Montreal, March 4, 2025 — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and the Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) welcome the release of the Canadian Guide to Understanding & Combatting Islamophobia produced by Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Significantly, the guide builds on Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy by recognizing the unique experience of racism and persecution faced by Palestinians in Canada as anti-Palestinian racism (APR). However, CJPME and the ARPCF warn that this groundbreaking work is undermined by Canada’s simultaneous support for the controversial and anti-Palestinian International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, including its IHRA handbook, which unfairly conflates Palestinian perspectives with antisemitism.

“Palestinians in Canada face a unique form of racism tied to their historical experience of colonization, occupation, and apartheid,” said Michael Bueckert, Acting President of CJPME. “Not only do Palestinians face systemic racism under Israel’s apartheid system, but they are even silenced and slandered when they stand up for their human rights in Canada. We are extremely pleased that Canada, through this guide, finally recognizes the unique racism that Palestinians experience daily. It is very important that this was recognized as a distinct form of racism that is intimately connected to Islamophobia,” added Bueckert.

Since October 7, 2023, CJPME and the ARPCF have released four significant reports on systemic anti-Palestinian racism in Canada driven by public and private institutions; these include two non-exhaustive audits of APR in English language news media and non-profits and two reports on APR specifically perpetuated by the Canadian government. This research has identified IHRA as a key driver of anti-Palestinian racism, as it conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel and Zionism, leading to unfair and defamatory attacks on Palestinians and especially their Muslim supporters for even discussing the systemic racism experienced by Palestinians.

“We have consistently found that pro-Israel groups and right-wing media routinely engage in racist, anti-Palestinian tropes, seeking to build support for Israel by silencing Palestinian narratives, especially of the Nakba. Support for Israel is at the very foundation of dehumanizing Palestinians in Canada, and one of the main drivers behind the Islamophobia industry as identified in Elghawaby’s report,” said Jamila Ewais, lead researcher for the ARPCF.

CJPME has long raised the alarm that Canada’s imposition of the IHRA undermines and inhibits its efforts to address APR and Islamophobia, and recommends other intersectional approaches to combatting antisemitism instead.

“Canada’s IHRA Handbook is emblematic of the way Canada’s support for Israel is racist against Palestinians, like myself, in Canada,” added Ewais. “Canada’s IHRA handbook, and especially its Example 7, instructs Canadian institutions to silence Palestinians who discuss the ethnic cleansing of Palestine under the guise of supporting Jewish self-determination. Rather than the usual Canadian approach to truth and reconciliation, there is massive institutional pressure in Canada to silence Palestinians’ expression of our historical and ongoing experiences of systemic racism. Elghawaby’s guide is an important first step in addressing this political persecution.”