Jews across Canada support IJV Montreal’s fight against CJA injunction
As IJV Halifax, we are standing in solidarity with Independent Jewish Voices and Montreal Jews who are currently fighting an injunction from Federation CJA.
Independent Jewish Voices is currently fighting an injunction issued against them as well as three other Montreal-based Palestinian rights groups. The injunction came after two protests in Montreal. The first was on March 4 outside of the Gerber Centre, where StartUp Nation held a speaker's event featuring IDF soldiers. The second protest was on March 5 when the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue hosted an event organized by American and Israeli real estate companies selling properties only to Jews, including in West Bank settlements internationally recognized as illegal. Both demonstrations featured Jewish voices prominently decrying the use of Jewish religious and cultural spaces to host these events.
The Federation has characterized these demonstrations as antisemitic to try to delegitimize protests against genocide and ethnic cleansing. We reaffirm IJV Montreal’s statement that synagogues and Jewish community buildings are not being protested for being Jewish cultural or religious spaces, but rather for allowing these programs to take place in such spaces. We support our Jewish and Palestinian allies in Montreal and their right to protest events that back genocide and sell stolen land This injunction makes dangerous accusations against our allies and is a clear attempt to suppress critical voices speaking out against the atrocities being committed against Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank.
Independent Jewish Voices is challenging this injunction in court, and IJV Halifax fully supports this legal challenge. We stand by IJV Montreal in their legal fight, and we encourage all community members to join us.
This injunction is being utilized by Israeli lobbying groups such as CIJA to foment a sense of fear and anxiety in the Jewish community, as well as to threaten further repression of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. These groups represent a serious threat to freedom of speech in this critical moment, and are leveraging this injunction to legitimize their censorship of pro-Palestinian voices. We know that protests are acts of solidarity. We support Jews across Canada speaking out against warmongering and ethnic cleansing in our cultural and religious spaces.
Possible solidarity actions:
flyering
postering
press conference/media release
op ed letter in local paper
publishing this statement on social media