May 29, 2006
PACBI - British Academics Vote for Boycotting Israeli Apartheid
Today, British academics proved once again that they are up to the challenge of meeting injustice with the powerful message of civil resistance that boycott represents. The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) voted for an academic boycott of Israel in response to its “apartheid policies.”
May 28, 2006
CBC - CUPE in Ontario votes to boycott Israel
The Ontario divison of Canada's largest union has voted to support an international campaign that is boycotting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. (Read full text of CUPE Resolution.)
SEND A LETTER OF SUPPORT TO CUPE
Outlook - True Patriot Love: Jewish Dissent in Canada
Canadian Jews have the good fortune of living in a tolerant, prosperous, strongly democratic society. Judaism flourishes here. Canadian Jews have worked to improve this society, and we see that these efforts are appreciated. We do not want our affection for and loyalty to Canada put in doubt by Israeli politicians claiming that Jews would be better off in Israel. Nor do we want our "leaders" to claim that Canadian Jews are united in support of current Israeli policies. Those who established the Canada-Israel Committee (CIC) and more lately the Canada-Israel Jewish Advocacy Committee (CIJA) have set out to lobby the Canadian government in favour of Israeli state policies. These people are unelected; they do not have the right to speak for the entire community.
More Jewish dissent - Professor Haim Bresheeth's letter of resignation as chair of the Jury at the International Film Festival, Cinema South, in Israel)
Jeff Halper, Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) - Countdown to Apartheid
May 23, 2006
Embassy Magazine - No Return For Palestinian Refugees
David Bedein suggests Canada play a "heroic" role in turning Palestinian refugee camps into permanent communities, an idea critics says is too simplistic and does not address the refugees's right to return.
Note: When you google David Bedein, you'll find that he is a “journalist” with an agenda.
May22, 2006
EI Book Review - The Case Against Israel
Michael Neumann is the US-born son of Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany, and Herbert Marcuse's stepson. He now teaches philosophy at Trent University in Ontario, Canada.
A tireless advocate for the Palestinian cause, Prof Neumann has consistently de-bunked conventional wisdom, more often than not in the online newsletter CounterPunch.
May 21, 2006
Urgent Statement from Palestinian Solidarity Organizations on the Occasion of Al-Nakba Anniversary
Since 1967, Israel has pursued a policy of creating isolated Palestinian bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians are confined to a patchwork of disconnected population islands divided by Israeli settlements, checkpoints and military bases. All aspects of Palestinian life are completely dependent upon Israeli 'permission'. Palestinian movement in-and-out of towns and villages is controlled by Israeli-issued permits and regulated by soldiers and checkpoints.
CJN - SAQ defies call to remove Israeli Wines
MONTREAL - The SAQ says it will not pull Israeli wines produced in the Golan Heights off its shelves unless Ottawa imposes an embargo on products from territories occupied by Israel.
Canada.com - Israeli ambassador slams UN rights chief
Israel's ambassador to Canada issued a sharp personal attack yesterday on UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour, a former Supreme Court of Canada justice, after she criticized Palestinian suicide bombers and the Israeli military forces that retaliate against them.
(CPNO comment: Normally the role of an Ambassador is to promote his country's position in a diplomatic manner. Diplomay and dialogue seem to be concepts that are foreign to Alan Baker. This is not his first blunt and inappropriate attack on a person criticizing Israel, even if the criticism is also "balanced" by criticism of the victim.)
May 18, 2006
Amnesty International - Israel/Occupied Territories: High Court decision institutionalizes racial discrimination
The decision by the Israeli High Court of Justice on 14 May to uphold a law which explicitly denies family rights on the basis of ethnicity or national origins is a step further in the institutionalization of racial discrimination in Israel.
CIC - Islamic Congress supports Six Nations Land Reclamation
"Many of Canada's 750,000 Muslims have strong emotional ties to this situation, in which aboriginal peoples are systematically being denied their birthright. Palestinians are being robbed of their native land in similar ways by the Israeli occupying power that denies them justice through unilateral expropriations and by refusing to negotiate in good faith with their elected representatives."
