On Monday, I published a list of six prominent Canadian Jews who frequently work with the powerful to push policies that have a humanitarian or at least a caring thrust.  I named the six because for many Canadians, these five men and one woman once epitomized liberalism and progressive ideas. 

What a pity that not one of them has dared to speak out against the National Post article by Yoni Goldstein published here.  Goldstein, the former editor of the Canadian Jewish News,  exhorts Jews to act according to “scripture” and consider harming – even killing – the leader of Canada’s NDP.  Avi Lewis, who is Jewish, dared to say Jews, including himself, must condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the war on Palestinians in the West Bank.  

Since exactly three years ago, Israel has deprived millions of Gazans of clean water and food (as well as life-saving medicine, hospital supplies, and fuel) as gangs of Jewish settlers have rolled boulders across Israeli highways, and used any means to prevent the few aid trucks from trickling into Gaza.  After the ceasefire one year ago, it was agreed 600 trucks would be allowed each day – so far only 223 including fuel trucks get in. Israel has violated the ceasefire more than 5300 times for continuing or stepping up its bombings, shootings, home demolitions and arrests.  

Gaza: Where breakfast costs $234

Since the ceasefire, prices in the market for the limited food is sky high. According to a CBC report, currently two dozen eggs costs 30 shekels, or about $14 Cdn. A father of four says it would cost about 500 shekels ($234 Cdn) to feed his family breakfast; he can’t afford it.   Deaths from starvation and illnesses due to disease, lack of clean water, and living in subhuman conditions (either out on the streets, or in the ruins of the thousands of bombed out buildings, some of which collapse) are rampant. 

Canada’s Jewish doctors deny Israel’s genocide

Today we’ll turn our attention to two of Canada’s Jewish medical doctors who will say nothing nothing to defend Lewis’ condemnation Israel’s genocide, but also openly refuse to acknowledge Israel’s cold-blooded murder of 75,000 Palestinians over the last three years.   

I would think some Jewish Canadian doctors would speak up – or at least not condemn other doctors and medical professionals – who are telling the truth.  The truth includes more than 4,000 children having one or more limbs amputated (with little to no anaesthetic) due to being injured by Israel’s bombings.  UNICEF’s report one year ago said that more than 64,000 children had been killed in the first two years of the Gaza genocide. 

Perhaps we should check the records of Jewish Canadian doctors to find out what should be done? After all, doctors are people who save lives—among them are pediatricians who worry about children’s health.  

Let’s look first at the open letter signed by Dr Lionel Bibas, on behalf of the Association of Jewish Physicians of Quebec in April 2024.  The letter was in opposition to more than 500 other doctors in Quebec in the College des Medecins du Quebec who penned an open letter that condemned Israel’s genocide.   Bibas (a heart specialist) tried to negate the criticism of Israel by his colleagues.  First he wrote that there is no proof that 70% of the Gazans killed were women and children.  Then he took issue with the figure of 34,000 Palestinians killed (in the previous six months only at that point).  He hotly contested the Association’s demand for all the hostages to be released—Bibas disagreed that Israel had taken any hostages.   Finally, he said the doctors’ protest letter was one-sided, and didn’t give Israel’s side.  

Not a word about the health, welfare or medical issues of the Palestinians.  Not a word about the bombing of hospitals and killing of patients. Everything was about Israel, endorsing the mainstream Jewish response—and the doctors’ near-complete blindness to anything happening in Gaza.  

Now let’s look at any of the 555 Toronto area Jewish physicians affiliated with University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine who are members of DARA, Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism that focuses on what they call antisemitism in the medical school. They are also members of a private FB group Canadian Jewish Physicians.  The very name – Canadian Jewish Physicians is unspeakably arrogant and draws attention to the fact that they feel they are distinct and better from the myriad of humanitarian doctors in Canada who want to stop the war, and save Palestinians’ lives. 

Instead, the Canadian Jewish Physicians  claim  “the Zionist impulse to defend themselves, their people, their state, their highest ideals and Western civilization” means they must condemn discrimination against Jews who support Israel.  Their idea of protecting “western civilization” is patently colonial and racist.  One of the leading  “Canadian Jewish Physicians,” Dr Philip Berger notes (with no evidence at all) that the demands of pro-Palestinian activists are “a call for the murder of Jews.” So Berger “understands the need right now to empower Jews.”   He says this “is a fight to death for Jews and a fight that Jews alone have to wage.”  What? How absurd; there is not one scintilla of evidence from Berger as a spokesman and author of the open letter about antisemitism at the Temerty school. And no one else, from what I can find, in the Jewish doctors group that admits to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians.  

Cartoon at the top and below: “Gaza: Watch Out, Hospital” by Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), in Le Temps, Geneva — Nov 2023.