CAIWC PRESS RELEASE - New Coalition Formed to Oppose Sharon's Visit to Toronto, says "Israeli War Criminals Not Welcome"

TORONTO (October 20) - Responding to news that current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been invited to Toronto to address the United Jewish Communities (UJC) General Assembly on November 14th, a broad grouping of concerned individuals and organizations has come together to form the Coalition Against Israel's War Crimes (CAIWC).

The coalition includes members of Palestine House, Sumoud – Political Prisoner Solidarity Group, Arab Students Collective (ASC), Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), Al-Awda Right of Return Coalition, the Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA), the Toronto District Council of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation (JWCEO), Muslim Unity Group, and a number of other individuals and organizations.

Rafeef Ziadah, spokesperson for the Coalition, explains: "It is unacceptable that a war criminal like Ariel Sharon be allowed to address any conference, much less set foot in Toronto unless it is to face trial for the crimes he has committed. His record speaks for itself and he must be held to account."

Volunteers and members from SPHR National have prepared an indictment of Sharon under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (2000, c.24). The letter is currently being reviewed by legal experts from the group Lawyers Against the War (LAW) before being submitted to the current Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liberal MP Pierre Pettigrew.

A legal advisor to the Coalition explains, "Canada's War Crimes legislation has often been abused in the past to unfairly target immigrants and refugees. Here's an opportunity to do something about an actual war-criminal responsible for flagrant-violations of humanitarian law under the IVth Geneva Convention. Let's hope the Canadian legal system doesn't let Sharon literally get away with murder for the mere sake of political expediency. This is an opportunity to use the legislation as it was initially intended."

Jonathan Hodge, of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, was adamant that Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish community groups along with their supporters are mobilized to protest any planned visit by Ariel Sharon to Canada. "We must stand up and state clearly that Sharon is not welcomed in Toronto. This is a man implicated in violations of humanitarian law stretching back to the 1948 war, including massacres at Qibya (1953), Sabra and Shatilla (1982), and in places like Jenin, Gaza and Nablus during this Intifada."

The Coalition is planning to hold a public forum on November 10th at which the BBC documentary 'The Accused' will be screened, in addition to a series of smaller educational events in the lead up to Sharon's proposed visit. The Coalition is also planning on holding a public rally on November 14th to register its opposition to the presence of war criminals in Toronto.

For more information on the Coalition, its demands or to obtain copies of the legal brief against Sharon, please contact the following media liaisons:

CAIWC Spokespeople

Rafeef Ziadeh - (416) 616-4796, rafeef@rocketmail.com
Jonathan Hodge - sphr_toronto@mail.com

CAIWC Legal Committee
coalition_against_war_crimes@hotmail.com

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A Summary of Sharon's Crimes
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* On October 14th, 1953 Sharon led a battalion-sized unit of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) into the village of Qibiya. According to Israeli historian Avi Shlaim "Sharon's order was to penetrate Qibya, blow up houses and inflict heavy casualties on its inhabitants. His success in carrying out the order surpassed all expectations. The full and macabre story of what happened at Qibya was revealed only during the morning after the attack. The village had been reduced to rubble: forty-five houses had been blown up, and sixty-nine civilians, two-thirds of them women and children, had been killed." The US Department of State issued a statement on 18 October 1953 expressing its "deepest sympathy for the families of those who lost their lives" in the Qibya attack as well as the conviction that those responsible "should be brought to account and that effective measures should be taken to prevent such incidents in the future".
(Department of State Bulletin, 26 October 1953, page 552)

* While a commander in the IDF, his units committed numerous atrocities, including the killing of over 270 Egyptian prisoners of war in the Sinai campaign of 1956.
(16 Aug 1995, Daily Telegraph, "Israelis Admit Massacre")

* While Defense Minister during the invasion of Lebanon, he allowed Phalangist militias into the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps near Beirut, where they massacred between 700 to 3000 Palestinians while the IDF looked on from observation towers. An official Israeli commission of inquiry (chaired by Yitzhak Kahan, president of Israel's Supreme Court) investigated the massacre, and found Ariel Sharon 'indirectly responsible', recommending he be dismissed from office. There are war crimes charges against him currently pending in Belgium relating to this incident.

* During the 1980s, also as Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon was personally involved in the organization, training and equipping of "commando" units in African countries like Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, where the South African Apartheid regime was involved.
('Israeli Foreign Policy' by Jane Hunter, South End Press, 1987)

* Throughout the 1990's, as Minister of Construction and Housing, and as Minister of National Infrastructure, he was responsible for the building of dozens of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, in contravention of international law and multiple U.N. resolutions (notably Security Council resolution 446, March 22, 1979).

* As Prime Minister, he has been responsible for building a massive wall through the West Bank, which annexes hundreds of acres of Palestinian land and encloses Palestinian villages. It has been denounced by the International Court of Justice (July 9th, 2004). In addition to such illegal construction, Sharon has also overseen the bulldozing of thousands of Palestinian homes and the killing of over 3500 Palestinians, including nearly 650 children during the current Intifada.