Israel is enacting genocidal violence against millions of Palestinians right now
The Israeli military has murdered, injured or disappeared one hundred thousand Palestinians in just four months and counting, including over 12,000 children confirmed dead. Countless more are severely injured, missing under the rubble, and facing starvation or water-born illness. One month ago, the International Court of Justice found that there is a strong case that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel has flagrantly ignored the ICJ’s legally binding emergency orders, blocking desperately needed humanitarian aid, launching a murderous assault on 1.5 million Palestinians who were displaced south to Rafah, and threatening to ethnically cleanse the entire strip.
Reisman, through her HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, helps fund the genocidal violence enacted against Palestinians, and makes her customers unwitting accomplices.
The CEO of Indigo Books & Music Inc., Heather Reisman, founded and funds the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, which encourages foreigners, including Canadians, to join the Israeli army and continue their studies in Israel by providing free tuition as payment for military service. As Naomi Klein has put it, HESEG’s scholarships “are an important part of Israel’s ability to recruit soldiers from overseas.” Canada’s Foreign Enlistment Act prohibits anyone in Canada from recruiting or otherwise inducing any person to enlist in the armed forces of any foreign state. Following decades of impunity for breaking international law and committing innumerable war crimes, Israel now stands trial in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the most heinous of crimes, genocide.
HESEG’s contribution to war crimes also come in the form of the tax deductions that HESEG’s charitable status affords its donors. These Canadian funds are diverted into the destruction of Palestinian life and society.
Between Heather Reisman and her husband, Gerry Schwartz, they control over 60% of the shares of Indigo. Since any purchase at Indigo generates income for Reisman and Schwartz, shopping at Indigo indirectly supports Israel’s military activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The connections between HESEG and the Israeli military run deep. CJPME highlights that HESEG was unveiled in a ceremony on the Sde Dov air force base in Tel Aviv, with the participation of Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz. As Mofaz lauded Reisman and Schwartz: “Your contribution through this foundation continues your long-standing tradition of support for the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces].”
Indigo and Reisman are attempting to criminalize those highlighting the connection to HESEG and the IDF
In late November, 2023, 11 peace activists in Toronto were brutally arrested and now face serious criminal charges for allegedly putting up posters and throwing washable red paint onto Indigo’s Bay Street storefront in Toronto. Postering and red paint are historic and non-violent activist strategies employed to draw public attention to violent behaviours such as, in this case, genocide complicity, and are generally not cause for arrest. These arrests were aggressive, unjustified, abusive – and are specifically designed to silence all those who oppose genocide and support a Free Palestine.
In order for one of the charges these peace activists face, for criminal harassment, to have been laid, Heather Reisman – one of the richest people in Canada – would have to claim that she fears for her life and/or safety. All because of alleged posters and red paint outside a store window – a tactic used for over half a century by anti-war movements in Canada.
Reisman adopts the distraction tactics of Israel itself, by pivoting attention away from her own culpability in war crimes toward false charges of antisemitism and hate crimes. These overblown and destructive charges must be dropped.
Boycott Indigo!
Boycotts are a tool that have been successfully used by antiwar movements for more than half a century to channel the power that individuals have as consumers to collectively force a company or individual to make a change in order to avoid financial losses. By abstaining from purchasing at Indigo-affiliated stores, supporting alternative book retailers instead, and engaging in activism we can collectively demand:
- Withdrawal of support for the Israeli army by Reisman and Schwartz
- Reisman and Schwartz withdraw from the HESEG Foundation
- the HESEG Foundation changes its mandate and stops supporting Israeli soldiers
- Divestment of shares held by Reisman and Schwartz in Indigo Books and Music Inc.
Resources for more information
- On the criminalization of the Peace 11 – 11 activists being charged for allegedly putting up posters on an Indigo store in Toronto – see this article by World BEYOND War, including a statement by one of the arrestees, this article in The Breach, this speech by Naomi Klein, and this article unpacking the framing of hate crimes.
- More info on why Indigo should be boycotted – see this factsheet by CJPME, and this older article about the launch of the Boycott Indigo campaign back in 2006
- Regarding the legitimacy of charitable status for charities funding the Israeli military – see this Rabble article
- Info on the broader Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign – global campaign here, Canadian BDS coalition here.
