[News] Hypocritical Outrage: What’s Wrong with Burning Flag of an Apartheid State?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/hypocritical-outrage-whats-wrong-with-burning-flag-of-an-apartheid-state/>
Hypocritical Outrage: What’s Wrong with Burning Flag of an Apartheid State?May
1, 2023
------------------------------
A 16-year-old teenager was arrested for burning an Israeli flag in
Montreal. (Photo: video grab)

*By Yves Engler <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/yves-engler>*

We are supposed to be outraged by a teenager burning Israeli flags but
ignore a publicly funded school indoctrinating six and seven-year-olds to
worship a faraway apartheid state.

On Wednesday a Montréal teenager filmed himself taking five Israeli flags
attached to the outside fence of Hebrew Foundation School in the borough of
Dollard-des-Ormeaux (DDO). With Arabic music playing in the background, he
subsequently burned them.

The Israel lobby cried bloody murder and the *Montréal Gazette*, CBC, CTV,
Global and others reported on the incident.

The Liberal MP in the riding, Sameer Zuberi, tweeted, “Images of a young
person removing Israeli flags from Dollard’s Hebrew Foundation School, and
later burning them, are shocking and abhorrent. Hate, intolerance, and
antisemitism have absolutely no place in our community or country. Everyone
must be and feel safe in Canada.”

For his part, the executive director of Hebrew Foundation School, Glenn
Eisenberg, called it an “act of overt Jew-hate” and “there is no doubt this
was motivated by antisemitism.”

The Montreal police’s hate crimes unit later arrested a 16-year-old.

But the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects Canadians’ right to burn
flags and there is a tradition of doing so. In principle, it is illegal to
take someone else’s flags but there’s a good chance the school violated
municipal bylaws by placing unsanctioned material on the outside of its
fence and public sidewalk. At most, the five flags cost $20 (hundreds of
the same style of the flag were handed out at the Israel rally downtown
Montréal earlier that day).

The apartheid lobby’s outrage is flagrantly hypocritical. On one hand, they
claim Jews find it hateful to see the Israeli flag burned. Simultaneously,
however, they ignore how those who’ve been disenfranchised by that state
(or oppose apartheid) may find the Israeli flag hurtful or provocative.

According to the Hebrew Foundation School’s Facebook page, the flags that
were burned were put up to celebrate a day Palestinians associate with the
Nakba (catastrophe). Before the incident was reported the school posted,
“Parading the streets of DDO and showing off our pride for the state of
Israel! Thank you to the parents who joined the parade in decked-out cars,
blasting the best Israeli music!”

Is anyone surprised someone reacted negatively to this pro-apartheid rally?

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ Quebec vice-president, Eta Yudin,
told the *Gazette* “This incident is a sad reminder that youth are being
radicalized so young.” In fact, he’s got things backward. A quick search of
Hebrew Foundation School’s Facebook and Instagram pages reveals an
institution indoctrinating young minds into worshiping a violent faraway
state that oppresses millions. One post included a big board with the
emblem of the IDF and multiple photos of Israeli soldiers. Another post
mentions students assisting a charity supporting injured Israeli soldiers
while another notes, “Our students and staff were enthralled with Eli’s
story as a soldier during the Yom Kippur war.” Set featured image
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=86997&type=image&TB_iframe=1>

The grade schoolers often sing Israel’s national anthem and participate in
events put on by the explicitly racist
<https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/anti-racist-organizations-remain-silent-on-the-jnf>
Jewish
National Fund, which has played an important role in the colonization of
Palestine. A large map shown to the grade schoolers at a recent JNF Day
included the illegally occupied West Bank as Israel.

Hebrew Foundation School’s promotion of apartheid is, of course, to the
detriment of those dispossessed by Israel. The kids are being melded to
speak, vote, fundraise, etc. in a manner that will reinforce Palestinian
subjugation. Some of the Montrealers may even be inspired to leave Canada’s
greatest city to join a military force killing Palestinians and regularly
bombing neighboring countries.

Beyond the damaging impact the school has on Palestinians, is it good for
kids growing up in Montréal to be obsessed with a faraway land most of
their parents or grandparents have probably never lived in? How does that
impact their sense of place? While the photos posted by the school on
Facebook and Instagram showed many Israeli flags, I didn’t see a single
Canadian or Québec flag.

Yet all Québecers are subsidizing the school. In 2021-22 the school
received $1.3 million
<https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyRprtngPrd?q.srchNmFltr=Hebrew+Foundation+School&q.stts=0007&selectedCharityBn=118955434RR0001&dsrdPg=1>
in
direct government assistance and hundreds of thousands of dollars more in
public subsidies through charitable tax receipts.

It is outrageous that taxpayers are subsidizing private schools
indoctrinating kids into celebrating a state human rights groups say is
committing the crime of apartheid. A 16-year-old challenging that makes me
think that at least some of the kids are all right.

* – Yves Engler is the author of Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and
a number of other books. He contributed this article to The Palestine
Chronicle. Visit his website: yvesengler.com <http://yvesengler.com>.*
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