Restaurant staff losing their jobs for cheering on a pro-Palestinian protest. A Palestinian Canadian journalist fired for her social media posts calling for a #freepalestine. Medical residents flagged to potential hiring committees for their support of Palestinians.
These are just some of the many instances across Canada in which employees and students have faced firings, suspensions or calls for them to not be hired based on their publicly stated political stance on the Israel-Hamas war. It’s a trend that has been reported not just in Canada but also in the U.S. and Europe, and across various industries, including media, law, health care and the service sector.
According to three Ontario-based lawyers who spoke to CBC News, some employers and institutions have been quick to take action against employees or students, creating an environment in which many are afraid they will lose their jobs or face consequences to their education if they express a political stance in favour of one side — Palestinians — during this war.
“I can tell you personally, in the last month and a half, I’ve probably spoken with someone at least once a day [about this],” said Jackie Esmonde, a labour lawyer at Toronto-based firm Cavalluzzo Law. "They’re not always cases that we take on, but we do have in the range of eight to 10 cases that we’re actively working on at the moment.
“I’m not seeing people making what I would consider hate speech or discriminatory speech.”
Intent does matter but actions and impact matter a lot more. Reality matters more than speculative alternate realities. Real lives matter more than hypothetical lives.
20,000 is 1% of 2 million. Israel has knocked off an entire percentage point of the population in a couple of months, mostly civilian. Sure, they could wipe out everybody in Gaza, but then even the US and Germany wouldn’t be able to support them. Israel needs to maintain at least some pretext of legitimacy, as weak as it is, so their ‘partners’ can say ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ and try their hardest to ignore questions of proportionality and international law.
If the IDF is trying not to kill civilians they are doing a criminally poor job. Reports indicate that IDF soldiers are actively targeting non-combatants. To dismiss these reports is to be complicit in these atrocities. Skepticism is healthy, but ignorance is not.
As for them not needing to use the nukes, I wouldn’t be so sure. Their enemies have already demonstrated they are perfectly willing to ‘martyr’ themselves and civilians. If it’s a bluff, it’ll get called. If it’s not a bluff, Israel craps in their own bed, irradiating their (and many other’s) holy land – which is why the bluff would likely be called.
Other significant context, when thinking about the legitimacy of the operation:
IDF knew of the planned attack a year beforehand and didn’t take it seriously, despite additional warnings https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html
Netenyahu supported Hamas for years https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
#gazagenocide #gaza
We’re up to 1.5% of the population, now. And I neglected to mention all the people who have been displaced and/or don’t have access to medical care. Last count I saw was 800,000 people. That’s genocide as well, according to the UN convention that Israel ratified.
#gazagenocide
Is the genocide in the room with you right now?
Come up with whatever hashtag you want nothings going to change.
What does that even mean?
As you are surely aware, I didn’t come up with those hashtags, they’re prevalent online. I’m sure you’re also aware that people can search platforms by hashtag and find posts like mine. They’ll find my statistics and arguments and your non-responses.
#gaza #gazagenocide #palestine #freepalestine