X post<\/a>\u00a0by Jewish Edmonton.\u00a0\u201cContent shared today echoes conspiracy theories and blood libels that have historically fueled antisemitism, discrimination and violence against Jews.\u201d<\/p>\nAlthough Counc. Janz removed the post, he did not apologize for posting it. He responded to Federation\u2019s outrage with a statement indicating that he was horrified by Israel\u2019s actions and the huge death toll in the war in Gaza. \u201cThese are not statistics. These are humans,\u201d Janz wrote in his statement. \u201cFor many Edmontonians, these are family members and relatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us should be outraged and calling for justice here. And I wish people were more concerned about the horrors of war than they were about the dialogue on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janz said that criticizing Israel is not antisemitic.<\/p>\n
Jewish Federation of Edmonton stated that they \u201csupport freedom of expression and robust public debate. Criticism of governments including the government of Israel is legitimate and necessary in a democracy. However, there is clear distinction between policy criticism and the repeated amplification of rhetoric that relies on conspiracy theories, dehumanization and demonizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack said that \u201cCouncillors are all free to address any issue they choose but must do so with the knowledge that their words have an impact on the people we serve. I believe that it is crucial that everyone, especially elected officials, share information that is accurate and factually verified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacey Leavitt-Wright, CEO of Jewish Federation of Edmonton agreed. \u00a0\u201cJewish Edmontonians should not have to wonder whether their elected officials understand the impact that conspiracy theories and demonizing rhetoric can have on their safety,\u201d she said. \u201cOur community has repeatedly raised concerns about this issue. We are asking for accountability, leadership, and a clear commitment that all Edmontonians deserve to be represented with respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Mike Williams took to social media to voice his offence to Janz\u2019s posts. \u201cThis kind of fear-mongering, implying that globally our children are somehow \u2014 even in the most contorted and remote sense \u2014 threatened to be murdered by the state of Israel is deeply inappropriate public discourse,\u201d Williams wrote. \u201cI expect better of somebody elected to public office in the city of Edmonton, a city who rightfully prides itself in being welcoming and accepting no matter one\u2019s religious, national or ethnic background.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmonton Councillor Mike Elliott made a statement on his Instagram account. \u201cInternational conflicts are real and painful, but they fall outside our jurisdiction and our expertise, and elected officials weighing in publicly on them doesn\u2019t change anything overseas \u2014 it only risks dividing the very communities we\u2019re here to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Shayna Cairns, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter and Deborah Shatz (AJNews) \u2013 The Jewish Federation of Edmonton is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-809377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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