It is shocking and, frankly, chilling that this piece was approved for publication. It is urgent in the extreme that it be retracted and that public explanations be given as to how this could have happened, accompanied by a sincere and solemn commitment that it will never be repeated.
Dear National Post editorial staff:
I’m writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding Yoni Goldstein’s piece titled, “Jewish law tells us how to deal with Avi Lewis” While we are accustomed to writing to correct inaccuracies or to call out dehumanizing language in your reporting, we have never encountered anything quite so disturbing as this.
Mr. Goldstein opens his by relating the story of Korach, a dissident follower of Moses who – along with his family and adherents – was swallowed up by divine fire for the sin of having objected to the prophet’s leadership. In Mr. Goldstein’s telling, a total of over 250 people suffered a grisly execution for the sin of speaking out.
Stories of this nature are hardly uncommon among religious traditions and, indeed, by those standards this one is somewhat mild. Nevertheless, such violence and those sorts of justifications for it are generally not seen as an example to be followed in this supposedly enlightened age. Mr. Goldstein, however, take a different view: “Jewish law is fairly clear on the subject: when a Jew endangers the Jewish community, the community is obligated to stop them.” Perhaps fearing that his point is too subtle for modern attention spans, he immediately clarifies: “Such is the case with NDP Leader Avi Lewis.” The transgression in question is a tweet in which Mr. Lewis asserted that Jewish people “failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name.”
Mr. Goldstein repeats his point several times, in several ways, so as to make it unambiguous. He states that “the corpus of Jewish law and thought provides ample advice on what to do when one of their own threatens the safety of the community.” He indicates that “when a Jewish person presents a clear and present danger to the Jewish community … you must prevent the perpetrator from causing hams.” He asserts that “a Jew is duty-bound to step in. Protecting the community and its members is the most important thing” and that “when a Jew endangers another Jew [t]here is no real debate to be had – only rebuke and, in extreme situations, removal from the community.”
It is necessary to quote his concluding paragraph in full, with added emphasis:
Avi Lewis is unlikely to be swallowed up by the earth or officially excommunicated, whatever that might entail, but the story of Korach still offers some metaphorical guidance for a modern-day response to internal threats. Jewish thought does not treat every critic as an enemy. But when the community is endangered from the inside, reasoned debate and private conversations are no longer options. We are left with no choice but to say, “this person does not represent us, they have no connection with us and we will not tolerate being made unsafe, even if it’s by one of our own.” The
wellbeing of the community comes first.
It is worth noting that one of the two Hebrew words that Mr. Goldstein suggests could describe Mr. Lewis – rodef – was used by Yigal Amir to justify his assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It beggars belief that the author is unaware that his argument was used to rationalize the most notorious political murder in Israel's history.
Despite everything that has happened in the past three years, we have been certain that there was one thing that everyone – all of us, no matter how pro- or anti-anything related to this most explosive of topics – could agree on: that we, as Canadians, are blessed with a country in which political violence remains something totally unthinkable.
Something completely unimaginable. Something utterly inconceivable. Something so wholly and clearly beyond the pale of what is acceptable that it would never cross the mind of anyone outside of the lunatic fringe to even hint that it could have a place in our society. Yet now, faced with Mr. Goldstein’s words – words that explicitly exclude “reasoned debate and private conversations” as options – we are left to ask what possible alternative reading of this column there could be other than an invitation for violence – perhaps serious or even deadly violence – on Mr. Lewis’ person.
It is shocking and, frankly, chilling that this piece was approved for publication. It is urgent in the extreme that it be retracted and that public explanations be given as to how this could have happened, accompanied by a sincere and solemn commitment that it will never be repeated. For all our sakes, as human beings who are condemned to live alongside one another whatever our differences – we urge you to immediately do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Media Advocate
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
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