"CJPME calls on the Globe and Mail to grant a right-of-reply by publishing a counter-perspective or response letter to restore balance to this debate. Furthermore, CJPME demands that an editorial note be added to the column including Mr. Lewis’s public clarification in which he explicitly rejects collective guilt. The Globe must also remove the section on the Belleville shooting and apologize for Urback’s reckless claims that Lewis’ statement encouraged the attack."
To the Globe and Mail editors,
I am writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) to express concern over Robyn Urback’s op-ed titled “Avi Lewis’s foolish statement on ‘Jewish people’ should be disqualifying.”
Urback presents a highly questionable interpretation of Lewis’s statement as though it were an established fact.
Specifically, Urback writes that Lewis was “not criticizing Israel,” and that “the leader of Canada’s progressive mainstream is explicit: a genocide is happening in the name of Jews everywhere. And those Jews have failed to do their part to stop it.”
Urback follows this up by stating that the statement by Lewis was “textbook antisemitism: the sort of abominable, insidious rhetoric that fuels acts of hatred against Jews in Canada and throughout the rest of the diaspora.”
Urback explicitly states that Avi Lewis is framing Canadian Jews as collectively responsible for Israel’s actions in Gaza, and not criticizing Israel.
This is false.
Lewis's actual wording was that “we failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name.” He is referring to the fact that Israel calls itself the “Jewish state” and that it claims to act on behalf of Jewish people, something Lewis rejects.
This is a criticism of Israel. Urback’s entire premise is the result of misinterpretation, one based on a faulty reading of Lewis’s words and a lack of familiarity with his beliefs. She failed to grasp the implication that Lewis is critiquing not only Israel’s actions, but the state’s regretful and misguided messaging that it represents all Jewish people. Lewis obviously believes that Israel does not represent all Jewish people, and was expressing his disappointment that the Jewish community, in his mind, didn’t rally more effectively to stop the genocide that Israel claimed was being carried out in their name. This also doesn’t imply Lewis thinks only Jewish people are complicit, or uniquely complicit. A significant part of Lewis’s NDP leadership campaign centered on Canada’s complicity in Israel’s crimes, a collective failure of Canadians and especially our leaders.
We know that Urback’s interpretation was wrong because in a follow-up response to his post, Lewis said the following:
"Holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel is antisemitic. I've never done it. I think it's dangerous and that's absolutely not what I did.
"I spoke as a Jewish Canadian from a place of profound sadness.… Many Jews have said that we have not done enough as Jewish people, among a family of faiths and communities around the world."
Urback admits “to not being familiar enough with Mr. Lewis’ history.” Lewis has been outspoken on these exact matters, and a cursory expiration of his past comments likely would have spared this glaring misinterpretation.
Columnists have the right to express their opinions on a number of issues, but they are bound by journalistic ethics and opinions must be based in fact, not misinterpretation. We believe this op-ed falls short and merits updates.
Furthermore, I take issue with this statement by Ms. Urback:
“If Mr. Lewis didn’t intend to blame Jewish people collectively for the ongoing violence in Gaza, even though that’s precisely what he said, he should address that publicly, and explain what he really meant.”
Mr. Lewis did precisely that. On September 22, the Canadian Press distributed his explicit clarification to national media outlets, where he publicly rejected collective guilt and explained his intent. Yet, as far as we can tell, it remains unpublished by the Globe and Mail despite your editorial team publishing a highly one-sided article on his statements. We urge you to publish the CP article, as a matter of public interest.
Without providing this essential context and failing to report on his response. The Globe and Mail leaves readers with an incomplete and misleading record, after the subject of the piece has provided that exact clarification. This violates basic standards of journalistic balance and fairness.
If Globe and Mail insists that Urback’s piece was fair, which we disagree on, there should at a minimum be an editor’s note that includes Lewis’s reply for the historical record.
In addition, Globe and Mail ought to invite Lewis to publish a reply, or otherwise allow a progressive Jewish organization like Independent Jewish Voices publish one. Jewish Canadians have increasingly moved away from identifying as Zionists. It is not a fringe view.
At a moment in which it appears a strong possibility that real antisemitic violence reached the doorstep of a synagogue, though we do not currently know all of the facts, we should take seriously what antisemitism is and is not. Criticism of Israel, especially in this context, is not antisemitism.
Lastly, CJPME is concerned with Urback’s conflation of the Belleville synagogue shooting and Mr. Lewis’ remarks on Yom Kippur.
Urback attempts to establish a causal connection that had not been established:
“When some Canadians hear that Jewish people collectively are complicit in genocide ... it becomes reasonable ... to smash a Jewish bakery’s windows ... or to bring a shotgun to a synagogue in Belleville ...”
And later:
“It becomes reasonable ... to bring a shotgun to a synagogue in Belleville, Ont. during Yom Kippur services and spray bullets through its stained glass windows.”
Linking Mr. Lewis’s social media post to a specific, ongoing police investigation without evidentiary backing is irresponsible. At the time of publication, police and journalists have not established a motive, nor had they confirmed that the synagogue was specifically targeted. Furthermore, reporting by Global News indicates, according to unnamed sources, that the suspect allegedly had a history of spreading antisemitic COVID-19 conspiracy theories, a context that has no connection to Avi Lewis or his statement.
Urback implies that the post by Avi Lewis directly incites or normalizes an act of firearm violence, without factual or law-enforcement attribution. This violates fundamental standards of evidence-based journalism.
Given these mischaracterizations and the omission of important context, CJPME calls on the Globe and Mail to grant a right-of-reply by publishing a counter-perspective or response letter to restore balance to this debate. Furthermore, CJPME demands that an editorial note be added to the column including Mr. Lewis’s public clarification in which he explicitly rejects collective guilt. The Globe must also remove the section on the Belleville shooting and apologize for Urback’s reckless claims that Lewis’ statement encouraged the attack.
Sincerely,
Jason Toney
Director of Media Advocacy, CJPME