IMPACT: With Avi Abraham Benlolo

Around the world this week, Israel's President Isaac Herzog travelled to Germany to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich massacre in which 11 Israeli Olympians were murdered by Palestinian terrorists. In addressing the German Parliament he said, "Even in our generation, even right now, dark forces of hate, led by Iran threaten not only Israel, and not only stability in the Middle East, but the global order".

We should be wondering if it's hardly surprising then when a government consultant on anti-racism feels sufficiently comfortable to refer to Jewish people as, “loud-mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists.” as reported in the press.

So how do we confront bigots? With pride and unity. Since the inception of our organization, we have been working on changing the narrative. We can see that our views are catching on in the expressed sentiment of other groups.

We must break out of the shtetl mentality. Israel has already done it -- as will be shown in our upcoming film.

Now it's our turn to stand up tall, and be the example for our children and grandchildren. We cannot afford to be silent about Heritage Canada or any other Antisemitic incident.

Ahdeya Al Sayed, is the first female President of the Bahrain Journalists Association. She won the 2019 Arab Female Journalist of the Year Award by the London Arabia Organisation for all her contributions towards the progress of her Arab media and promoting women's rights and empowerment.

Al Sayed has been the most outspoken Bahraini journalist on the Abraham Accords and the peace agreements between Bahrain, Israel and the UAE, advocating for the importance of fighting against hate speech, extremist ideologies,  anti semitism and encouraging the press to play a positive role in achieving warm peace.

The 1979 Iranian Revolution ushered in a new era of Islamic fundamentalism, oppression and a murderous regime.  Thinking the regime would quickly disappear, Marina Nemat became one of its many victims.  At just 16 yeas old, Nemat was taken to the notorious Evin prison where she was tortured and assaulted.  Many of her peers were murdered.  She eventually escaped to Canada and wrote a global best selling book retelling her story.  Prisoner of Tehran is a hard read - but an important one that recounts the brutality of a regime that has not changed in 40 years. "I don't see this murderous government that has taken thousands of lives and continues to do so, I cannot see it going anywhere for the foreseeable future" says Nemat.  But she does have a solution.  Listen to this podcast and find out what she says.