An anti-Israel poster and pamphlets being distributed in provincial schools by the Quebec teachers union has created a furor here. Herbert Mark, a Liberal member of the Quebec National Assembly denounced it as “pure political propaganda. ” The Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canada-Israel Committee and B’nai B’rith have called for a mass rally outside union headquarters Wednesday to protest the “hate campaign.”
The poster and the pamphlets refer to “the genocidal war of the Israeli government against Palestinians ” and urge financial donations to Palestinian “victims of Israeli genocide. ” The man behind it is Yvon Charbonneau, head of the 70,000 member teachers union which is affiliated with the Confederation of National Trade Unions. According to Mark, “Charbonneau is an enemy of the Jewish people. It is not a union activity to distribute a political poster in the schools,” he said.
Mark said that Charbonneau sponsored an anti-Israel organization called “Quebec Movement Fighting Racism” after he visited Libya several years ago. A Jewish group which tried to join Charbonneau’s organization was told it would have to renounce Zionism as a condition of membership, Mark said.
“It is a strange movement which is against racism if racism itself is a membership requirement,” the Quebec legislator said. Charbonneau has refused to disclose the cost of his anti-Israel campaign.
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