Anti-Israel agitators try to dupe Canadian medical groups

Anti-Israel activists forge a letter claiming to be from Canadian student medical groups in ‘support of the People of Palestine,’ but letter is fake.

By World Israel News Staff

Anti-Israel activists in Canada forged a letter claiming to represent three leading medical student organizations in Canada calling on other groups to support Palestinians, B’nai Brith Canada said Monday.

According to B’nai Brith, medical student societies at major Canadian universities, including McGill University in Montreal, Dalhousie University in Halifax and the University of Toronto, received an e-mail from a group calling itself the “National Advocacy for Palestine,” asking them to sign “a joint statement in support of the People of Palestine.”

In the e-mail, the student societies were told that the statement had been drafted by the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS), Ontario Medical Students Association (OMSA) and Black Medical Students’ Association of Canada (BMSAC).

However, a check by B’nai Brith revealed that none of those groups had any involvement in the letter. The President of the CFMS said his group never endorsed the letter and added that it was written by an anonymous group of students.

“It remains unclear at this time who actually drafted the statement, or who is behind the anonymous ‘National Advocacy for Palestine’ email account that perpetrated the scam,” B’nai Brith said. An internet search for the group gave no results.

Last Thursday, the same e-mail account followed up with a “clarifying” document to the medical student societies, in which it cautioned them not to consult their membership about the statement, urging them to “think about how many students you may have in your student bodies who identify as Zionist.”

B’nai Brith noted that in the past month, there have been numerous anti-Israel joint statements, open letters and petitions circulating among Canadian journalists, academics and members of the arts community.

B’nai added that “the recent attempt by anti-Israel activists to dupe medical students calls into serious question the underpinnings of the other statements as well.”

“No righteous cause would resort to falsifying endorsements in order to garner support,” said B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn. “If those behind this deception are actually medical students, then it is doubtful whether they meet the high ethical standards required to practice medicine in Canada.”

“This conduct is particularly deplorable at a time when Canadian Jewish university students, including medical students, are facing unprecedented hostility within their own places of learning,” Mostyn said.

At the University of Toronto, Jewish medical students have called for the ouster of Dr. Ritika Goel, the recently appointed “Social Justice, Anti-Oppression and Advocacy Theme Lead.” On her social media, Dr. Goel has referred to Israel’s alleged “#BarbaricCulturalPractices,” and endorsed the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel.

At the Western University in London, Ontario, assistant professor of medicine Dr. Ziad Solh publicly called for Jewish students to be boycotted and sanctioned “if their culture is Zionism at the expense of the Palestinian people.”

The university has to date refused to take any disciplinary action and characterized Solh’s statements as nothing more than “unsettling ideas.”

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