September 18, 2005

Chairman of Hamilton Police Services Board Bernie Morelli shuts down speeches by human rights activists during public meeting regarding  police chief's visit to Israel

by Graeme MacQueen

Eighteen people were scheduled  to speak at the September 21st forum called by the Hamilton Police Services Board in response to formal complaints regarding the participation of  Hamilton Police Chief Brian Mullan in the
visit of 30 Ontario Police Chiefs to Israel, ostensibly to learn anti-terrorism tactics.

The meeting was shut down after only four speakers had given their presentation.   Those opposing the trip pointed to Israel's consistent violations of human rights and international law as well as to the
inappropriately political aims of the trip. Once the meeting began, Chairman Morelli  announced that he would interrupt any speaker who said anything "political," because, he affirmed, the police trip had been completely non-political.  His office had given no indication to the presenters when they registered as speakers in the preceding days that such a criterion would be applied.  After months of struggle to have their concerns aired in a public forum, opponents of the trip were not to be
allowed to make their points.

Not only did Mr. Morelli personally interrupt the speakers critical of the police trip, but  he failed to silence the cat-calls, interruptions, and abuse from the pro-Israel contingent in the meeting.  The meeting was cut short by Mr. Morelli, who apparently decided that, despite the presence of several police officers, he could not control the crowd.

Below are two of the undelivered speeches.

_______________________

THE 2005 ONTARIO POLICE SECURITY PERSONNEL MISSION TO ISRAEL

Graeme MacQueen
September 21, 2005

I have come to this meeting simply as a citizen, not as a representative of any organization. It may be useful for you to know, however, that I taught in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University for 30 years and that I was founding Director of the Centre for Peace Studies, during which time I oversaw research and peace-building projects in Afghanistan, Croatia, Sri Lanka and Gaza.

I am here today to speak against the 2005 Ontario police security personnel mission to Israel and to propose a simple policy guideline that I believe may prevent such mistakes from occurring again.

I am not here to accuse anyone of evil intentions, least of all the Ontario police chiefs, who, I am sure, went with the best of intentions. But I believe the trip was a serious mistake.

My understanding of the mission to Israel is based on the comments of the chiefs as reported in the press, and on the account of the trip written by a member of the delegation, Chief Paul Cook from North Bay.

We have been told the trip was educational and not political, but when I read Mr. Cook?s four page account I was forced to conclude that the trip was political from beginning to end.

Mr. Cook talks a great deal, for example, about terrorism directed against Israel. Fair enough–there have been numerous deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians, and these constitute crimes against humanity. But in his four pages the word "occupation" does not occur once. Imagine that. Why, then,are there  attacks on Israel? Mr. Cook can only refer us to the experts who spoke to his delegation about causes. The roots of terrorism, according to several of these experts, lie in illiteracy and lack of education.

Was the delegation told that 35% of Palestinians in the territories are unemployed, 62% live below the poverty line, and 600,000 are so poor they do not know how they are going to survive? And was it told the cause of this situation? The cause, of course, lies in the missing word: occupation. These people have essentially been imprisoned.

Mr. Cook is saddened, as he should be, by the trauma suffered by Israelis who have experienced terrorism, but he says nothing about the trauma of Palestinians. I believe if I correct the balance it may help us understand this mysterious terrorism. A study conducted by our McMaster-based team in
1996, based on a random sampling of over 600 school-age Palestinian children in Gaza, found that 69% of the children had been exposed to tear-gas, 40% had witnessed family members being arrested or humiliated, and 39.5% were suffering from moderate to severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There were, at the time of our study, over 450,000 people in Gaza under the age of 16, so when you do the math this adds up to a very large number of abused and traumatized young people.
And the main cause of this suffering? The missing word again: occupation. The longest military occupation in modern history. I wonder if the delegation was told how many human rights conventions and how many articles of international law have been violated by this occupation? Mr. Cook does not say. Like "occupation," the expressions "human rights" and "international law"do not occur in his report.

I would like to be reassured that Canadian police care about human rights and about law–not just the law of the occupier but law as formulated by the world community–international law.  I would like to be assured that if Canadian police are preparing to deal with terrorism they have some grasp of why it occurs. For my part, I do not find Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens mystifying at all. I reject and denounce it, whether it is carried out by suicide bombers or anyone else, but I am not surprised by it and I do not believe you have to be an expert to understand it.

A prominent Israeli, Avraham Burg--former speaker of Israel's Knesset and former chairman of theJewish Agency for Israel–put it this way two years ago:
"Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centres of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated."

I am not suggesting that Palestinians are crazed victims without consciousness, intelligence and political aims. I simply want to draw attention to the extreme situation of deprivation and injustice in which they live, which helps to explain the extreme tactics that some of them have used and will continue to use as long as they feel abandoned by the world community. If we do not make every effort to advocate for them legally and nonviolently we should not be surprised when they resort to destructive methods.

