Abraham Global Peace Initiative Salutes Bedouin Heroism on Oct. 7, Tackles University Antisemitism

Abraham “Avi” Benlolo discusses AGPI's efforts to honor Bedouin acts of heroism and address the concerning rise of antisemitism on Canadian college campuses

The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI) Founding Chairman and CEO Abraham “Avi” Benlolo spoke with Felice Friedson about the importance of recounting the brave Bedouins acts of courage on October 7 as they saved many Israeli lives. Benlolo initiated an event in Jerusalem to recognize the Bedouin unsung heroes who selflessly saved many innocent Israeli lives on October 7 who were trying to flee Hamas terrorists as they were committing one of history’s most heinous acts. He spoke at length about the work of his organization in combatting antisemitism, educating Jews and non-Jews, and his police academy training program.

This comes after the publication of AGPI’s Canadian Universities 2024 Antisemitism Report Card, which reveals a concerning escalation of antisemitism across Canadian higher education institutions, highlighting the complex challenges Jewish students and faculty encounter amidst debates on anti-Zionism, free speech, student unions, DEI initiatives, and a growing sense of insecurity on campuses.

Benlolo is a distinguished figure in the realms of Holocaust studies, the fight against antisemitism, and the advocacy for human rights. He has committed nearly three decades to serving in executive roles within the Jewish community and has emerged as a pivotal voice in Canada on these issues.

Friedson and Benlolo sat down in the studio to discuss the significant role of the Abraham Global Peace Initiatives in fostering peace, defending human rights, and building bridges across diverse communities, inspired by the Abraham Accords.

TML: Avi Abraham Benlolo is the founding chairman and the chief executive officer of the Abraham Global Peace Initiatives. I’m going to begin with the name because your name is Abraham, and I can’t imagine why you called this initiative that. So, why don’t we start there?

What does your organization do?

Benlolo: Well, firstly, thank you very much for having me on today. Really, I appreciate that. The organization itself was created during the Abraham Accords, and we were very much inspired by them. We thought it was a great story. It is something that we can really stand behind as one of our universal values of defending Israel, promoting Israel, and defending human rights at large, and building bridges with non-Jewish communities.

So, Abraham, of course, as we all know, [is] the father figure of the three monotheistic religions, and so we felt that it really embraced other religions. And as an organization, if you take a look at our board members and many of our constituents, they’re not Jewish. In fact, we have constituents who are Muslim and Christian and so forth, and it really draws them into this commonality of belief systems.

And so, we felt that the name itself would resonate with many. Obviously, peace is an incredible tool in order to let people know that we really are about trying to build peace. It doesn’t mean that we compromise Israel and its values and what it needs to do, but our core belief is that humans should live peacefully and together.

[As] an initiative, we don’t sit back. We take action. We get things done. We do things, and so that is really the core phrasing of the name. If you look at the logo, it also has the biblical words in there, and the word “tzedek,” which is justice, and that is something that we strongly believe in.

TML: Avi, you were in Jerusalem. You don’t come from Jerusalem. You were in Canada, but right now, you are here for an event, which was a dedication towards the Bedouin community in Israel since Oct. 7. Now, many of the Bedouins were killed on Oct. 7. Why did you choose this particular event now?

Benlolo: Well, the background to that is that I was doing a documentary immediately after Oct. 7, and I went over to the village of Rahat, which is a Bedouin village, and I interviewed about five Bedouins. And I was completely in shock at the heroism that they exemplified on that date. The stories that they have of saving Israelis, of saving Jews, are just incredible.

And firstly, going back to our organization, it’s an organization that does look to building bridges as an organization that wants to find those marginalized communities that want to support Israel. And through their testimonies, they said, we’re Israeli! We’re proud to have saved 30 kids at the Nova party and to have warned a platoon of soldiers and all of this. We’re very proud of this.

I felt that it was such an incredible thing that we should recognize that for the incredible deeds that they’ve done [and] ensure that they stay close to Israel and to [Israeli] society. And so I said, okay, well, the next thing we can do is bring them to Jerusalem; have their dignitaries come out and give them these awards and make them feel like superstars, which they really are for what they did. They are just ordinary people who have done extraordinary things.

And that’s the reason we’ve partnered up with the Friends of Zion Museum, and we’re doing this event tomorrow.

TML: Avi, one of the biggest problems that exists today is taking a story like this and magnifying that story. And when you look at even from where you come from, Toronto, Canada, not all Canadians look at Israel or the Palestinians or the rest of the Middle East the same.

