Anti-Israel activists target Jewish kids’ summer camps

The statement went on to identify the camps’ actions that it found problematic: celebrating Israel’s Independence Day and employing people who had served in Israel’s military.

By Dinah Bucholz, Jewish Breaking News

A new front in the anti-Zionist campaign against Jews in Canada opened last week to target Jewish children’s summer camps.

The groups, which include the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign against Israel; Just Peace Advocates; the Palestinian Canadian Congress; PAJU Montreal; and the Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, are pushing to strip these camps of their accreditation, encouraging their supporters to flood camp associations with letters demanding that this action be taken.

In Canada, provincial camp associations grant accreditation to camps that meet their standards in health, safety, programming, and staffing.

The groups say they are targeting these camps because they support genocide, and their complaints range from the somewhat ridiculous to the outrageously ridiculous.

They decried one camp that hired a social worker who served in the IDF; one camp whose director, according to the groups, was a “Zionist who publicly supported Israel”; and one camp whose use of za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice, amounted to what they said is cultural appropriation.

In their public statement, the groups wrote, “There are countless explanations for why summer camps are good for kids … But what happens when camps support a genocidal state?”

“We have identified at least 17 overnight summer camps throughout Canada that support the State of Israel in some way,” the statement continued.

“These camps are not problematic because they encourage connection to Jewish identity. Rather, they pose a problem because they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial state.”

The statement went on to identify the camps’ actions that it found problematic: celebrating Israel’s Independence Day and employing people who had served in Israel’s military.

While anti-Zionist campaigns have targeted all sorts of Jewish organizations, including synagogues and institutions affiliated with Jews or Israel, such as university clubs and comedy shows, this marks the first time these groups have targeted children.

The organizers claim they are fighting “genocide,” but their critics say they are targeting Jews to marginalize Jews as such.

Jewish organizations have reacted with alarm to the campaign, which organizers say has garnered 800 letters to camp associations so far.

“UJA is aware of a campaign by anti-Israel agitators seeking to bully and harass some of our camps. This direct targeting of Jewish campers and staff is a deliberate act of intimidation,” the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto said in a statement posted on Instagram.

“The Jewish Security Network (JSN) is actively monitoring the situation and … conducting ongoing risk assessments and providing structured security guidance, training, and support to ensure that summer camps remain safe and secure for all participants.”

The Ontario Camps Association, a non-Jewish camp association that assigns accreditation to camps, also slammed the anti-Israel groups’ efforts as antisemitic.

“In recent days, the Ontario Camps Association (OCA) Board of Directors became aware of correspondence circulating online related to the current conflict in the Middle East,” it said in a statement on its website.

“That correspondence contains statements and expressions that the Board finds deeply concerning, and in certain characterizations and claims, we believe reflect rhetoric that is discriminatory and antisemitic in nature. The accusations, aimed at our Executive Director, members of the OCA team, and several member camps, draw directly on stereotyped libels and tropes related to Israel, Zionism, and Jewish people—including “genocide” and “colonizers,” symbolic categories that are so often spread with specifically malicious intent.”

“We welcome respectful dialogue, discussion, and even disagreement but will not tolerate harassment, intimidation, antisemitism, or discrimination,” the statement added.