May 17, 2006
Johal - Israeli Supreme Court Upholds Racist Family Unification Law
In a razor thin 6-5 vote, the Israeli Supreme Court this week upheld the revised Family Unification Law which denies the right of Palestinians to join their Israeli Arab families in Israel. The revised law made provisions for Palestinian males over 35 and women over 25 to be able to apply for unification. It will mean that many families will be left separated and without access to state benefits.
May 16, 2006
CPNO - Jewish and/or Democratic State
Insisting on building the state of Israel as a Democratic Jewish state renders the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians inevitable, sooner or later. In this Palestinian's views, Jews who concluded that the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state is inconsistent with Jewish Values got it right.
May 15, 1948 - The Nakba
58 years of Dispossesion and Ethic Cleansing
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May 14, 2006
Gaza Community Mental Health Program - Medieval siege of 1.4 million souls in Gaza
It might not be generally known that a humanitarian crisis is building rapidly in Gaza . Because taxes that are due to the Palestinian government are being withheld by Israel and financial support by the EU has ceased, there is no money to pay public servants, including health workers.
Counterpunch - Hamas and Israel's "Right to Exist"
[Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's] stated policy of "ingathering" settlers into the major West Bank settlement blocs is accepted by everyone as signaling Israel's intent permanently to annex major portions of the West Bank. The advancing Wall and settlement construction are ample material evidence that this plan is Israel's real program and is already half-achieved. No one disagrees that these developments signify permanent territorial dismemberment of any Palestinian "state." No one disagrees that the terms of Oslo have vanished like the morning mist. It must therefore be evident even to the EU, Norway, and Canada that Israel has negated the diplomatic agreement that established the terms of its recognition by the Palestinians. So why pretend that Israel has not openly cast onto the trash heap of history the very peace deal that these countries now insist Hamas endorse?
Canada Watch - OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA Concerning the suspension of Canadian aid to the Palestinian Authority
"Canada has become the first donor to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority, saying the new Hamas-led government had failed to give assurances that it would recognize Israel's right to exist."
Dear Mr. Harper,
I am deeply concerned with the position adopted by your (actually, MY) government with respect to the Palestinian Authority and the Middle East conflict, in general.
Firstly, Palestinian government has been democratically elected by the Palestinian people.
Secondly, the existing controversy is not about "giving assurances to recognize Israel's right to exist". It is about Israeli invasion and occupation of Palestinian state and territory. It is about the right to sovereignty and control over Palestinian territory by the representatives of the Palestinian people. It is about the right to self-determination and freedom. Finally, it is about the right to fight for the freedom of ones country.
May 11, 2006
TorStar - `Not one shekel' in Gaza
Sanctions on Hamas mean no income for Palestinians. Humanitarian crisis deepens as Israeli firm cuts off supplies Family patriarch, Adeeb Yousef Zarouk, is an electrician whose income is not tied directly to the destitute Palestinian Authority. But when the Canada-led international freeze on direct funding was announced, effectively ending paycheques to the 165,000 Palestinian government workers, the trickle-down effect soon became apparent. He stopped getting calls for work. Nobody was spending.
(Note - Registration for the Toronto Star may be required to access this article but it is free, and for those interested in Israel-Palestine, well worth it. Although Canpalnet-Ottawa seeks to provide information from Canadian sources, the information available from the Canadian media regarding the abominable views of the Israeli government and how the sanctions on Hamas are affecting Palestinian lives is limited. Below are two informative articles from the UK.)
The Telegraph - Hamas sanctions squeeze the life out of West Bank
As government coffers empty and the flow of trade and goods into the Palestinian territories dries up, medical supplies in hospitals are running dangerously low and basic food supplies are unaffordable for most families.
Last week a group of 36 aid agencies working with Palestinians, including the British groups Merlin and Save the Children UK, wrote a joint letter to Israel urging it to fulfil last November's agreement to allow trade in and out of Gaza. Israel has remained insistent on keeping tight checks on traffic to prevent terrorist attacks.
Guardian UK - Prime minister pins his colours to 'new look' Israel
(Commentary - The following incredibly racist quote is from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Does any people have an exclusive historic right to any part of the earth? In a world where France, England and Germany have become multi-cultural and multi-religious secular states, Israel considers the native inhabitants of Palestine as a demographic threat to its existence.)
