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June 1, 2005 Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2 Dear Mr. Prime Minister, As a Canadian citizen and editor of the Montreal Planet Magazine, I am writing to express my disgust at your government’s continuing support for Israeli Apartheid. In the US and Canada, a highly concentrated corporate media has attempted for years to hide the true Apartheid nature of the Israeli regime. Almost everywhere else in the world, an informed populace rejects all forms of racism, including Israeli Apartheid. In article entitled “Both Palestinians and Israelis Will Benefit From a Boycott” from the May 25, 2005 edition of the Guardian newspaper, Ronnie Kasrils (minister for intelligence in the South African government) and journalist Victoria Brittain wrote the following: “In the occupied territories, Israel maintains a strict racial and colonial segregation between Israeli Jewish settlers and the native Palestinians (Muslims and Christians). The former group enjoys economic benefits, special roads, heavily subsidised and more heavily protected housing, and full political rights. Even under apartheid there were never whites-only roads. There was never a comparable prolonged siege, or curfews, that cut off black people from each other. Palestinians, on the other hand, are under a military occupation that kills and destroys, but also continuously dispossesses them of their lands for the benefit of Jewish settlers. The desire for an ethnic-religious majority of Israeli Jews has seeped across from the occupied territories to permeate the Israeli "national" agenda, which increasingly views Palestinian citizens of Israel as a "demographic threat", as former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu phrased it. The Palestinian minority in Israel has for decades been denied basic equality in health, education, housing and land possession, solely because it is not Jewish. The fact that this minority is allowed to vote hardly redresses the rampant injustice in all other basic human rights. They are excluded from the very definition of the "Jewish state", and have virtually no influence on the laws, or political, social and economic policies. Hence their similarity to the black South Africans. In addition, and related to the demographic question, Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 war, their right to return to their lands and properties. Israel bases its position, which is contrary to fundamental human rights provisions and international law, on its right to preserve its Jewish ethnic-religious supremacy. No other country in the world today dares to claim any similar right.” As you no doubt know, Mr. Kasrils is Jewish. The immoral position of your government in supporting Israeli Apartheid is based on the premise that Canadians can be kept misinformed forever. Although your key financial backer Mr. Gerry Schwartz and the people at the Asper controlled media empire may reassure you of this, you are making an immoral and foolish bet. Canadians may be presently misinformed but they are not stupid. As the truth comes out, questions will be asked as to why our government supported Israeli Apartheid. The current cover provided by US disdain for international law and human rights conventions should not be counted on either. I know of no economist or businessperson who does not predict that in five to ten years time, China will be the dominant economic power in the world. When that occurs, it will be a different world, and leaders of the US and other abusers of human rights, past and present, will have to answer to an international community over which they no longer rule. This letter will appear in the June edition of the Montreal Planet and will be sent to human rights groups. Respectfully, Ron Saba Israeli Your Comments |
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