Overview
David Mivasair [David Fleishman Mivasair] was arrested for vandalism in 2021. Mivasair has also trivialized the Holocaust and spread hatred of Israel and Zionism.
Mivasair has engaged in anti-Israel activism and is a member of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), which has been accused of promoting “antisemitism under the guise of radical anti-Zionism.”
Mivasair is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of November 2022, Mivasair’s LinkedIn page said he was a “Founding Rabbi” of Ahavat Olam Synagogue in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 2003 to 2012. He received his “Rabbinic ordination” from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in 1991.
As of the same date, Mivasair’s LinkedIn also said he was an “Active participant” in the “Center for Jewish Nonviolence - End 50 Years of Occupation,” an international 9-day solidarity convention with anti-Israel activists in the West Bank, from January to April 2017.
As of November 2022, Mivasair’s Twitter bio said he worked at First United Church homeless shelter.
As of the same date, Mivasair’s Twitter indicated he was located in Hamilton, Ontario.
Arrested for Vandalism
On May 22, 2021, Mivasair was reportedly arrested for his actions at an anti-Israel protest one day earlier in front of the Israeli consulate in Toronto. He was charged with “one count of mischief under $5,000” for vandalizing the consulate building by pouring red paint over its steps during the protest.
The incident occurred during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against Hamas.
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
Trivializing the Holocaust
On November 10, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “...Forcing grade 6 kids from every ethnicity to hear about the Holocaust when their own parents might have suffered just as much, is a way to keep Jews special, never normal.”
On the same date, Mivasair tweeted: “Why is the Holocaust given such special treatment when Canadians come from many different backgrounds and the Indigenous people of these lands here were murdered and nearly exterminated?”
On November 8, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “Do you think Jewish pain is unique in all the world?Do no other humans suffer as we do?Should our victimization forever be held in a class apart from the rest of humanity?Or . . . do you just refuse to acknowledge that we are perpetrators as well?”
Mivasair’s tweet linked to another tweet that said: “The event planned by the German cultural institute @goetheinstitut in Israel constitutes intolerable distortion of the Holocaust. Holding it on the anniversary of the November Pogrom (‘Kristallnacht’) is unforgivable.”
The event was titled: “Holocaust, Nakba and German Culture of Remembrance.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
Mivasair retweeted an October 28, 2022 tweet that said: “Oh wow, I loved this sentence,‘the Palestinians are paying the price for the holocaust’. Absolutely true!”
Hatred of Israel
On March 11, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “I totally agree and have been saying it for years:Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state. It’s racist.”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Thirty-three other countries have adopted the definition as well.
On August 7, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “The purpose of Iron Dome is to enable Israel to attack Gaza with impunity.It shoots down the small, ineffective rockets from Gaza, but is not ‘defensive’. It allows
to bomb and kill without concern about consequence.All paid for by U.S. taxpayers.”
The Iron Dome is an Israeli missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy rockets and artillery shells.
On October 28, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “...Israel is a thoroughly racist endeavour.”
On November 7, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “...Millions of Israelis and Palestinians ‘live close to one another’ because Israelis have invaded Palestine and stolen their land!”
On November 10, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “...Israel lurches to even more virulent racism, fascism & homophobia…”
Mivasair retweeted a November 10, 2022 tweet that said: “More persecution, harassment & intimidation as israeli police storm a Palestinian home in Silwan to inflict terror & mayhem…”
Jewish ownership claims to lands in Silwan, a Jerusalem neighborhood also known as Shiloach, have been frequently met with Palestinian violence against Israelis who sought to reclaim their property rights.
Hatred of Zionism
Mivasair retweeted a November 16, 2022 tweet that said: “1. Zionism is racism. Zionism is settler colonialism. Israel is a racist, settler colonial and apartheid state built on the dispossession of Palestinians…”
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.
Mivasair retweeted a November 13, 2022 tweet that said: “Zionism destroys everything in its path. It has corrupted every major American Jewish organization…”
On November 5, 2022, Mivasair tweeted: “...The basis of Zionism is the claim Jews don’t belong in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France or wherever we have been living.”
Mivasair retweeted an October 30, 2022 tweet that said: “Zionism is as ‘integral’ to Judaism as White Supremacism is ‘integral’ to Christianity, or Nazism to Germany…”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Thirty-four other countries have adopted the definition as well.
Anti-Israel Activism
On June 28, 2015, Mivasair posted a video to YouTube, in support of “the Canadian Boat to Gaza campaign (
www.tahrir.ca), part of the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (ff3.freedomflotilla.org).”
In his video, Mivasair said: “If we think about Gaza, there’s 1.8 million people are trapped there in what is really the biggest open-air prison in the world.”
The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one flotilla initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
Mivasair continued [00:00:28]: “And through years and years, governments have failed to change this. And it is up to people. We have to take this on. And we have to do this. And that’s what this Freedom Flotilla is about. That’s why I support it. And that’s why I really urge you to support it as well and do everything you can to get your governments to support it, too.”
The “Free Gaza Movement” [Gaza Freedom Movement] has organized boats to Gaza meant to “break the siege,” including a May 2010, “Freedom Flotilla.” Activists on board the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, were found to be carrying crude weapons and initiated an organized, violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
Mivasair retweeted a November 11, 2022 tweet that said: “The Freedom Flotilla Coalition begins new preparations in London to sail through & break the israeli blockade of Gaza…’
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Canary Mission database was created to document the people and groups that are promoting hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on college campuses in North America. Every individual and organization has been carefully researched and sourced. If you appreciate the work of Canary Mission, please help...
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