Jack Jedwab, in a recent analysis, highlights a troubling transformation in the language of hate: 'Yesterday’s dirty Jew has become today’s dirty Zionist.' This stark warning comes from Caroline Yadan, a Deputy in France’s National Assembly and the architect of the so-called 'Yadan law,' during an interview in Paris on June 1. Yadan asserts that the issue is not about criticizing Israel, which is legitimate, but about the use of anti-Zionism to deny the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and to call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.
The Yadan Law and Its Context
Yadan’s legislative initiative aimed to sanction calls for the destruction of a state formally recognized by France, drawing a line between criticism and eliminationism. The law does not punish criticism of Israeli policy nor target Zionism itself. However, the reaction was telling: Yadan faced a flood of virulent antisemitic attacks and death threats, illustrating how hatred of Israel can slide into hatred of Jews.
Canada’s Response
Jedwab argues that this distinction is often missing in Canadian public discourse. On June 1, Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged that Canada is failing its Jewish community and that antisemitism is specific and severe. However, Jedwab warns that the new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion must not treat the central driver of antisemitism as obscure. It should examine data, enforcement gaps, institutional failures, and online radicalization, but must also name the ideological current that has made antisemitism acceptable in polite spaces.
The question is whether Canada will accept that calling for the elimination of the State of Israel is antisemitic. As Yadan’s experience shows, the demonization of Zionism has become a pretext for traditional antisemitism, and Canada must stop pretending otherwise.
