A Muslim organization is actively lobbying the Canadian Parliament to adopt legislation that advances its anti-Israel agenda and officially recognize the historically disputed “Nakba.”
The National Council of Canadian Muslims announced in Ottawa Thursday that it’s working with MPs to pass their proposed “Nakba Bill.” However, some Jewish Canadians dispute the assumptions inherent in the bill.
The bill would legislate that Canada marks May 15 as the annual “Nakba Day,” recognize Palestinian statehood, impose an arms embargo on Israel and prevent the Israeli Defence Forces from recruiting on Canadian soil.
“We’ll be encouraging all parliamentarians this session to adopt the bill table and pass it,” Stephen Brown the CEO of NCCM said in Ottawa Thursday. “We’re already in productive conversations with parliamentarians about the model legislation, and are optimistic that we can work constructively at a real policy solution to stand up against the threats of U.S. annexation.”
Brown portrayed the Israel-Gaza conflict as similar to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to use economic force and turn Canada into the 51st state.
The Nakba, or “the great catastrophe” in Arabic, is said to mark a period of time in 1948 when Palestinians allege they were forcefully evicted from Israel. However, the historical accuracy of the narrative around the period is disputed.
Jewish advocates from organizations such as B’nai Brith and CIJA have criticized the presentation of the “Nakba” as excluding Israeli and Jewish perspectives. Advocates such as Dahlia Kurtz have said that many Palestinians chose to leave the area after Israel declared independence, and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia all declared war on Israel as a response.
Advocates have also noted that proponents of the “Nakba” narrative often fail to mention that Jews faced expulsion from Arab countries following the independence of the Jewish state. Another contention with the “Nakba” narrative is that many of the descendants of the Arabs who decided to stay in Israel remain in Israel today.
According to a 2023 census of Israel, for example, 21%, nearly two million, of Israel’s population are Arab. Arabs have the same legal rights as Jewish citizens and are represented in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
The proposed “Nakba Day” legislation also recognizes the recommendations of the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Israeli leadership, including Israel’s president, Benjamin Netanyahu.
An Anti-Palestinian Racism definition would also be adopted, though Jewish advocacy groups have warned of free speech issues with adopting current Anti-Palestinian Racism definitions.
As reported by True North, Jewish advocacy groups such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs have contested the widely used term when referring to APR. The NCCM proposed legislation didn’t define APR, and the Canadian government has not responded to previous True North requests to define it.
CIJA advocates have noted that the widely used definition stems from the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, which states that anti-Arab racism includes speech that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives.
Jewish community members have raised concerns about the word “narratives” suggesting this aspect could be abused to silence anyone questioning one side of the Israel-Hamas war debate.
CIJA has also raised concerns about the lack of methodology in the organization that declared the APR’s definition used when compared with the extensive international community work that went into the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
CIJA also raised concerns about the aspect of the APR definition, which says it’s racist to defame Palestinians and their allies by calling them antisemitic. The group also notes that the APR definition could declare Canada guilty of racism for its position that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is not a genocide.
Further, CIJA argues that the adoption of this definition could silence the victims of antisemitism and discussions around terrorism.
CIJA has also disputed ICC arrest warrants for Israeli officials, saying the court’s decision holds an anti-Israel bias and is inconsistent. They question why Israel was slapped with condemnation while the ICC did not issue arrest warrants for global dictators surely engaged in human rights violations, such as in China, Iran and at the time Syria under Bashar al-Assad.