by Hussein Hoballah
Suzanne Weiss, Jewish advocate for Palestinian human rights and author of “Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey” (Fernwood, 2019), contributed the following response to our questions in Sada Almashrek, an Arabic-English publication in Montreal.
Though the “anti-Semitism” narrative is today being made bait at large to hit back hard on any criticisers of Israel, outspoken Weiss says she, like many other Jews, refuses the Israeli authorities’ unjust treatment and supports, instead, al-Quds Day, as well as collaboration with Muslims to fight real anti-Semitism and any other form of racism.
Mrs Weiss says that her activism on behalf of Palestine is based on the principle of “universalism” found in both Jewish and Islamic faiths.
Now nearing eighty, Suzanne Weiss still enjoys a strong memory of major global incidents that have shaped today’s injustices and is therefore determined to make a difference.
1) Mrs Weiss, it is amazing to read your book Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey, and learn about your personal journey, so would you please briefly share some background info on it?
When I was an infant child, a Jew in France under Fascist occupation, the Nazis targeted me to be killed. After the Nazi defeat, I wondered how I had survived. Over the decades, I pieced the story together: my survival was the work of a broad movement of solidarity that saved many thousands of other Jewish children.
I realized that this movement was a model for what we need today to confront today’s problems of white supremacy, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, and the climate threat. That motivated to write my story.
2) You have been at the front lines speaking up for the plights of Palestinian rights, at rallies, and university Campuses and forums. What’s the deciding factor in your work and activism?
As a youth I was sympathetic to the Israeli state. But I was alienated by Israel’s participation in the colonialist war against Egypt in 1956. Then, at age 18, in 1959, I learned that the indigenous population of Palestine had in fact been forcibly driven off their lands. That was colonialism! Today, we call it ethnic cleansing. I became an advocate for justice in Israel/Palestine based on equal rights of its two peoples.
My activism on behalf of Palestine is based on the principle of “universalism” found in both Jewish and Islamic faiths – that is, our actions must serve the needs of all the world’s peoples.
The Israeli authorities that dispossess, expel, brutalize, and kill Palestinians claim – falsely – that they do this on behalf of all Jews. Like many other Jewish people, I say, “Not in my name.”
3) You’ve been a guest and speaker at various Islamic institutions, how do you evaluate your relationship with groups and activists of Muslim background?
In my social activism and defense of Palestine, I work together with people of many faiths, including Islam. I have collaborated closely with Muslim activists and Muslim organizations. I value my Muslim friends as consistent opponents of racism, including anti-Semitism, which is a form of racism directed against Jewish people.
4) You were instrumental in the campaign to defend al-Quds Day and made a deputation at Toronto City Hall in defence of Palestine and al-Quds Day events, and while politicians are getting influenced by Zionists and pro-Israel groups, how might this campaign of fear and intimidation be confronted?
Some extremist supporters of the Israeli government try to disrupt advocacy of Palestinian rights by falsely claiming that it is anti-Jewish (anti-Semitic). The best response to this slander is to call for a united opposition to all forms of racism, including hatred of Muslims as well as hatred of Jews.
In my collaboration with al-Quds leaders in defense of Palestinians, I learned an important lesson on education of our ranks. Many people confuse Judaism – a religious and cultural tradition – with Zionism, which is a political theory promoting inequality in Israel/Palestine.
The al-Quds leaders effectively explain the difference between these two concepts to their ranks and the broader public and express it in the chant: “Judaism, not Zionism!”
5) There were attempts to redefine anti-Semitism to encompass any criticism of “Israel”; why and how would you define anti-Semitism?
Anti-Semitism has always been understood as signifying hatred directed against Jewish people because they are Jewish. My Merriam-Webster dictionary explains the term as signifying “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.”
Some pro-Israel forces seek to “redefine” anti-Semitism as meaning criticism of Israel because it has declared itself a Jewish state. This campaign miseducates and distracts attention from the very real and growing danger of hatred against Jewish people. The “redefinition” divides opponents of anti-Semitism and obstructs an effective defense.
The hatred of Jews is used by White Supremacists in their racist attacks against Muslims, people of colour, and immigrants. We should reply by insisting on the need for unity against every form of racism, including anti-Semitism.
6) Pro-Israel camps are attempting to silence pro-Palestine activists, whether academics or community leaders, by pushing IHRA and attempting to label any criticism to “Israel” as anti-Semitism. How should Palestine supporters counter their attempt?
This “redefinition” was proposed by the IHRA – International Holocaust Remembrance Association. It is a world-wide effort by governments supporting Israel’s policies. They want to brand anyone who defends the right to speak and discuss Palestinian rights as anti-Jewish. But a recent opinion poll shows that almost 40% of Jews in Canada are critical of the Israeli government. The pro-Israel organizations and government are out of touch with the views of Jewish people in this country.
