November 23, 2007

 

Canada Palestion Support Network - Ottawa

Open Letter to Stephane Dion

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

• On April 24 you participated in Israel 's 59 th anniversary celebrations in Montreal and issued a statement which ignored Israel 's illegal and 40-year occupation of the lands of 3 Arab countries and its serious human rights abuses of the Palestinian population under occupation. A letter signed by 40 Arab, Muslim and Jewish organizations across Canada criticizing your stand and requesting a meeting was faxed to you on May 22 but you have failed so far to reply to it.
• On May 27 you lead a contingent of Liberal MPs at the “Walk for Israel” event in Toronto thereby disregarding the profound pain and suffering that numerous Canadians of Palestinian origin have experienced at the hands of Israeli apartheid and occupation.

2) Since May 2007, the Canadian Arab Federation has made three requests in writing to meet with you but you did not even extend them the courtesy of acknowledging their requests.

3) The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was deemed to be a racist organization by United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1998) and the Attorney General of Israel (2005).  In a 1991 CBC documentary, the JNF was described by former Israeli Parliament Member Uri Avney as having provided a "Canadian cover-up to a war crime".  Despite this, since 1967 the Canadian Government has designated the JNF as a charitable organization, which means the Canadian Government is in effect subsidizing the racist operations of the JNF.

• Your Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae is a committee member of the Racist JNF and Liberal Senator Yoine Goldstein is an Executive Officer of the Racist JNF.  On December 2 in Toronto, the Racist JNF will be raising more tax deductible funds for its "Canadian cover-up to a war crime".
• Why are senior members of your Liberal Party of Canada supporting the racist ideology and racist operations of the racist JNF and helping the Racist JNF raise more funds for its "Canadian cover-up to a war crime"?"

4) Your Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, is a member of the Israeli think tank Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (“BESA”). On 12 September 2006, Cotler spoke at a conference in Israel called "Terrorism's Global Impact", at a session in between speeches by two Israeli Colonels. During his speech, Cotler provided advice to Israel on war strategy and the importance of counteracting complaints from human rights groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Louise Arbour, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. 

• Jimmy Carter in his book “ Palestine : Peace Not Apartheid”, has accused Israel of practicing apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories . The credibility of the Liberal Party is questionable when your Minister of Justice serves as an adviser and an apologist for an apartheid state.

5) Every Western country, and even Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, have been able to secure the release of their citizens from US captivity in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba while Canada, a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child which calls for the repatriation of child soldiers, has done nothing to secure the release of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who has been held there since the age of 15.

• As leader of the Opposition we urge you to demand that Omar be repatriated and face justice in Canada.

6) Your Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff recently returned from a trip to Israel paid for by the Canada-Israel Committee and soon afterwards published an article in the Toronto Star of 18 November 2007 that glossed over Israel's violation of international law and its serious human rights abuses by failing to mention once Israel's brutal occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people.

Canadians expect their politicians to uphold Canadian values instead of serving the Israel lobby and acting as apologists for an apartheid state.

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