|
affiliate of canpalnet.ca CANADA-PALESTINE SUPPORT NETWORK
|
June 8, 2004 Questions to Candidates Compiled by Canpalnet Vancouver 1. Politicians such as Joe Volpe and Stephen Owen, members of Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel, and Stockwell Day, Conservative Party foreign affairs critic, want Canada to increase its support for Israel. They are mostly silent or critical when it comes to supporting the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to end the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Official Canadian government policy, in concert with the United Nations and a broad international consensus, supports the withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank and Gaza and the establishment of a Palestinian state along pre-1967 borders. Do you? And why. 2. Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel also opposes recent UN resolutions condemning Israeli human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza. These resolutions refer to Israel’s policies of collective punishment, arbitrary imprisonment, home demolitions and extra-judicial killings (or assassinations). What will you and your party do to uphold Palestinian human rights? 3a) It is the inalienable right of every refugee to return to their homeland. This right cannot be negotiated away by any political entity. What is Canada's responsibility in helping to assure the right of return for Palestinian refugees? b) Tel Zultan, a refugee camp in Rafah, Gaza, received 2.6 million in aid from Canada between 2000 and 2002. In May 2004, the Israeli military killed 57 Palestinians and injured 200 others in Rafah, and destroyed 360 homes. Tel Zultan was one of the areas hit. What should Canada do to help Palestinian refugees in Rafah seek redress? 4. There is strong international condemnation of the building of the illegal Apartheid Wall in the Occupied Territories (the West Bank and Gaza Strip). Canada voted in October 2003 at the UN to oppose the Wall. Stockwell Day of the Conservative Party thinks it should be built and has denounced Canada's position. If elected, will you speak out against the building of this wall? 5a) Under the Geneva Conventions an occupying power is prohibited from settling its own people in the occupied territory. Israel has illegally settled over 400,000 settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. What would you do to see that the Geneva Conventions are upheld? b) Should registered Canadian charities be allowed to channel money to the Israeli settlement movement as they are doing currently? c) Should Canada allow goods produced in these illegal settlements to be sold in Canada? Your Comments |
| . |