This year, once again, the Toronto City Council will have to decide what to do about a small hate group in that city, “Queers Against Israel Apartheid” (QuAIA). The group, basing their claim on pure racist anti-Semitism, wants to march in The Toronto Gay pride Parade which is partly funded by the city. The City Council has strict rules against racism and hate groups.
QuAIA have been active in Toronto for a few years now. Their bigoted claims are misguided and racist (see below), but Canada , being a bastion of free speech (and rightly so), must allow for freedom of expression. One of the questions facing the Toronto Municipality is whether to allow QuAIA to spread their hatred at a parade dedicated to love, tolerance and inclusion. Freedom of expression is all very well, but only in the appropriate setting.
“Apartheid” per se existed in colonial times in South Africa (not to mention the rest of the colonised African continent) long before the National Party came into power in Pretoria in 1948. Soon after, the draconian apartheid laws to enforce racial separation came fast & furious, as a Google search will show. (For example: http://africanhistory.about.com/library/bl/blsalaws.htm )
The Immorality Act (amended several times) and the Prohibition of Mixed marriages Act, both of 1949, and the Group Areas Act of 1950 were some of the first cornerstones of the hated apartheid laws. Not only were inter-racial marriages illegal, but inter-racial sex became a crime as well. Blacks & whites could no longer even live and work in the same areas. And that was only the beginning.
None of these laws have any relevance or similarity to anything in Israel. While Israel, like most countries in the world, including – to name just a few - Canada, the USA, Switzerland and Japan, has hate groups and populations groups promoting discrimination on racial, ethnic, national, gender or sexual-preference grounds, none of these are enshrined in Israeli law or are official government policy, as they were in South Africa. Apartheid in South Africa was an extreme form of racism.
Many countries today have enacted and enforce laws similar to those of apartheid South Africa. Jewish people may not enter Saudi Arabia (religious discrimination) and women there are not allowed to drive (gender discrimination). Millions were displaced and killed recently in Sudan because of government-supported racial discrimination. Australia’s semi-secret “White Australia” immigration policy, intended to allow only white “Europeans” to immigrate, lasted for years. Belgium is divided on linguistic lines, Iran’s laws call for homosexuals to be stoned to death, India’s apartheid caste system is alive and well in spite of lip-service legislation to the contrary, and Sunni- versus Shiite-Moslem discrimination (and bloodshed) thrives in most, if not all, Moslem countries.
But QuAIA focuses only on Israel – the only stable, democratic and peaceful country in the Middle East. The only country in the entire Middle East where the homosexual/lesbian community’s rights are protected by law (and by the courts when necessary). The only country in the area where there is gender equality (admittedly still not perfect) and the only country in the world where Jews and Arabs live in harmony (20% of the population are Arabs, and Arabic is an official language).
Anyone who compares Israel to apartheid South Africa is either ignorant of the facts or a racist anti-Semite. Since the facts are clear, it is also clear that QuAIA’s stance stems from racial hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism. None of these have any place in multi-cultural Canada.
The Toronto Municipal authorities have an obligation to preserve Toronto’s integrity and to ensure that the pride parade will be inclusive and hate-free.
QuAIA has no place there.
