In an open letter addressed to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, nearly two dozen leading Israeli physicians, scientists and researchers expressed “mounting concern” over his government’s response to the “legitimate” Freedom Convoy protest, denouncing him as having “weaponized” the fight against antisemitism to conduct a “smear-by-association campaign” by portraying protesters as “Nazi sympathizers.”
The Friday letter begins by noting that since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, Canadians — like citizens of many other countries — have long been “subjected to draconian restrictions placed on their basic freedoms, such as lockdowns, forced quarantines, mask mandates, school closures and more recently, vaccine mandates.”
However, the letter states such measures are now known to be virtually ineffectual.
“Leaders all over the world have begun to realize that these measures carry enormous harms, with little or no benefit,” while others continue to “double-down on their previous position, denying the evidence and aggravating the damage done to their nation’s livelihood and fundamental liberties,” it reads.
The signatories continued by expressing their “mounting concern” over the weeks-long “Freedom Convoy” protests against the aforementioned measures.
“We witnessed, with mounting concern, how instead of a constructive dialog with the protesters, you adopted a smear-by-association campaign, portraying the protesters as ‘Nazi sympathizers’, ‘racist’ and ‘antisemitic,’” the letter asserts, highlighting a recent allegation of Trudeau’s that a Jewish member of the country’s Conservative Party was “standing with people who wave Swastikas.”
Describing themselves as “apolitical,” the group called out the three-term prime minister for his attempts to “stigmatize” the demonstrators by labeling them supporters of Nazism.
“We, an apolitical group of Jewish Israeli medical scientists, physicians, researchers and legal scholars, some of us second or third generation Holocaust survivors, are deeply concerned by your attempt to stigmatize the Freedom Convoy 2022 protesters as Nazi ideology supporters,” they wrote.
The letter concludes by condemning the “weaponiz[ing]” of the fight against antisemitism against the struggle to restore the “fundamental liberties” of Canadian citizens.
“The important fight against antisemitism should not be weaponized and directed at a legitimate civil protest which aims at restoring fundamental liberties, to what used to be, until not long ago, one of the freest countries in the world,” it reads.
Among the letter’s signatories was Nobel Laureate and biophysicist Prof. Michael Levitt, highly cited epidemiologist Prof. Eyal Shahar, world-renowned immunologist Prof. Zvi Bentwich, Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Prof. Amos Adler, and leading AI expert Dr. Eli David.
Last week, Israelis staged their own Canada-style “Freedom Convoy” protest against COVID restrictions, with thousands of cars converging onto the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in the capital of Jerusalem.
Signs reading “cancel the mask mandate,” “no more restrictions, going back to normal,” “new world order,” were hung from cars while protesters on foot beat drums, chanted slogans, and even blew ram horns outside the Knesset building in a bid to urge the government to end pandemic restrictions and remove Israel from a state of emergency.
The letter comes as Trudeau’s response to the “Freedom Convoy” has garnered criticism across the globe.
On Sunday, Brexit leader Nigel Farage accused the Canadian prime minister of exhibiting behavior that was “No better than China.”
Others in Europe have also compared the Trudeau government to Communist China, including Cristian Terhes, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Romania, who told Breitbart London on Sunday that the “tyrannical actions” taken by Trudeau should result in his government being “isolated by the democratic international community.”
“Such scenes are reminiscent of China, whose government he wants to imitate, not to Western democracies,” Terhes said of the forceful policing taken during the clearing of the protest in Ottawa, including the police horse trampling of “peaceful protesters.”
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein
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