On Friday, January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice found that Israel may be committing genocide, delivering a provisional ruling that Israel must cease its genocidal policies in Gaza.

Despite what is clearly a case of genocide enacted against Palestinians in Gaza and a concerted attacks against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian West Bank by extremist Jewish settlers aided by the Israeli Occupation Forces, in a piece published in the Toronto Sun in December 2023– co-authored by Michael Mostyn of the B’nai Brith and Tom Stamatakis – the two authors refer to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place in Canada as “pro-terror rallies” which have contributed to “a spike in anti-Semitism and other forms of hate in Canada.”

Not only is their opinion piece misleading, but it constitutes a clear attack on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. What is more, it entirely disregards the clear indication of the genocide taking place in Gaza while using the narrative of anti-Semitism to beat down legitimate criticism of Israel’s wave of crimes enacted against Palestinian civilians. As such, both Michael Mostyn and Tom Stamatakis make themselves explicitly supportive of the genocide in Gaza.

As President of the Canadian Police Association, Tom Stamatakis represents the authority given to law enforcement under Canadian law, yet he has breached his responsibility by lending support to what is  clearly a genocide in Gaza. As Jewish Voice for Peace points out:

Decisions of the ICJ are legally binding under international law. The ICJ has indicated that in its provisional decision that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide. If Israel is found guilty of genocide, all  152 countries that are party to the Genocide Convention are legally obligated to take steps in their own governments to penalize the state of Israel. Governments and officials need to be considering this very seriously given the ICJ provisional ruling.

These steps can include anything from the legal prosecution of individual state officials at a national level (one goal of the CCR case), unilateral economic sanctions, and political measures at the international level — like expulsion from international organizations.

Tom Stamakatis is an individual state official in Canada at the national level who has overstepped his mandate, presents a danger to the principle of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression and must therefore be removed from his post. Please sign the petition demanding that Tom Stamatakis be fired from his position as President of the Canadian Police Association!

 

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