Open Letter to Dan Levy from Indigenous Organizations: DoN’T Let schitt’s Creek be used to give cover for israeli apartheid

Dear Dan Levy,

We are writing to make you aware that on October 26 your father, Eugene Levy, is being honored at the Creative Community for Peace gala in LA, and Schitt’s Creek is being spotlighted in their event promotion. Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) is an anti-Indigenous, racist organization that works to undermine Black and Indigenous solidarity with Palestinians who are resisting Israel’s systematic and violent efforts to remove them from their native lands. 

While your father describes Creative Community for Peace as “a dedicated and consistent advocate for peace and understanding around the world,” in fact they are a proven front group for StandWithUs – a known anti-Palestinian organization with close ties to Israel's apartheid government. An official in Israel’s far-right Netanyahu government was a featured speaker at CCFP’s 2017 gala, where he praised CCFP’s mission.

CCFP’s leadership publicly promotes racist, anti-Indigenous views – such as Director Ari Ingel dismissing Indigenous Palestinians as “foreign invaders,” and likening Black-Palestinian solidarity to “the Black community siding with the ‘white man’ against” Native Americans. In their leaked 2018 report, CCFP assured supporters they’d develop “strategies to deal with” the “troubling and growing trend” of intersectionality.

Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island and Palestinians are fighting shared struggles against settler colonialism, genocide, and apartheid. Within this work of co-resistance, we stand with our Jewish siblings in struggle who speak out against the forced equating of the Israeli state with the diverse Jewish identities and communities of the world. 

Dan, we are heartened that someone with your level of cultural power chose to use it for good. Mobilizing yourself and your followers to learn more about Indigenous history – to grapple with questions of structural atonement and individual responsibility – has had a meaningful impact on the mainstream conversation, and the resources you raised for Native Studies made much possible. We agree that – to use your words – “we need to actively relearn history…to better understand and contextualize our lives, and how we can better support and be of service to each other.” We too hope that “if more knew, more would be acting on the rage they feel.”

So now you know: Endorsing Creative Community For Peace is an endorsement of the Israeli government's violent policies of apartheid and military occupation, which is an endorsement of colonial violence everywhere.

We urge you to denounce CCFP’s use of Schitt’s Creek brand to promote anti-Indigenous policies, and ask you to use your influence to get your father to cancel his appearance at the CCFP gala on October 26. 

Let us build a future together where the land and the people are free. 

In struggle, 

Adalah Justice Project

NDN Collective

Supported by

Jewish Voice for Peace

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)