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INDEPENDENT JEWISH VOICES (Canada)
November 17, 2008
Dr. Victor Rabinovitch victor.rabinovitch@civilization.ca Fax 819-776-7122 Dear Dr. Rabinovitch, We understand that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada is holding its annual Negev Dinner at Canada’s Museum of Civilization on 24 November 2008. Canadians trust that the incumbent President/CEO and Board of the Museum will faithfully safeguard and honour the Museum's guiding principles for its choice of activities—i.e. " that activities are informed by respect: we will not engage in activities or present materials which may promote intolerance." Yet, by providing space to the JNF, we believe the Museum is in violation of this basic principle. And the residents of three Palestinian villages destroyed in 1967 over which the JNF’s “Canada Park” has been built agree, as their attached letter to the Museum attests. Here is why we feel that in hosting the JNF event you are violating principles which you are charged with safeguarding on behalf of all Canadians. According to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz (23/09/07 http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/906203.html), approximately 500,000 out of almost 625,000 acres owned by the JNF were confiscated from Palestinians fleeing war in 1948, and were not purchased with contributions from Jews around the world, as is commonly represented in JNF propaganda. During 1948-53, the Israeli state transferred ownership of this land to the JNF for the sole use of Jews—as per the JNF’s governing articles—without any compensation to its rightful Palestinian owners. This confiscation violates international law and is an ongoing source of grievance inside Israel amongst its Palestinian citizens and amongst Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories and neighbouring Arab states. In Israel, this “redemption of land” (which in fact is the appropriation of Palestinian land and its “transfer” to Israeli Jews) is ongoing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, occupied by Israeli forces since 1967. The so-called “Canada Park”, which is maintained through JNF-Canada contributions, is built on the site of three Palestinian villages captured in 1967, which were evacuated and razed to the ground. Forcible transfer of civilians and extensive destruction and appropriation of property in occupied territory are war crimes amounting to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention—international legal codes adopted after World War II in recognition that maltreatment and atrocities against civilians in wartime should never happen again. Indeed, in 2007, the United Nations’ Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) rejected the application of the Jewish National Fund (JNF)-USA for consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) because of its discriminatory practices and complicity in violations against international law. The Canadian government has consistently called for restoration and promotion of rule of law at home and abroad. The Museum, as an institution of the government, has an obligation to uphold this principle. Moreover, in providing space to the JNF, the Museum is in violation of its own principle to promote Canada’s fundamental “commitment to democracy in its political and social sense.” Canada's great Museum of Civilization is an embodiment of Canadians' acknowledgement of and atonement for colonial ethnic cleansing of our First Peoples. For an organization which embraces racist policies and aids and abets ethnic cleansing and its cover-up to be feting adherents at the very feet of representations of Canada's destroyed or severely damaged aboriginal cultures in the Museum's Great Hall puts in question our nation's understanding of its egregious colonial settlement past and raises questions about the sincerity of our apologies to our aboriginal peoples. This letter is to ask you to honour the Museum’s Guiding Principles and the apology made to our aboriginal peoples and rescind the Museum’s agreement to provide space to the JNF for its Negev Dinner. Sincerely, Diana Ralph, Ph.D. |