Ivison: China’s alleged links to anti-Israel protests fit a pattern | National Post
The public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada has already established that China tried
to meddle in the last two general election campaigns.
But, if a new report into the funding of the anti-israel movement in North America is to be
believed, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is also linked to the protests that are disrupting
cities and campuses across the continent.
The National Contagion Research Institute, an independent body that identifies cyber threats
to civil society, says that a number of left-wing organizations that have united under the Shut
It Down for Palestine (SID4P) banner are linked to Beijing through Communist Party asso-
ciates, Neville Roy Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans. It concluded that organizations operat-
ing under the SID4P umbrella are members of the “Singham network” donor program, which
is widely considered to be a conduit for CCP geopolitical influence.
The New York Times identified Singham, a U.S. tech multimillionaire who sold his software
business and now lives in Shanghai, as controlling a financial network that uses North Amer-
ican non-profit organizations to push Chinese talking points worldwide. (Singham has
responded by saying he does not work for, nor take instruction from, Beijing.)
NCRI says Singham has been investigated by the U.S., Canada and India for his Ccp-linked
operations. Evans, his wife, is listed as a board member for the prochina People’s Forum and
as a co-founder of the antiwar Code Pink, official endorsers of SID4P. She is also the co-
author of a forthcoming book: China is Not our Enemy.
The report says SID4P uses loopholes in the U.S. non-profit system, such as anonymous
donations, to facilitate the flow of U.S. dollars to organizations intent on stoking social
unrest.
The “conveners” of SID4P listed in the report include the People’s Forum, the ANSWER
Coalition, the International People’s Assembly, Al-awda NY, National Students for Justice in
Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Palestinian American Community Centre.
A number were signatories of a statement on Oct. 8, the day after Hamas’s attack on Israel,
explaining they were “mobilizing in the belly of the beast because we understand we have a
Chinese links to protests fit pattern
National Post · 17 May 2024 · A1 · JOHN IVISON
unique role to play in combating material support for Zionism and weakening the hand-
maiden of U.S. global imperialism”.
The NCRI report says that SID4P has taken the hybrid online/real-world mobilization to
another level, escalating direct-action campaigns in public spaces and on social media,
“SID4P represents a significant evolution in networked influence and coordinated direct
action aimed at disrupting critical infrastructure and inflaming protests across the U.S. and
around the globe,” the report concluded.
It said the SID4P hashtag was linked to 11,874 Instagram posts, 8,000 tweets, 9,200 Facebook
posts and 2,457 Tiktok videos.
(A separate NCRI investigation found that virtually all China-sensitive hashtags such as
“Tiananmen Square,” “Uyghur,” “Tibet” and “Hongkongprotests” were made inaccessible
on Tiktok.)
There are plenty of Canadian links to the story.
B’nai Brith, the Jewish human rights organization, says it has not come across direct evidence
of a connection between the Chinese Communist Party and protests in Canada, even as alleg-
ations circle about money coming from Qatar and Iran.
Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, said that the
Revolutionary Communist Party, a new group established to “prepare (Canada) for revolu-
tion,” has been present at nearly every single protest, including encouraging walkouts at high
schools.
“Whether this indicates sponsorship or support from the Chinese Communist Party is
unknown,” he said.
What is clear is that groups that are active in the U.S. are also active in Canada and that
protests north of the border were advertised on the SID4P website.
The Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the seven SID4P conveners, has been highly visible
in Montreal and Toronto. It is planning a “No Rest until Liberation” rally in Montreal this
Saturday.
Also, Charlotte Kates, a director of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Van-
couver, is listed as an official of Al-awda, another convener of SID4P.
She was arrested in Vancouver earlier this month, after making a speech on the steps of the
city’s art gallery on April 26 in which she shouted: “Long live October 7th” and claimed that
Hamas is not a terrorist organization. “They are resistance fighters. They are our heroes,” she
said.
Kates recently spoke at an event alongside a Hamas Politburo member and she is married to
an alleged official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is listed as a ter-
ror organization in Canada, the U.S., Israel and Germany. Both Kates and her husband Khaled
Barakat advocate the violent dissolution of Israel.
The Samidoun website expressed its solidarity with Kates after she was charged with public
incitement and wilful promotion of hatred for her comments.
“This is the moment we must all fight back — by raising our voices in support of Palestinian
armed resistance ± including the heroic and momentous operation, the Al-asque Flood
launched on October 7th, by calling for the removal of Palestinian and Arab resistance move-
ments from so-called terror lists,” it said.
Where to begin in analyzing all this?
It is clear that the West is facing unprecedented challenges that demand a vigorous response.
Robertson, at B’nai Brith Canada, said there has been a maturation of the anti-israel move-
ment in Canada since October 7th, which may indicate more funding. “There has been a much
more professional approach to branding, for instance,” he said.
It is equally clear that the response so far from governments has been underwhelming.
We have laws that guarantee freedom of speech but we also have laws that ban people from
inciting violence and vilifying a specific group of people.
Section 319 of the Criminal Code on public incitement of hatred is atrophying from underuse
and, as Robertson said, it is long overdue that it be used against Kates, who has a history of
defending and promoting terror entities. “It is frustrating that it took October 7th to force
some action,” he said. “I am a little bit cynical but more needs to be done and hopefully this
will be the start.”
As the NCRI report noted, the activities of SID4P highlight a trend in which “the instruments
of democracy are being exploited to undermine its foundations.”
It offered the example of the democratic protections offered to the non-profit system, such as
anonymous donations that are being used to bolster anti-democratic ideologies.
The report called for more accountability to ensure bad actors are not exploiting those pro-
tections to support terrorist activities or further the agenda of foreign powers.
It also suggested that entities associated with Singham could be in violation of America’s For-
eign Agent Registration Act, which was brought in 1938 to counter Nazi propaganda.
It is a sign of how far Canada is behind the times that it is only now introducing a foreign
influence registry, in the form of bill C-70, currently before Parliament.
The bill would make it an indictable offence for anyone who, at the direction of a foreign
entity, engages in “surreptitious or deceptive conduct” to influence a government process.
It was originally conceived as a means of combating election interference but it could also be
applied to investigate foreign funding of protests aimed at social disruption.
The late British historian, Arnold Toynbee, said civilizations die from suicide, not murder.
They grow by meeting new challenges and responding, he said. But those that do not respond
to internal strife and diverging values eventually collapse.
There is a cohort in our society of what Lenin and Stalin called “useful idiots” — idealists who
are being manipulated to pursue the agendas of our adversaries.
Canadians need to wake up to the fact that their democratic principles are being exploited by
people who want to dismantle them.
