Israel is 'the greatest decolonization project,' Indigenous leaders tell Toronto summit - National Post
An Indigenous chief waves the flag of Israel during the annual UJA Walk With Israel in Toronto, Sunday June 7, 2026. Participants in the first-of-its kind Building Indigenous‑Jewish Friendship conference in Toronto were among the estimated 60,000 participants in this year's event. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National PostArticle contentThe state of Israel is “the most successful land‑back project, the greatest decolonization project,” a New Zealand Māori activist told the first-of-its-kind Building Indigenous‑Jewish Friendship conference in Toronto.
“From my Māori perspective, a key point is that there was always a continuous Jewish presence in the land; they kept the fires burning, and that is what indigeneity looks like to us,” Dr. Sheree Trotter told roughly 70 activists, academics and community figures convened at Toronto’s Beth Torah synagogue on Monday.
The conference was the culmination of a weekend of local Indigenous-Jewish programming that included nearly 40 Indigenous people marching in the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Walk with Israel, a Sunday dinner-talk with Concordia University professor Csaba Nikolenyi on early 20th-century Zionism, and a Sabbath lecture by Justice Harry S. LaForme at Temple Sinai.
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“Indigeneity is demonstrated by historical, collective continuity with a distinct ethnic identity, language, culture, rituals or traditions, economic, social, legal, and religious and spiritual belief systems that predate subsequent invaders or colonizers,” LaForme told Temple Sinai congregants.
“In my view, Israel is the product of the greatest decolonization project in modern history, and this fact does not make it a colonial entity.”
Justice Harry S. LaForme, who is Anishibaabe, and a member of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation, spoke at the Building Indigenous-Jewish Friendship conference, where 70 Indigenous and Jewish activists, academics and community figures convened to discuss shared goals and allyship. Photo by Dave GordonArticle contentLaForme is Anishibaabe, and a member of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation. In 1994 he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Justice, and in 2004 was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal and is the first Indigenous lawyer to be appointed to an appellate court in Canada.
“The Islamist strategists correctly believe that their ideology-driven false narratives appropriating indigenous social justice language would resonate, and given traction with the academically ignorant and the academically sinister in Canada,” he continued in his synagogue speech.