Everybody has their own view of what is happening right now when it comes to the geopolitics here. So, how do you take isolated stories like this and magnify them?

Benlolo: That’s exactly one of the core reasons that we’re doing it, is because we want to magnify it through the media and through our own lists and networks to get it back. I’ve already spoken about the groups in Canada, and they were shocked. They were dumbfounded. They didn’t know that Bedouins actually helped and that they were involved, and anything, quite frankly, about them.

And so, once they understood the story and its significance, they said that this is a fantastic idea. But because of all of the negativity and the stereotypes in the media—in Canada, we don’t have our shortage of that—telling a story of non-Jews who participated, and who themselves were kidnapped and their families were kidnapped, and they themselves have been killed. I mean, one of them tells the story about his wife wearing a hijab and she was shot point-blank by Hamas.

That should resonate with university campuses and the media and so forth.

TML: But that doesn’t.

Benlolo: Well, you know, we have to keep trying. It’s going to be a tough, tough slug, and I’m not going to sugarcoat it and tell you, yeah, it’s going to resonate. But we have to continue putting these stories out there because if we won’t, who will?

TML: You have a deep knowledge of the Holocaust. You’re an expert in this field. Oct. 7 happens, and what goes through your mind in terms of the historical notes that people are going to look at when they look back in history of these two markers of the Jewish people?

Benlolo: Yeah, it’s a good question. So, when I was doing my academic work on the Holocaust, and I had interviewed—at that point, I was very young—I had interviewed many, many Holocaust survivors and recorded their testimonies, as many others have. And that’s an important thing, of course, when you’re combatting Holocaust denial.

I felt—having done that academically—I felt that I got to get on the ground quickly and try to interview as many as I could, for the same reason. Because I felt—and it was already happening a few days after Oct. 7—we were seeing the denials. We were seeing the distortions of the United Nations. We were seeing feminist groups claiming that no rapes were happening.

We were seeing those denials and distortions, shockingly, immediately after Oct. 7. Why? Because they were Jewish. That’s the reason. That’s the only reason. And so I wanted to get on the ground, and I wanted to document as much as possible. I couldn’t get everything, and I know that a lot of media has, and there will be other sources, but it’s so important for us to get this down on video and on paper to ensure that those distortions—which are going to continuously happen for years and years to come—that we have the evidence locked in. And that was really the reason. And that’s the comparison to the denial of the Holocaust that we’re still even experiencing about the Holocaust itself. Hard to believe.

TML: When you get questions from those that don’t align with Israel, and they’ll blame Israel for the atrocities and things that are happening to the Palestinian people, how do you respond?

Benlolo: Yeah, I get questions all of the time. And look, you have to respond. I always tell people the truth. You have to say the truth, and you have to verify it and validate it with evidence to the extent now. You’re going to have people who will still say no, it was made up. That video footage isn’t correct, etc., etc.

We saw the same thing with Holocaust deniers. No matter what you say—you can go to court—no matter what you say, they’re going to deny it. Why? Because it’s their propaganda. They have an agenda, and they’re going to do it until the day they die. You’re never ever going to convince those people, and there’s a very, very big segment [of them].

We’re seeing it on university campuses. We’re seeing it in the media. We’re seeing it in unions. And they will not accept the truth. They will absolutely not accept the truth. There’s nothing that we could say to possibly win them over.

TML: But where does that come from?

Benlolo: It comes from antisemitism, pure and simple. And they’re hard-core antisemites. They believe in various historical conspiracies. It is the old antisemitism, as we say. And then, of course, they believe in the end of Israel. They want the destruction of the State of Israel, so it plays into all of these specters. And today, if you look at the antisemitism of today, it is so ruthless. You’ve got the old antisemitism. You’ve got the new antisemitism. You’ve got the neo-Nazis or the Nazis. You’ve got the Islamic radicals. You’ve got the pro-Palestinian advocates on university campuses. The specter is so huge. Even bigger than pre-Holocaust, when you think about it.

And so, this is a very serious threat to us, to Israel and the Jewish community, because no matter what Israel does to defend itself right now in Gaza, those antisemites will be working double time, and are working double time, to undermine Israel.

TML: So many people are pointing to this as a core problem today, but it doesn’t start at university level. If you could go back and you could talk to families, and talk to educators, and talk to parliaments, where would you begin?