Independent Jewish Voices, a Canada-wide network that leads opposition to this form of thought control, comments:
“We are deeply dismayed and concerned with the decision by Ontario’s Government’s decision to unanimously approve Bill 168, the Combating Anti-Semitism Act, on its second reading at Queen’s Park [February 28]. The Bill seeks to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) flawed and controversial definition of anti-Semitism.
While the vote at Queen’s Park was extremely disappointing, IJV Canada remains committed to the fight against Bill 168, and against the IHRA anti-Semitism definition more broadly. We believe that it is crucial to fight anti-Semitism and white supremacy, while at the same time protecting freedom of expression and standing up for Palestinian human rights.”
7) Even though it’s illegal for a foreign military to recruit in Canada, last November the IDF held recruitment drives in Toronto, the opposition to which was called “anti-Semitism”; what is your comment on that?
Last November 2019, extremist opponents of the Palestinian people sponsored a meeting at York University to glorify the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), which systematically harasses, attacks, and kills Palestinian people. Hundreds of students rallied to peacefully express their opposition to this action.
They were attacked by anti-Palestine extremists of a rightist hate group, the Jewish Defense League (JDL), who wounded some peaceful protestors. In response to this atrocity, I call on university administrations at York University and elsewhere to defend the right of students to express their views freely on Israel/Palestine.
I would like to also add that the agents of war have no right to be on campus, all the more in that they represent the war machine of another country.
The students of McGill University have come under attack because of their defense of justice for the Palestinians. On February 16, I presented the following a letter of support for the students to Patrice Labeau, Vice-Provost of Student Life and Learning, McGill University:
“Like many Canadians, I have heard media reports of alleged anti-Semitism within McGill University. I am a Jewish Holocaust survivor and I have engaged throughout my life in combating hatred of Jewish people. For me, such reports are very alarming.
I have reviewed relevant reports on controversies at McGill this school year, including your letter of December 2, 2019 to the McGill community. I find no evidence of anti-Semitism here. What I see is a passionate debate on the politics of Israel/Palestine.
Unfounded charges of anti-Semitism are being made against those making strong criticisms of the Israeli government.
These irresponsible charges serve to put Jewish people at risk by weakening our ability to focus on genuine acts of anti-Semitism, that is, “hatred of Jews because they are Jews.”
As for the Palestinians, their every attempt to voice grievances is now branded as anti-Semitic. The Palestinians, who have suffered so much from Israeli rule, now face an implacable attempt to silence them entirely.
What we need at McGill and elsewhere is a firm defense of the right of political advocacy, even if directed against Israel’s policies. This is a precondition for effective resistance to genuine anti-Semitism.”
8) Lately, at Concordia University you talked about “armed anti-Nazi Muslim resistance fighters in WWII, standing guard, defending them against the Nazi soldiers” and “the Great Mosque of Paris giving refuge to Jews.” Would you please elaborate on that?
I have not come across much written history of the role of Muslims in the anti-Nazi resistance in France. However, in my research interviewing participants, I found much evidence that the aid of Muslim in saving the Jewish people from Hitler was crucial.
Muslims acted both as individuals and through institutions. Muslim civilians living in France contributed much to the resistance effort. In the rural district where I was hidden, a village woman told me how, as a young girl, she had seen armed anti-Nazi Muslim resistance fighters standing guard, defending them against the Nazi soldiers.
Meanwhile, in Paris, I was told, the Great Mosque of Paris gave refuge to Jews, assisting them in leaving the Nazi-occupied city and finding safety in the countryside. They gave the persecuted Jews clothing, the keffiyeh, false papers, food, directions to safe houses, love, and moral encouragement.
I saw the evidence of Muslim courage when visiting a French military cemetery, where a quarter of the soldiers’ gravestones bore the Muslim crescent. Many tens of thousands of Muslim soldiers died fighting to free France from the Nazis.
Most Muslims in France were Arabs from North Africa. But I heard several reports of Muslims in the French anti-Nazi resistance who came from the Soviet Union.
In Algeria, which was never occupied by the Nazis, the French colonial administration acted on its own to put Jews in concentration camps, and this continued even after the U.S. and British armies conquered the region. Jews had come to North Africa centuries earlier as refugees from Christian persecution in Spain. Muslim Algerians welcomed them then, and thereafter. (Vichy France and the Jews, Marrus and Paxton, pps 191-197.]
Sadly, after the defeat of the Nazis, the French state turned against its Muslim allies and waged a brutal war against Algeria’s movement for independence. The contribution of Muslims and other immigrants to the anti-Nazi struggle was omitted from official historical accounts.
9) Would you also please share with our readers the network of other Jewish supporters of Palestine?
Many Jewish-based organizations in Canada work for human rights for Palestine. I belong to Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), which has branches in cities and universities across the country. IJV supports the campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli’s apartheid system of exclusion, separation, and discrimination. IJV is taking the lead in current Canada-wide efforts to oppose “redefining” anti-Semitism in a way that threatens our right to advocate for Palestinians.
Thank you for interviewing me and introducing me and my book Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey, Fernwood Publishing,to your community.