Stephen Harper and the Fascistic JDL

For the past several years, protests in various Canadian cities against Israel’s barbaric treatment of the Palestinians have been menaced by thugs from the fascistic Jewish Defence League (JDL). JDL-organized mobs have threatened rallies by pro-Palestinian students on the campuses. Five years ago they besieged a Canadian Union of Public Employees conference in Windsor, Ontario, calling to “Terminate Sid Ryan” (then CUPE Ontario president) because of his vocal support to Palestinian rights. This summer, the JDL has staged repeated “counter-protests” against pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Toronto as well as a provocative anti-Arab hate-fest outside Palestine House in suburban Mississauga.

The JDL was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1968. While campaigning to expel all Arabs from Israel, it also organized racist vigilante squads against blacks, spied on leftists for the FBI and planted bombs targeting diplomats and cultural groups from the Soviet Union. After moving to Israel, Kahane became the Führer of a full-blown fascist outfit, the Kach party, which held pogromist marches calling to “Kill the Arabs.” In 1994 a Kach activist murdered 29 Palestinian Muslims as they prayed at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Even the Israeli Central Electoral Committee felt compelled to ban Kach in 1998, calling it “Nazi-like.” Meanwhile, the U.S. banned the JDL in 2001 after its members were convicted of murderous attacks including killing a director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The Canadian JDL stands unequivocally in Kahane’s footsteps. It organized an October 2011 “memorial” in Toronto for this racist pig (who was shot to death in New York in 1990) around the slogan “Kahane was right!” The JDL also backs various far-right movements in Europe. In January 2011 it held a support rally for the fascist English Defence League, which has staged numerous racist provocations against Muslims.

Today the JDL is not merely tolerated but welcomed by “mainstream” Zionist organizations and capitalist politicians. JDL thugs acted as marshals at a July 27 pro-Israel rally in Toronto addressed by Tory and Liberal MPs. And the connections go right to the top. JDL “events coordinator” Julius Suraski was among those invited to accompany Stephen Harper on an official visit to Israel earlier this year. Returning the favour, Suraski called Harper’s paean to Israel in the Knesset “one of the most courageous speeches a world leader could make.”

The same capitalist rulers who attack jobs and social programs at home back the Zionist rulers’ war on the Palestinian people abroad. We Marxists look to the working class, which uniquely has the social power to sweep away capitalism, to mobilize in struggle against the ruling exploiters and thereby strike a blow for the oppressed worldwide.