Report Launch: Anti-Palestinian Racism Report by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association

Quick Overview

The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) launched its Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) Report, which defines APR as a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames, or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives, aiming to empower those working on Palestine by providing a framework to name and address these distinct experiences of racism.

Key Points: The Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) Report defines APR as 'a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames, or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives.' APR manifests in various forms, including denying the Nakba, justifying violence against Palestinians, and defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently anti-Semitic or a terrorist threat. The report emphasizes that APR is a distinct form of racism, not fully captured by existing frameworks like Islamophobia, and asserts that racism is the appropriate construct given Israel's widely accepted status as an apartheid state. A key characteristic is the 'Palestine exception,' where rights like academic freedom, protected for others, are denied to Palestinians, as seen in the University of Toronto's de-hiring of Dr. Azarova. Anti-Palestinian racism impacts both Palestinians and non-Palestinian advocates, though the consequences differ, with Palestinians often facing more profound harms due to their inability to change their identity. The report aims to address the erasure and exclusion of Palestinians, counter punitive measures, and eliminate the self-doubt, fear, and isolation experienced by those working on Palestine. The ACLA encourages using the report as an empowering tool for education and advocacy, and has created an online self-reporting tool for data collection on anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism.

Context: The webinar launched the Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) Report by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA), co-sponsored by the University of Toronto's Hearing Palestine initiative and the Health Workers Alliance for Palestine (HAP). The report's development was spurred by the September 2020 University of Toronto scandal, where a human rights lawyer, Dr. Valentina Azarova, was de-hired from a faculty position after a donor warned against her hiring due to her scholarship on Palestine-Israel. This incident highlighted a broader pattern of systemic racism and silencing against Palestinians and their allies in Canada, prompting the ACLA to develop a framework to name and address these distinct experiences.