A real estate entrepreneur associated with a Canadian franchiser cancelled an interview with a Jewish podcaster just 15 minutes before the appointed time Monday after learning that the podcaster was a supporter of pro-Israel rallies.
These rallies have been held to mourn the loss of more than 1,000 Israelis in a series of chilling acts of terror by Hamas last Saturday – acts which included the rape and murder of women and children, beheading of babies, and kidnapping and desecration of Israeli citizens and the parading of naked hostages through the streets of Gaza City.
Karim Kerachni is the Massachusetts franchise area representative for the PropertyGuys.com, a Canadian real estate outfit. Kerachni, a self-described “serial entrepreneur” and frequent podcast guest, told the host of the Spark the Genius podcast in an email that he cannot go on the show of a “supporter of the oppressive apartheid regime.”
PropertyGuys.com CEO Ken LeBlanc told True North that Kerachni is an independent contractor, not an employee of the company.
“That said, we take this matter extremely seriously and want to emphasize that the personal views and opinions expressed by Mr. Kerachni are his views alone, and are not affiliated with PropertyGuys.com.”
“PropertyGuys.com is vehemently against the atrocities being committed overseas, regardless of political factions,” LeBlanc added. “We are committed to supporting the communities we serve and beyond, valuing our collective humanity and the preservation of innocent lives above all else. We recognize and support the need for communities to come together during a time of crisis.”
Kerachni, who claims to have businesses in Ottawa and Halifax, said he’d never be able to have a polite discussion with someone who is on the side of “monsters, murderers.”
“I’m sure you understand,” he wrote to the podcaster.
The podcaster asked that his name not be used after getting threats in the past for being Jewish.
I learned of the antisemitic comments after the podcaster posted the email on Facebook.
“My only advice,” Kerachni continued, “educate yourself on what’s actually going there, don’t fall prey to media propaganda.”
In a bizarre postscript, the entrepreneur repeated that he’s not comfortable having a conversation with the podcaster “especially in the current context where even more Palestinian civilians are being massacred.”
In a series of email exchanges with True North, Kerachni denied his comments were antisemitic, claiming my question about whether they were was “stupid.”
“My comments were proudly anti-Zionist, which is very different and political in nature,” he said.
“You’re trying to distort my words into something religious…it is not,” he added. “As a human being I cannot have a pleasant conversation with someone supporting a racist oppressive and genocidal regime.
I suggested to him that anti-Zionism is just another way to express anti-Jewish animus and a way of villainizing the vast majority of Jews around the world who identify with Zionism or “feel a connection to Israel” (as the Anti-Defamation League indicated in an article.)
He argued that it wasn’t true and that he has a “problem with a political regime that is killing women, kids and babies as we speak… in mass.”
No he wasn’t referring to Hamas. He was referring shockingly to Israel’s alleged “apartheid regime.”
I was gobsmacked with his ignorance and projection.
When I brought up the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, he accused me of twisting his words – that he never mentioned Israelis or Jews, that he’s just talking about the Zionist government and the “oppressive apartheid regime.”
Just as I thought I was having an out-of-body experience, he added another classic antisemitic trope – that he knows many anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist people and he’s “always the one defending Jews. (He wrote the latter phrase in bold.)
He added that he doesn’t understand my interest in his letter to the podcaster, that he’s “entitled to his opinions” and he’s not sure about what I’m trying to do.
Perhaps he took my comments to heart. The podcaster told me Kerachni sent him an apology early this morning, stating he meant no offence to Jews or Israelis but was only talking about the “apartheid government.”
“It is quite unfair to target me,” Kerachni had told me a day earlier.
“Are you going to reach out to all who speak out against Zionism and write about them? That’s a lot of people.”
About the latter comment, he’s right.
