Dr. Gem Newman's Valedictory Address

This is my valedictory address to the University of Manitoba Medicine Class of 2024, recorded 16 May 2024.
While my speech was well received by the majority of my classmates, it was described as "divisive" and "inflammatory" by the dean. The school acquiesced to a donor's demand that the speech be scrubbed from the University of Manitoba's website.
In the days following my valedictory address, and in light of the significant criticism the speech received from some quarters, I was contacted by several journalists asking to speak with me. I was out of the country with my family, but I was happy to provide a statement, which I have reproduced below.
--
22 May 2024
Every platform is an appropriate platform to call for an end to genocide.
Israel's conduct toward the people of Palestine is overtly genocidal. Top Israeli officials, including both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have made their genocidal intent clear through both their words and actions. Both have a history of making dehumanizing statements about Palestinians, with Netanyahu describing them as "the people of darkness" and Gallant calling them "human animals".
Countless human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and University Network for Human Rights agree that Israel is carrying out a genocide. South Africa's submission to the International Court of Justice lays out the argument in exhaustive detail, and while we may have to wait years for the ICJ to make a final ruling on this matter, their preliminary finding that genocide is plausible has been well-publicized.
In my valedictory address, I was critical of a national government that is currently engaged in its campaign of collective punishment of the Palestinian people, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians. Doctors, nurses, journalists, and even released Israeli hostages have been killed by the IDF, every single hospital in Gaza has been either destroyed, damaged, or put out of service, and Israel's blockade of Gaza is preventing the entry of medical and humanitarian aid, resulting in yet more preventable death. Surgeons are being forced to operate on children without anesthetic, and some doctors in Gaza are refusing evacuation because they know that the IDF will not allow new medical staff in to take their place.
It is frankly incredible to me that advocating for a cessation of hostilities is seen as not only controversial, but somehow hateful. I have been and will continue to be vocally critical of the state of Israel's horrifying and disproportionate response to the awful tragedy of October 7th. But criticism of the actions of the Israeli government does not in and of itself constitute antisemitism. That accusation (which has been levelled not only at me but at countless others) is not only unserious, but it also serves to trivialize the regrettably very real instances of antisemitism that do occur.
I have been asked why I chose to speak out about this particular catastrophe and not any other: why am I not speaking out against the persecution of the Rohingya people, or the climate crisis, or whatever the asker's preferred calamity is. I suspect that this question (a classic example of whataboutism if ever there was one) is not being asked in good faith. But the answer is that when we address ourselves to a problem, we must consider both how familiar we are with its shape and whether we can plausibly effect positive change. If it were otherwise, there would be no medical specialties. Does the cardiologist hate patients with kidney disease? Does the pediatrician wish for adults to remain ill? Of course not. It is absurd to claim that simply because multiple disasters are happening, we cannot talk about any of them in specific, but must instead speak in broad, toothless generalities.
Since my valedictory address, I have received hundreds of messages from doctors, medical students, and members of the public thanking me for my words. I have also received more than my share of harassment and threats. But at the end of the day, I still get to hug my kids, something that so many parents in Gaza will never get to do again.
With respect, humility, and kindness,
Gem Newman (he/him)
Incoming R1, Family Medicine - Bilingual

[@infilmproductionsinc.yolan3385]

by David Matas
The valedictory speech of Gem Newman on May 16th at the convocation of the Medical Faculty of the University of Manitoba was so unusual that it deserves public comment. The typical valedictory speech reminds the students of their past years of study and welcomes them into the future for which their studies have prepared them. This valedictory address instead engaged in a stream of one-sided political invective.
The speech itself was short. Yet a text explaining everything that was wrong with it would be lengthy.
To take one example, in an excerpt from one sentence, the speaker asked the students in his audience "to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people everywhere ... in Palestine, where Israel's deliberate targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure has led to more than 35,000 deaths and widespread famine and disease." This excerpt is rife with inaccuracies.
For one, Jews are indigenous to Israel, living there since pre-historic times, centuries before the advent of Islam, with a continuous presence to the current day. To suggest that solidarity with the indigenous somehow favours Palestinians is a denial of reality.
For another, the existence of Palestine as a state is not recognized by the Government of Canada and 46 other states. One could argue that Canada and other states should recognize Palestine. However, to assume that this recognition already exists is inaccurate.
Third, Israel has not deliberately targeted hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. What Israel has deliberately targeted is Hamas, because of its attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, its murder of 1,139, its mass rapes during that attack and the kidnapping of over 240 hostages. The valedictory speech mentions none of this.
The reason that hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have suffered when Israel responded to the Hamas October 7th attack is entirely the fault of Hamas. At or near civilian infrastructures, Hamas stores and uses arms and rockets, runs command operations, mingles without uniforms with the civilian population, builds tunnels and tunnel entrances, uses civilians as human shields and threatens, exhorts and prevents civilians from fleeing when Israel warns of an impending attack, as Israel systematically does.
Fourth, the figure of more than 35,000 casualties the speaker mentioned is a Hamas Health Ministry clumsily concocted statistical fabrication. The casualty figures, whatever they are, includes thousands of Hamas operatives, a number of which Hamas gives no indication.
Fifth, food insecurity exists in Gaza because of Hamas. Hamas diverts food aid to stockpile in its tunnels for its claimed plan of a next attack against Israel and to sell at exorbitant prices at local markets in order to raise money to buy more arms. Hamas threatens and kills anyone who tries to distribute aid directly rather than through Hamas channels.
Well, that was just one part of one sentence in the valedictory address. There are many more sentences like that, stuffed with errors.
Aside from the specifics, there are two contextual factors which the speaker ignores. One is that Hamas is not just a local Israeli problem. It is emblematic of a global problem, terrorism euphemistically disguised as Islamic fundamentalism, although there is nothing Islamic about mass killing of innocents, sexual atrocities and kidnappings.
This problem is particularly acute in the Middle East. Israel, by combatting terrorism in Gaza, is doing a global service and a service in particular to those of its neighbours who have not already succumbed to the terrorist plague.
The second, linked, contextual factor is anti-Zionism, the refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state. With destruction of the Jewish state the end goal, terrorism and delegitimization through demonization work hand in hand.
Demonization is directed not just against the Jewish state but also against the Jewish people everywhere as actual or presumed supporters of this supposedly demon state. The result is that, with the Gaza war, attacks on Jews worldwide, including Canada, are at record levels, not just in comparison to past attacks on Jews, but in comparison to attacks on all other minority populations.
There is, regrettably, on social media an endless flow of ignorance, hate speech, misinformation and disinformation. The gullible repetition of terrorist antisemitic propaganda without fact checking has become commonplace. The valedictorian, by echoing the Hamas demonization of Israel , fuels their antisemitic narrative.
Yet a valedictorian is supposed to be a lead student in their graduating class, the best and the brightest. The abuse of that position as a platform for prejudice by the current Medical Faculty valedictorian is not just a personal failing; it bespeaks and reflects a general degradation of university education and public discourse.
In principle, the voice of the valedictorian should be the voice of our future. When it comes to the voice of this valedictorian, we all deserved better.
......................................................................................................................................
David Matas is a Winnipeg lawyer and senior honorary counsel to B'nai Brith Canada.

