly added:

We must ensure that the procedural steps in this case are not used to foster antisemitism and targeting of Jewish neighbourhoods, businesses, and individuals (here). 

That is an admirable goal. But if Joly or Trudeau want to discourage antisemitism, they need to clearly say this charge of genocide is “completely unjustified and wrong,” “without merit,” and an abuse of international law meant to give comfort and aid to a terrorist organization. 

After all, from when the Soviet Union first began accusing Israel of genocide back in the 1970s, the sole purpose of the charge has been to justify Jew-hatred. If the Jews are guilty of genocide, that’s understood as retroactively justifying the Holocaust, the Jews being as bad as the Nazis.

Similarly, the charge of genocide retroactively justifies the atrocities of October 7, plus all atrocities against Jews that will be committed in the future. “After all,” the argument goes, “the Jews do much worse.”

And here in Canada, the charge of genocide against Israel is being used, as Ms. Joly should be aware, to justify the “targeting of Jewish neighbourhoods, businesses, and individuals.”

Ms. Joly and Mr. Trudeau: If you actually want to help, then you need to say how and why the charge of genocide is baseless and pernicious. You can’t just say you disagree with South Africa’s “premise” and leave it at that.

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Today is the 100th day of the war. It is impossible to imagine the situation of the hostages, held for 100 days under ground, while the IDF has been pushing Hamas out of northern and central Gaza. Today I read the story of Omer Shem Tov, a young man with Celiac disease who is among them. You can read about him here.

We think also today about the 187 members of the IDF who have fallen in battle and the hundreds who have been wounded, trying to liberate the hostages and uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza. They are the best that Israel has to offer, with promising futures now erased or blighted by their service in the present war, a war imposed on Israel by the genocidal crimes of Hamas beginning on October 7.

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Our travel arrangements are now in place. We will be in Ashkelon from Jan 31 to Feb 27. Looking forward to helping out in any way we can.

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