Benlolo: Well, you know, these days, we’ve graduated students who have gone through these Israeli apartheid weeks and BDS campaigns on their campuses, so they’ve actually been brainwashed for like 20-plus years on campus. So, they’re all going out into the business world and into government, but, at the end of the day, I would really start with …

Let me give you an example. So, I bring non-Jewish groups to Israel and to Jerusalem. The first place I start with them, always, always, I take them to the Israel Museum. Why the Israel Museum? Because there are the Dead Sea Scrolls. And I say to them, if they are Canadian or American, I say to them, can you question by any means that First Nations peoples lived in Canada or America? That there was a presence of the indigenous First Nations peoples?

And they’re like, no, absolutely not! And I go, well, why not? [And they say], because you know, there’s graves, and there’s some evidence on the ground, and so forth. And I go, well, why then do people question the fact that Jews had a presence on this very land? You look at the Dead Sea Scrolls right in front of your eyes. [They] are over 2,000 years old. Our land has so much Judaism in it, from coins, and of course the Temple, etc., etc., and of course, old synagogues in the Golan [Heights].

Why do people question the fact that Jews are indigenous to this land? And then, of course, if you believe in the Bible, then it’s all there. So, why is it? So, I think people need evidence. You can’t dispute archival and fact-based evidence that is in our ground, and so you just have to give it to them in that way.

I found that it totally, totally changed them, and they accepted [it]. Those that don’t [accept it], they never will, and there is nothing more that you could say. They are just antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-Jewish right from their core.

TML: Do you feel there’s room for that middle, that you could actually change those that are in the middle?

Benlolo: Yes, I think that the middle is a key ground for us to get to. There are many people who believe in the State of Israel, who understand the importance of its existence. They are looking to us for answers and leadership, and so I really believe that we have to get to them as soon as possible in a very massive and dramatic way. We can’t get to 10 or 20 people at a time. We have to go big.

TML: The Abraham Accords happened. One can question today, after Oct. 7, what is really happening, even as news really starts to shatter some of the feelings of what happened. Today, Egypt is possibly discussing breaking the Camp David Accords. Serious times.

My question to you is, as an organization that believes in peace and having had an event in the UAE in the Museum of Civilizations, do you feel that there still is an opportunity to gain the trust of many in Muslim countries? Or do you feel some of that has changed since Oct. 7?

Benlolo: During this time, since Oct. 7, I’ve stayed in touch with my contacts in the UAE Morocco, and elsewhere. And we all understand that this is a difficult time. It’s difficult for them, just as it is for us. They want to maintain relations with us. They want to continue this effort. They want to expand this effort. We just have to wait for this war to be over, and then everybody is going to be all back in.

So, I am very optimistic about that. I think there’s really good intentions on all sides. You know, none of the Abraham Accords countries have broken relations or connections with Israel. They do believe that it’s important, and that was taken into the equation that should something like this arise [they would maintain the relationship.] So, I am very hopeful that it can continue, and I’m hopeful as well that the Saudis will eventually join in, as will others.

I think that once this war is over and it’s clear that Israel has won the war, nobody is going to want to see a repeat of this chaos again. People will be much more likely to come to the table.

TML: Well, will it? Because now the Saudis have added the stipulation that there needs to be a two-state solution recognized, with the Palestinians getting their state. That was not on the table to that extent months ago. It’s a shift.

Benlolo: It’s a shift. Look, they have to speak to the Arab street. That’s the bottom line, and I think that’s what they’re doing. Let’s not forget that the Arab world is seeing Al Jazeera and is seeing the destruction in Gaza and the deaths, and they’re being fed a lot of propaganda and a lot of misinformation.

And so, the Saudis are reacting to that by putting in their statement. I think that once again, things die down, cool down, they’re going to be back on the table. Inevitably, the Palestinian question will have to be solved one way or another, and that’s maybe a story for another day.

TML: Your own backyard is not so simple. Canada has not backed Israel 100%, even during the war. So, what do you see as the outcome of the war in your universities, and just speaking to people, your next-door neighbors, per se?

Benlolo: You know, look, my organization has been very, very vocal about our own government. We’re not shy about it. We have warned our government before Oct. 7 about funding UNWRA. We wanted Canada to stop funding UNWRA. We actually wrote an article asking if Canada is complicit in the murder because, if you recall, there were many terrorist incidents here in Israel prior to Oct. 7, and I was fairly vocal about Canada sending money to an organization that is then funneling money to the Palestinian Authority that is then funding the “pay for slay” program and other programs.

