Jewish students, teachers, parents and other community members are sounding the alarm over a Toronto District School Board staff report which would update the board’s anti-racism strategy to include “anti-Palestinian racism.”
A few hundred demonstrators gathered outside the TDSB head office Tuesday evening as trustees voted five to three to pass the “combatting hate and racism,” or CHR, strategy on for a final vote before the full board of trustees.
Protesters objected to the vague definition of anti-Palestinian racism and the lack of emphasis on combatting antisemitism in the plan.
Reports of antisemitic hate crimes more than doubled in 2023, increasing from 65 reported instances in 2022 to 135 in 2023.
“The number one concern expressed by parents, students, teachers and other community members has been that the CHR does not entirely address antisemitism which has experienced several drastic and sharp rises,” Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs diversity, equity and Inclusion director Jess Burke told True North in an interview.
“This strategy does not adequately address the current hate crime statistics we see, and we know that schools are a microcosm of general society.”
Protesters said they want to see a proportionate educational response to the rise of antisemitism in this strategy.
Burke would like the school board to mandate education about Jewish personhood. She would also like to use Jewish History Month, observed in May, as an opportunity to educate students about Jewish culture and the positive contributions of Jewish people.
The inclusion of a vaguely defined anti-Palestinian racism was another reason for the community’s outrage.
TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird told True North the report did not suggest a definition for anti-Palestinian racism, though Burke said it’s very likely the board will adopt the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association’s definition of it as anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives.
TDSB trustee Alexandra Lulka Rotman, one of the three who voted against accepting the strategy in its current form, raised concerns that the inclusion of the word “narratives” in the definition could be abused to silence anyone questioning one side of the debate.
Burke said racism in all of its forms is adequately defined and protected by the Ontario human rights code, which the school adheres to, but there are “huge walls” within the Jewish community and others regarding the ACLA’s definition of anti-Palestinian racism.
One of the main issues for Burke is the methodology used in the development of the definition.
She said the ACLA comprises a “handful of localized regional people” as opposed to the large international community which developed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
The ACLA has opposed IHRA’s definition of antisemitism saying it does not allow for criticism of Israel. Burke noted that the definition explicitly states that criticism of the Jewish state is not antisemitism.
“The anti-Palestinian racism definition was developed immaculately fast, almost overnight, by ACLA with very little methodology that those of us in the research community and the socio-educational community would accept as being a consensus definition and with very little input from the Palestinian people themselves.”
Burke’s main issue with the anti-Palestinian racism definition is it attempts to redefine antisemitism without regard for Jewish perspectives on what it means.
“As an anti-oppressive educator, as soon as a definition seeks to define, dispute, redefine, distort or revise, the experience of another equity-deserving and multi-marginalized group. I see an enormous red flag,” Burke said.
The ACLA definition states that “defaming Palestinians and their allies” as being “inherently antisemitic” is racist.
Burke said that if the CHR strategy passes without further consideration and modification, the next steps may include Jewish rights groups such as CIJA seeking legal action against the school board.