Archives May 2007 Israel Palestine Canada

Liberal leader Stephane Dion and a number of other high profile Liberals participated in the walk for Israel in Toronto on May 27th. Liberal blogger Jason Cherniak carried a detailed report including photos. While a growing number of human rights organizations, churches and unions are speaking out against Israeli aggression and apartheid our politicians are busy celebrating, defending and legitimizing the democratic-for-Jews-only state of Israel.

Meanwhile Dion's friends and supporters work to stiffle freedom of speech in Canada......

On May 17 PEJ publisher Alan Rycroft received a letter from the Canadian Human Rights Commission, signed by the deputy secretary general Richard Tardiff, claiming that PEJ had violated Canadian law by posting anti-Semitic material, according to a complaint filed with its legal department by Harry Abrams, a Victoria businessman and British Columbia representative for the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith, Canada, which joins him in the complaint.

Increased violence between Israelis and Palestinians resulted in a threefold increase in killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces. The number of Israelis killed by Palestinian armed groups diminished by half. More than 650 Palestinians, including some 120 children, and 27 Israelis were killed. Israeli forces carried out air and artillery bombardments in the Gaza Strip, and Israel continued to expand illegal settlements and to build a 700-km fence/wall on Palestinian land in the Occupied Territories.

Whereas the media gets exorcised if a single Jew gets his hair mussed, the suffering of Arabs is portrayed as distant, indiscernible, yet morally justifiable and eternally “winnable.”

Until relatively recently, this had been the standard North American perspective on Palestine.

Israel denounces proposal, saying it will not negotiate with organization... and suggests it may assassinate Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh.

Asked if Haniyeh was on Israel's hit list, Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said: "I'll put it like this -- there is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from a strike."

Guardian UK - Arabic under fire
A child on Hamas TV talked of annihilating the Jews ... or did she?

Memri, the "research institute" which specialises in translating portions of the Arabic media into English, has issued a video clip from a children's programme on Hamas TV in which it claims that a Palestinian girl talked of becoming a suicide bomber and annihilating the Jews.

The demands in the Haifa Declaration are similar to those made in previous position papers and consist first and foremost of abolishing the Jewish state.

"A democratic state based on equality between the Israeli Jews and the Palestinian Arabs in Israel will ensure both groups' rights in a just and egalitarian way," it posits.

As Israel celebrates 59 years of independence, Palestinians on May 14 commemorate the Nakba , the catastrophe of expulsion and decades of exile that continue to this day

. .... international pressure should be put on Israel to drop its insistence on supremacy over Palestinians. Then both parties can come together to begin building a single, multiethnic state where Jews and Palestinians can again live side by side.

"Nakbah" is the Arabic word for catastrophe. It is used to describe the forceful expulsion of 750,000-800,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1947/48 and the complete destruction of 450 of their villages when the state of Israel was founded. It is important to remember that Jewish forces drove out approximately 300,000 Palestinians during the five months preceding the declaration of the state of Israel on 15 May 1948.

On Thursday May 10, activists from the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid confronted Heather Reisman, majority owner of Chapters and Indigo bookstores at a book signing for Ralph Nader's new book, The Seventeen Traditions. In the question and answer period, CAIA activists questioned Reisman about her support for the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers, a program of financial support for former "lone soldiers" in the Israeli military. Reisman refused to answer the questions posed to her and instead, shut down the event and walked out.

Haaretz - Municipality tears down east J'lem care center for disabled children

The Jerusalem municipality destroyed a building in east Jerusalem on Tuesday that served as a residence for handicapped children. The center, in the Wadi Joz neighborhood in the city's north, was destroyed after the District Court declared it illegal.

York University has reached a settlement with a student activist who was barred from campus for his role in two noisy demonstrations, putting an end to a legal battle that involved the Supreme Court of Canada and gained the attention of the academic community. ...

The suit stems from a three-year suspension handed to Mr. Freeman-Maloy for his part in two unauthorized protests against Israeli policies toward Palestinians.

(The two individuals, Dan Freeman-Molloy and Professor Peter Noble, who are discussed in the article and lawyer Peter Rosenthal are all anti-Zionist Jews. This is an important precedent for academic freedom and free speech at Universities in Canada.)

Democracy Rising - "WIPED OFF THE MAP" - The Rumor of the Century

Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran's President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the map". Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as the following article will prove.

(See also "Lost in the Translation", Jonathan Steele, Guardian UK.)

(The Zionist Lobby in the US and Canada which is pushing for an attack on Iran is using its influence to perpetuate the myth that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel. A UN Resolution condeming Iran for incitment to genocide could then be added to the reasons for justifying an attack on Iran. The Liberal Party which used to provide a voice of moderation now seems to be completely in the grip of the Lobby. See related article below.)

"The House of Commons' foreign affairs subcommittee on international human rights last week passed a motion calling on the Canadian government to refer the "incitement to genocide" by Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the United Nations.

The motion further states that Canada should also call on the UN Security Council to refer this incitement to the International Criminal Court.

According to former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who is now the Opposition critic for human rights and who put forward the motion, its passing, especially the recommendation to the Security Council, represents a first for a Canadian parliamentary subcommittee.

"This had the full support of Liberal party leadership," said Cotler, referring to Stéphane Dion.

Despite Canadian authorities barring David Rovics from entering Canada, a reception to honor him went ahead as planned at the Palestinian Community Centre in Vancouver B.C. David is a Jewish-American singer/songwriter/activist and is one of the leading anti-war voices in North America supporting the Palestinian people...

More than 100 residents of Hadidiya village On 10 April, the Israeli army served demolition orders on all the residents of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Hadidiya, in the Jordan Valley in the east of the occupied West Bank, giving them until 21 April to leave their homes.