But never mind the nuanced discussion or grey areas. Pro-Palestinian rallies are now rampant with anti-Semitism that doesn't even bother pretend to be something else.

The bigger problem is that pro-Palestinians who are not participating in this shameful hatred are absolutely silent. They feel no need to condemn the perpetrators, let alone eject them from their movement.

Yet the reputations of some major Canadian institutions and individuals depend on doing the right thing here. Trade unions like CUPE Ontario and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, liberal Christians including the United Church of Canada, peace groups and university student unions have endorsed the pro-Palestinian narrative, an ideology that is now unambiguously linked with Jew-hatred.

Legitimate organizations should have known they were playing with fire from the start. The anti-Israel movement has always attracted the most extreme fringe elements. It was probably inevitable that those who are motivated by bias toward Jews would soil the movement when push came to shove. But now that the moment has come, what will the movement's legitimate allies in labour, churches and activist circles do about it?

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Now that pro-Palestinian activists are chanting "death to the Jews" and "Hitler should have finished the job," that is no longer really a debate. Jew-hatred is at least part of the fuel that has blown this comparatively minor regional conflict into the biggest obsession in geopolitics.

Squawking about Israel drowns out every other cause on the planet, clogs the United Nations with ceaseless anti-Israel motions and eclipses global awareness of conflicts that have claimed millions more victims.

The pro-Palestinian movement has a problem it needs to acknowledge and address. And so now do the erstwhile legitimate organizations that have jumped on its bandwagon.

Until they confront the Jew-hatred in their own house, they have no credibility speaking out on injustice elsewhere.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Opinion+Anti+Semitism+infiltrating+protests/10067321/story.html?__federated=1#ixzz38lkdAmH1