[@infilmproductionsinc.yolan3385]

by David Matas
The valedictory speech of Gem Newman on May 16th at the convocation of the Medical Faculty of the University of Manitoba was so unusual that it deserves public comment. The typical valedictory speech reminds the students of their past years of study and welcomes them into the future for which their studies have prepared them. This valedictory address instead engaged in a stream of one-sided political invective.
The speech itself was short. Yet a text explaining everything that was wrong with it would be lengthy.
To take one example, in an excerpt from one sentence, the speaker asked the students in his audience "to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people everywhere ... in Palestine, where Israel's deliberate targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure has led to more than 35,000 deaths and widespread famine and disease." This excerpt is rife with inaccuracies.
For one, Jews are indigenous to Israel, living there since pre-historic times, centuries before the advent of Islam, with a continuous presence to the current day. To suggest that solidarity with the indigenous somehow favours Palestinians is a denial of reality.
For another, the existence of Palestine as a state is not recognized by the Government of Canada and 46 other states. One could argue that Canada and other states should recognize Palestine. However, to assume that this recognition already exists is inaccurate.
Third, Israel has not deliberately targeted hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. What Israel has deliberately targeted is Hamas, because of its attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, its murder of 1,139, its mass rapes during that attack and the kidnapping of over 240 hostages. The valedictory speech mentions none of this.
The reason that hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have suffered when Israel responded to the Hamas October 7th attack is entirely the fault of Hamas. At or near civilian infrastructures, Hamas stores and uses arms and rockets, runs command operations, mingles without uniforms with the civilian population, builds tunnels and tunnel entrances, uses civilians as human shields and threatens, exhorts and prevents civilians from fleeing when Israel warns of an impending attack, as Israel systematically does.
Fourth, the figure of more than 35,000 casualties the speaker mentioned is a Hamas Health Ministry clumsily concocted statistical fabrication. The casualty figures, whatever they are, includes thousands of Hamas operatives, a number of which Hamas gives no indication.
Fifth, food insecurity exists in Gaza because of Hamas. Hamas diverts food aid to stockpile in its tunnels for its claimed plan of a next attack against Israel and to sell at exorbitant prices at local markets in order to raise money to buy more arms. Hamas threatens and kills anyone who tries to distribute aid directly rather than through Hamas channels.
Well, that was just one part of one sentence in the valedictory address. There are many more sentences like that, stuffed with errors.
Aside from the specifics, there are two contextual factors which the speaker ignores. One is that Hamas is not just a local Israeli problem. It is emblematic of a global problem, terrorism euphemistically disguised as Islamic fundamentalism, although there is nothing Islamic about mass killing of innocents, sexual atrocities and kidnappings.
This problem is particularly acute in the Middle East. Israel, by combatting terrorism in Gaza, is doing a global service and a service in particular to those of its neighbours who have not already succumbed to the terrorist plague.
The second, linked, contextual factor is anti-Zionism, the refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state. With destruction of the Jewish state the end goal, terrorism and delegitimization through demonization work hand in hand.
Demonization is directed not just against the Jewish state but also against the Jewish people everywhere as actual or presumed supporters of this supposedly demon state. The result is that, with the Gaza war, attacks on Jews worldwide, including Canada, are at record levels, not just in comparison to past attacks on Jews, but in comparison to attacks on all other minority populations.
There is, regrettably, on social media an endless flow of ignorance, hate speech, misinformation and disinformation. The gullible repetition of terrorist antisemitic propaganda without fact checking has become commonplace. The valedictorian, by echoing the Hamas demonization of Israel , fuels their antisemitic narrative.
Yet a valedictorian is supposed to be a lead student in their graduating class, the best and the brightest. The abuse of that position as a platform for prejudice by the current Medical Faculty valedictorian is not just a personal failing; it bespeaks and reflects a general degradation of university education and public discourse.
In principle, the voice of the valedictorian should be the voice of our future. When it comes to the voice of this valedictorian, we all deserved better.
......................................................................................................................................
David Matas is a Winnipeg lawyer and senior honorary counsel to B'nai Brith Canada.

[@nechamadinanamirovski]

I know a lot of Jews with the last name Newman. Ya sure you ain't Jewish?

[@PerpetualTorrentialRainTTV]

good job on this speech ❤