September 5, 2008
Green candidate accused of anti-Israel forum posts gets May's support
BILL CURRY, The Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is affirming her support for
an Ottawa-area Green Party candidate accused of “Israel bashing,” just
one day after citing anti-Semitism as grounds for rejecting one of her
B.C. candidates.
Qais Ghanem, a Yemeni-born physician with a strong interest in the
Middle East, has stirred debate among his fellow Greens on the party's
online discussion forum. The Greens' Ottawa-South candidate has
aligned himself with three other Green candidates to form what they
call the “Ottawa Group of Four.” They are pushing the party to approve
a resolution called “Palestine” that “calls upon Israel to end its
forty-year occupation of all Arab lands without preconditions.”
When some in the discussion forum suggested Dr. Ghanem's comments were
one-sidedly anti-Israel, the Green candidate fired back. “I do not
have to record the opposite point of view to every quotation I dig up,
for the sake of so-called ‘balance,'” he wrote on Aug. 17. “The
Israeli point of view is voiced non-stop by the North American media
which is controlled by a small oligarchy.”
John Bennett, a spokesman for Ms. May, said the Green Leader views the
comments of Dr. Ghanem and the Group of Four as their own individual
positions. He also said their proposed resolution is “within our party
policy.”
The Green Party announced Thursday that it is dropping John Shavluk,
the Green nominee in the suburban riding of Newton-North Delta, B.C.,
from its list of official candidates over an allegedly anti-Semitic
remark in a blog by Mr. Shavluk several years ago.
The Green Party announced Thursday that it is dropping John Shavluk,
the Green nominee in the suburban riding of Newton-North Delta, B.C.,
from its list of official candidates over an allegedly anti-Semitic
remark in a blog by Mr. Shavluk several years ago.
“Dr. Ghanem is a well-known supporter of peaceful resolution in the
Middle East,” said Mr. Bennett, who acknowledged the party is now
rethinking its website policies. “It's an open discussion forum in
which people are allowed to express their opinion. Elizabeth knows Dr.
Ghanem, is happy with him as a candidate, and he is definitely not an
anti-Semite in any way.”
The resolution makes reference to the U.S. Green Party, which drew the
ire of Israeli and British Greens when it called in 2005 for a boycott
and sanctions against Israel.
Sara Saber-Freedman, executive vice-president of the Canada Israel
Committee, said the Greens would be adopting an extreme position
should the resolution be endorsed by party members at their next
convention.
“We think it would be extraordinarily unfortunate if it were to be
adopted,” she said. “It would place the Green Party very far outside
the Canadian mainstream.”
One individual writing on the Green website, Leo Williams, says the
Green Party should not be posting Dr. Ghanem's “scurrilous blog.”
“Every vote is important, and the alienation of discerning Christian
and Jewish voters, via Mr. Ghanem's vilest brand of Israel bashing and
anti-Semitism, is something the GPC [Green Party of Canada] (and
Canadian politics) does not need,” the post reads.
Reached by e-mail, Dr. Ghanem wrote that the Group of Four – whose
other members, Ottawa-area Green candidates Paul Maillet, Akbar
Manoussi and Sylvie Lemieux – are “ardent supporters of human rights
and social justice for ALL people in the world, no matter their
ethnicity or religion.”
John Shavluk, the B.C. candidate ousted on grounds of alleged anti-
Semitism, has been a staunch online defender of Dr. Ghanem. “Bottom
line? Qais gets my help … support … approval,” he wrote July 22.
The reason cited for Mr. Shavluk's removal was an online exchange
about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in which he wrote about the
“shoddily built Jewish world bank headquarters.”
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Original Globe and Mail link
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