So, we’ve been very vocal about the Canadian government. Unfortunately, it didn’t resonate immediately, but it now has. It might be too little, too late. Our government, unfortunately, also plays to a local demographic, and so it’s speaking from both sides of its mouth very, very often. That is not boding well in terms of university campuses.

The campus situation is horrific. In fact, we just released a report that graded for the first time ever in Canada’s history. And I’m really glad we did it since it sent a lot of shockwaves around the country. They graded 52 university campuses on the level of antisemitism that we could surmise from open sources.

We gave the obvious universities—it was pretty obvious for anybody—the F’s, and some got D’s and C’s. And quite a number in fact, about 23, got A’s, which surprised me. Many universities just don’t have the drama that some other universities do.

TML: Look over to the United States. Do you feel the picture is similar?

Benlolo: Yeah, the picture is very similar in the US on campuses. The two feed off one another. We don’t see a big differentiation. Some campuses are worse than others. It always depends on if the administration, and we saw the testimonies from Harvard and MIT and Penn, which were shocking. It was just shocking to see what these presidents had to say, but it was so good for the rest of the country. I thought it was actually a gift to have presidents of these prestigious universities literally put their foot in their mouths and show how antisemitic their universities truly are.

And so, that really opened the eyes of many American legislators and Canadian [ones]. We think that there is now starting to be a pushback, and I think also there is a pushback as well from some people in the non-Jewish community who are concerned about their own belief system. They are starting with the Jews, and they’re coming after us next, so we should fight this as well.

TML: One of the core projects that you have is in association with the police, in Canada in particular. Can you share a little bit about why you did this and what it’s about?

Benlolo: I have a long history with law enforcement, and I think it’s vital, especially in the diaspora. I know it might seem different here in Israel, obviously, but who are the frontline people who are really going to respond to antisemitic events or violence? Who do you need to guard your schools and your synagogues? It’s the police.

Who are the first responders to any [emergency call]? It’s the police. It’s not the government. It’s not that we’re passing policy and laws. But the police are really the people on the ground who are protecting the Jewish community. And I got to tell you, we’ve had serious issues in Toronto with demonstrations and calls for genocide against the Jewish people and blocking actual Jewish neighborhoods, passageways into Jewish neighborhoods. And the police have been very responsive.

There is debate about some people who want them to be more responsive, but they have been fairly responsive to curtail that, and I’m very, very proud and pleased with that. And I believe that that’s because of their relationship with the Jewish community. They see the Jewish community as vital and important, and so they want to have that good relationship. So, I’ve been fortunate to have built this relationship right across this country [of Canada] pretty much in every province.

And now, also with the Americans, with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which is the largest police association in the world, actually. So, I had the opportunity of taking them just last April to Auschwitz and then to celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday here.

TML: You didn’t see a lot of celebrations near the end of that, with what happened currently.

Benlolo: It’s hard to believe.

TML: Avi, I do want to end with the word antisemitism, [which is] resonating everywhere, but there are times when people are calling it [antisemitism], and it’s not antisemitism. And doesn’t it make it more difficult when we are dealing today with such heavy amounts of hate and antisemitism?

Benlolo: You mean that you’re trying to rephrase it to…

TML: Well, not just rephrase it. When people cry wolf on every incident being antisemitic. And to be clear, there’s an abundance of it. Now, it’s great for raising money and great for getting people nervous, but the reality is [that] there are serious incidents that one can quantify and qualify as antisemitic acts.

Benlolo: Yeah, well, the bar has been raised because when I started in this field about 30 years ago, a little swastika on a building was something that everybody reacted to, and it’s important, but today we’re dealing with violence, and just a higher degree [of it]. The issue is that it’s become a tsunami. Every single day I get emails and reports from various people in the community that I saw this on social media or I saw this on a building.

And you find yourself having to choose. What am I going to prioritize in terms of reacting to and acting on? And that’s really what it’s become. I just came [back] from Brussels, where I met with the European Jewish Congress. There are thousands of antisemitic incidents now. It’s becoming nearly impossible to deal with every single one, so now we’ve got to prioritize, so that’s what’s happened.

TML: Avi Abraham Benlolo, thank you for joining me here at The Media Line and maybe getting people to understand a little bit more about what’s happening in the field of antisemitism.

Benlolo: Thank you very much for having me!

TML: You’re very welcome!