"I, like many others, also dreamed and yearned that we would be able to keep the entire land of Israel, and that the day would never come when we would have to relinquish parts of our land," said Mr Olmert, referring to a belief among many Israelis that they have a legitimate claim to territory up to, and even beyond, the Jordan river. "I believe with all my heart in the people of Israel's eternal historic right to the entire land of Israel." But he said retaining control of isolated settlements beyond the barrier "creates an inseparable mixture of populations which will endanger the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state".
May 10, 2006
ACTION ALERT - Amnesty International/Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
The Jerusalem Municipality is preparing to forcibly evict Muhammad Is'hac and Yousra Herbawi from the house where they live with their six children, one of whom is severely disabled, and then to demolish the building. The family have almost no income, and would be left destitute. The impact on the family's health, in particular that of the disabled son, is likely to be very severe. The Municipality can still decide to take into account the family's circumstances and cancel the forced eviction and the demolition.
May 9, 2006
May 8, 2006
IHT - Jimmy Carter: Punishing the Innocent is a Crime.
Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime. Because they voted for candidates who are members of Hamas, the United States government has become the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of depriving the general public of income, access to the outside world and the necessities of life.
Haaretz - Hamas: We'll move toward peace if Israel leaves occupied lands
Hamas could reciprocate moves toward peace if Israel agrees to withdraw from all lands occupied in 1967 and recognizes Palestinian rights, the group's leader Khaled Meshal said on Wednesday.
May 6, 2006
AFP - Christians in Hamas stronghold unfazed by Islamist victory
"Hamas knows that Palestinian society contains many different shapes, ideas and political colors, and knows also that if it were to try to force the whole of society to act against their beliefs and against their will, it will lose in the long run," he said.
I.N. Daily - The Revolt of Journalists: Can it happen in Canada?
Kimber asserted that Winnipeg's affluent Asper family, CanWest's owners, appeared to consider their newspapers as private pulpits from which to express their pro-Israel stance, pro- capitalist views, and their support of privatization in key areas such as health care. Moreover, all the papers in their empire should agree with them.
May 4, 2006
Al Jazeera - Palestinians recall day of catastrophe
About 2000 Palestinian demonstrators gathered on the slopes of the Carmel mountain near Haifa while most Israelis celebrated their 58th Independence Day with open-air barbecues and parties. The Palestinian refugee families were joined by 150 Israeli Jews in an annual procession to commemorate the mirror event of Israel's independence called the Nakba (Catastrophe), that drew the overwhelming majority of Palestinians from their homes and out of the new Jewish state.
Canadian for Jerusalem - Court finds that Canada 's Foreign Policy on the Status of Jerusalem Respects the Charter of Rights and is Consistent with International Law
TORONTO - Canadians for Jerusa lem (CFJ) is pleased that the Federal Court has upheld Canada 's foreign policy on the status of Jerusalem in the passport case ( Eliyahu Veffer v. Minister of Foreign Affairs ). The court dismissed Mr. Veffer's request to include his place of birth as “ Jerusalem, Israel ” in his Canadian Passport.
Felton - Those interested in Palestine should study Canaanite history, not Jewish mythology
Against this history we have the pseudo-history of Zionism, in which Jews are made out to be the only legitimate inhabitants of Jerusalem. Shem and Ever, two sons of Noah, not the Canaanites, are said to be the city's founders, even though their existence is purely mythical, and the prior establishment of Ururshalem refutes any putative Jewish claim to precedence.
May 2, 2006 Diana Buttu* - On journalism and media
Watching Western television or reading newspaper reports of Palestine always leaves me perplexed. If I did not live in Palestine and bear witness to Israel's military occupation, I would be left with the impression that Palestinians and Israelis are equals – with no
occupation existing – and that this conflict simply requires
“concessions” on both sides.
I would be unaware that the Palestinians have, for almost 39 years,
been denied their freedom and unaware that for more than five decades dispossessed of their land. I would be unaware that this conflict is between, on the one hand, an occupied party – the Palestinians – fighting for their independence, freedom and the application of international law, and on the other hand, the occupying party – Israel– which has denied freedom, independence and the application of international law to the Palestinians for almost four decades.
(*Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer. She previously served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department and an advisor to President Abbas.)
