January 27, 2007

Tories' pro-Israel stance angers Arabs, Muslims:

Organizations vow to fight Conservatives in next election

by Michael Blanchfield, Ottawa Citizen, January 25, 2007

Following Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay's first Middle East tour, Canadian Arabs and Muslims are threatening to campaign against the Conservative government in the next federal election because of what they says is its continued pro-Israeli stand.

The Canadian-Islamic Congress and the Canadian Arab Federation say Mr. MacKay's office snubbed them before his trip last week to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and he has yet to meet with them in the year he has been in office.

"Mr. MacKay is not accessible to the Canadian Arab and Muslim community," said Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian-Islamic Congress. "It's always the excuse that he's busy."

Both groups have been trying to meet with Mr. MacKay since Prime Minister Stephen Harper positioned Canada squarely as a supporter of Israel during Israel's one-month war with Lebanese-based Hezbollah guerrillas last summer. The groups wanted to make the case to the government that Canada was compromising its neutral standing in the region as possible peacemaker between Israel and the Palestinians.

Both Toronto-based groups say the foreign affairs minister and the prime minister's office have rebuffed them without explanation. Now, they are fed up and are taking steps to punish the Conservatives at the polls.

They say Mr. MacKay did not do enough to see the suffering of Palestinians when he travelled to the Middle East this past week, forgoing a trip to Gaza and witnessing a short, sanitized glimpse of life inside the West Bank that relied on the Israeli government as his guide. And they dismissed his mild criticism of the Israeli security fence, which he said crossed the border into Palestinian territory.

"We also are telling people to make sure in the elections that they vote for candidates who will stand for truth and justice and that's all we can do. We try to contact other groups, churches, unions. ... We have had some success," said Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation.

Mr. Mouammar pointed to last summer's decision by the Toronto branch of the United Church and the Canadian Union of Public Employees to boycott Israeli products to protest its treatment of Palestinians. "Hopefully, people who have views like our prime minister will not be in the next parliament," he said.

Mr. Mouammar said even if Mr. MacKay had returned to Canada enlightened about the level of suffering on the ground in the Palestinian territories, it would have made no difference because he holds no sway with his boss, Mr. Harper.

"The prime minister is really running the foreign affairs," said Mr. Mouammar.

Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the Ottawa-based National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, said he has met with Mr. MacKay twice since last August and has seen some progress in the minister's level of understanding of Middle East issues.

"The issue here remains the Prime Minister's Office control of foreign policy issues and how much the minister can influence change," he said.

Originally published in the Ottawa Citizen.

*************

Fair Use Notice: The above newspaper article is copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.