Calls grow for B.C. MLA Selina Robinson to resign after days of controversial Israel comments

Calls are mounting for B.C. NDP MLA Selina Robinson to resign, after comments she made around Palestinian history pre-Israel’s establishment, and her alleged intervention in the termination of a Langara College instructor. Cecilia Hua reports.

By CityNews Staff

Calls are mounting for B.C. NDP MLA Selina Robinson to resign, after comments she made around Palestinian history pre-Israel’s establishment, and her alleged intervention in the termination of a Langara College instructor over her comments about the war in Gaza.

The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is the latest group to call for Robinson’s ousting, after the Federation of Post Secondary Educators (FPSE) said Thursday she “wrongfully” intervened and the college shared private files with the minister.

“Minister Robinson’s intervention in the termination of a Langara College instructor undermines the democratic principles of freedom of expression and academic freedom,” the BCCLA said on X, Friday.

The FPSE alleges that Robinson pressured the college into terminating Natalie Knight, after the MLA announced on social media she had met with college leadership “to express her concerns.”

Just one day after that meeting, Knight was terminated from her teaching position.

Knight, who had been teaching English at Langara for the last five years, was initially suspended for praising Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel as “amazing” and “brilliant.” 

After an internal investigation, Knight was reinstated by the college before the meeting with Robinson. The FPSE says although Knight’s words may have been offensive to some, they are not considered a hate crime and should be protected under free speech.

Knight was then terminated in January after more controversial comments. 

The latest calls for the minister to resign come after Robinson was forced to apologize after a video of her during a panel discussion hosted by the Jewish organization B’nai Brith surfaced online.

Robinson claimed that before Israel was settled by the modern population, it was just a “crappy piece of land with nothing on it.”

“There were, you know, several hundred thousand people but other than that, it didn’t produce an economy,” she said. “It couldn’t grow things. It didn’t have anything on it.”

In a statement Friday, B’nai Brith Canada confirmed to CityNews that Robinson appeared as a panelist during a Tuesday-night event, “which was billed as an Evening With Jewish Officials.”

“B’nai Brith Canada was in no way responsible for the comments made by Minister Robinson and they do not reflect the opinion of our organization,” the statement added.

SFU professor and Middle East expert Adel Iskandar explained the idea that nothing was on the land before the British mandate that proposed the Jewish settlement in the mid-20th century is a “fundamentally colonialist narrative.”

The land has a rich history that includes important contributions from Jews, Muslims, and Christians, he added.

Robinson’s comments around the land before Israel’s establishment were similar to those used to justify the colonialism of North America.

“Advancing reconciliation requires bringing Canadian law and policy into line with international human rights law, which has condemned doctrines of superiority, including discovery and terra nullius, as colonial and racist. Yet the racist assumptions and impacts of these doctrines live on in aspects of Canadian law and policy. They are evident in underlying assumptions that assume First Nations are ‘claimants’ in our own lands and that treat First Nations as somehow lacking sovereignty. The assumptions and impacts of these racist doctrines must be uprooted. The path forward will require Canada to acknowledge the truth of our pre-existing and continuing sovereignty as self-determining peoples,” Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said in 2018.

Robinson apologizes

In a statement posted on X, Robinson said she regrets her comment and apologizes “without reservation.”

“I want to apologize for my disrespectful comment referring to the origins of Israel on a ‘crappy piece of land,’” she said. “I was referring to the fact that the land has limited natural resources. I understand that this flippant comment has caused pain and that it diminishes the connection Palestinians also have to the land.”

In a release Friday, a member of the federal NDP and MP for Hamilton Centre, Matthew Green, called on B.C. Premier David Eby to “reassess” Robinson’s position in government.

“I call for the reassessment of Minister Robinson’s position within the Cabinet to ensure that our leadership reflects a deep commitment to historical accuracy, empathy, and the pursuit of peace and justice for all peoples, including Palestinians and Israelis,” he said.

Green said Robinson’s comments were not only historically inaccurate but “deeply derogatory and insensitive.”

“These remarks ignore the profound significance of the land to both Palestinians and Jews and the tragic history of the Nakba where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes in 1948.”

Green called for Eby to consider the implications of Robinson’s comments, “given the gravity … and their deviation from our shared values of empathy, respect, and commitment to justice.”

Additionally, a “collective of mosques and Islamic organizations in British Columbia” has put out a statement calling for Robinson’s resignation, due to her comments.

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