Are Naomi Klein et al Being Used as Palestinian Authority Sock Puppets?

For the last little while, Toronto has been the scene of a teapot tempest over its International Film Festival (TIFF). On one side are a bunch of Hollywood celebrities and local anti-Israeli activists, including Naomi Klein, who resent the TIFF highlighting the city of Tel Aviv as part of its special 2009 program. On the other side are everyone from Robert Lantos to the editorial board of the left-wing Toronto Star, who see the “Toronto Declaration” (as the anti-Israeli activists grandiosely call their denunciation of the Jewish state) as the act of bigotry it is. To quote the admirable Lantos:

“The Klein Brigade obediently kowtows to the party line of autocratic regimes and terrorist organizations … The attack on TIFF and the films from Israel is nothing more than an attempt by a gang of well-fed, fashionable bigots to stifle voices they don't like. They have taken a page straight out of the fascist propaganda handbook. To create an environment in which a religious or ethnic group can be persecuted, it is first necessary to demonize and vilify them to the point that their humanity is in question. In this propaganda campaign, all lies – no matter how foul – are fair game.”

Just the usual dust up over Israel, we all supposed. Little harm was done: For all the noise the protesters are making, I'm not aware of any noteworthy film that's been withdrawn from the festival – aside from one short entry by ahypocritical gay activist. The organizers didn't even have the guts to call for a boycott, in fact – the whole thing is just an exercise in gratuitous fashionable grandstanding. And at the end of the day, some good may come of it: At a Sunday film-festival party honouring the mayor of Tel Aviv, I heard Moses Znaimer declare that he is showing solidarity with Israel by setting up a branch of his famous ideaCity festival in Tel Aviv in 2010. As is often the case, shrill anti-Israeli bigotry has galvanized supporters of the Middle East's most prosperous and tolerant nation.

But now, into this controversy wades a dogged (and apparently anonymous) blogger on the (unfortunately titled) web site Jewlicious. “Themiddle,” as s/he calls him/herself, has done a lot of homework on the origins of the Toronto declaration, and s/he has put it all up for public viewing here.

To make a long story short, Themiddle used a simple Google search to determine that the same phone number used to promote the Toronto Declaration also happens to be the phone number used by the unhinged anti-Israeli obsessives at the Canadian Arab Federation to promote Palestine House, a Canadian-government-funded HQ for pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel activists.

[UPDATE: As the folks at the Toronto Declaration now admit, the phone number belongs to one Jenny Peto, a “queer, anti-Zionist, Jewish activist” who says she “is involved in the Palestine solidarity movement in Toronto … but am not affiliated with Palestine House, the Canadian Arab Federation or The Palestinian Authority.” Turns out she is a leader of something called The Coalition Against Israel Apartheid, which posts charming things on its web site like celebrations of terror apologist Geroge Galloway. The name of the group is ironic given Naomi Klein's own verbalgymnastics in trying to retreat from calling Israel an Apartheid state.]

[SECOND UPDATE: TheMiddle has another post up, with even more information about the one degree of separation linking Peto, Palestine House, the CAF and … everyone else. Wow: That's quite a cozy little anti-Israeli shop those people are running!]

To quote TheMiddle: “Why is the Canadian government funding a clearing house for Palestinian activism against Israel? Who knows. But they are. I bet the Canadian government doesn't know they are funding an organization that supports boycotts and protests against cultural activities that involve Israel. I bet the Canadian government doesn't know that their funds – Canadian taxpayer funds – are being spent defaming the Toronto International Film Festival.” I'll be forwarding Jason Kenney a link to this info, just in case he hasn't seen it yet.

But it gets better. Palestine House was also a main mover behind theunsuccessful protest against the Royal Ontario Museum's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit – a protest that took form just days after the Palestinian Authority first raised objections. (According to news accounts, PA officials contacted the ROM with their initial protests during the week of Monday, April 6. The Palestine House press release on the subject is dated April 10. What a coincidence.) From that point on, other more obscure activists took up the same banner.

The pattern of propaganda dissemination that Jewlicious suggests here is clear: From the PA government, to Palestine House, to “independent” activists and artists who apparently just happen to have a lot of spontaneously summoned empathy for the Arabs allegedly suffering under the jackboots of the Israeli “Apartheid state.”

The question is: Do Danny Glover, Jane Fonda and all the rest of the signatories who've put their names to the Toronto Delcaration understand that they may very well be endorsing made-in-the-Middle-East propaganda?