Let us now go back to my original question: Did members of the delegation get education or politics in Israel? I think they got both. They got politicized education. They got an education that left Mr. Cook full of admiration for his police colleagues in Israel and for Israeli citizens, but with, as far as I can tell, little interest in Palestinians and little understanding of why some of them resort to terrorism. The delegation got an education that led the Toronto police Chief to lead the parade in this year?s "Walk with Israel." They got an education that led Chief Paul Hamelin to say, "I think that Israel has found an admirable balance between security and human rights." How are we supposed to feel when we hear that judgment–that remarkable, political judgment? Are we supposed to feel reassured about the future of anti-terrorism policing in Ontario?

As it happens, Mr. Hamelin?s judgement differs from that of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the General Assembly of the United Nations. Mr. Hamelin?s conclusion differs from that
of the International Court of Justice. And it differs from that of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, who reported in 2004 that Israeli violations of human rights "continue to destroy the fabric of Palestinian society." The Special Rapporteur, John Dugard, went on
to say:

"All States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention [this includes Canada] are obliged to ensure compliance by Israel with the international humanitarian law embodied in this Convention. Israel?s defiance of international law poses a threat not only to the international legal order but to the international order itself. This is no time for appeasement on the part of the international community."

As the West rushes to congratulate Mr. Sharon for withdrawing 2% of the illegal settlers on Palestinian land, and as we send our police chiefs to Israel to learn about how to deal with terrorism, we should remember Mr. Dugard?s words about appeasing violators of international law.

And this leads me to my proposed policy guideline, with which I end my presentation:

"Canadian police will not be sent for training to any country that, according to credible human rights organizations, is engaged in ongoing, serious and systematic violations of international law or human rights."
Thank you.

SOURCES

"2005 Mission to Israel." Undated. Article apparently by Chief Paul Cook, North Bay Police Service. North Bay Police Service website.

Amnesty International 2005 Report: Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Avraham Burg, "The end of Zionism." September, 15, 2003. Guardian Unlimited. Reprinted with permission of The Forward, which translated and adapted this essay from an article that originally appeared in Yediot Aharonot.

Human Rights Watch World Report 2005: Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories. Report, Human Rights Watch, 13 January 2005.

International Court of Justice, "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." July 9, 2004.

"Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem: Human Rights Resolution 2005/7." Adopted 2005. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

J. Dugard, "Question of the Violations of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine: Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967"

D. Freeman-Maloy, "Walk on the Weird Side." NOW, vol. 24, no. 40. June 2-8,
2005.

L. Frucht, "Canadian Police Learn How to Bolster Security at Home during Israel Visit." Canada Israel Committee website, March 10, 2005.

PHR [Physicians for Human Rights]-Israel website.

T. Miller, et al, "Emotional and Behavioural Problems and Trauma Exposure of School-age Palestinian Children in Gaza: Some Preliminary Findings. Medicine, Conflict and Survival, vol. 15, 368-378, 1999.

Waiting for Justice: Al-Haq: 25 Years Defending Human Rights (1979-2004). June 2005. 294 pages.

____________________

Presentation to Hamilton Police Services Board Sept 21, 2005

by Susan Howard-Azzeh

Good Evening Police Services Chair Morelli, Vice Chair Nimigan, Police Chief Mullan, and Ms. Lois Morin...

My name is Susan Howard-Azzeh and I'm here representing the Niagara Palestinian Association and the Niagara Coalition for Peace which have members in both the Niagara Region and Hamilton. (Between the two groups we have approximately 818 individual members, not counting organizational members.)

I am not a diplomat and I am not a rabble-rouser. I am here tonight to try to be informative. The pro-Israeli lobby had a week to give their perspective to Ontario police in Israel. Please let the voices for Palestinian human rights and appropriate policing in Canada have this one evening

Our membership is very concerned about the Hamilton Wentworth Regional Police Service Board's decision to permit your Chief of Police, Chief Mullan to participate in the training trip to Israel of Canadian politicians and senior police officials. I know if consulted, none of our members would have endorsed this training. (A full list of all those who went on the trip is on page 21 of our complaint.)

The idea of Canadian police officers learning from and possibly adopting Israeli police tactics is genuinely scary.

Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress was quoted in the Toronto Star August 31 as saying that our complaints are "frivolous". He was also quoted as saying that the complaints are "Hypocritical and based on many false and hateful foundations." (The Liberal, Chief's Israel trip OK, says board" by Martin Derbyshire, staff Writer Sept 1, 05)

Our complaints are not based on "hateful foundations" as Farber declares. They are based on fact. But yes, we do hate it when Israeli police arrest young people for throwing stones at Israeli tanks by putting a damp burlap sack over their head, cuffing them and physically and verbally beating them during interrogations, as has been documented. Yes, we do hate it when an Israeli sniper, during a period of calm, fires upon a group of children, killing some, as happened to my husband's 13 year old cousin Nida in Beit Jalla near Bethlehem. Yes, we do hate it when Israeli police arrest andindefinitely detain Palestinians without charge or trial and deny them access to legal counsel and family, as is documented for example in "Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel's Detention of Palestinian Children" by Adam Hanieh. Yes, we do hate it when Israeli police routinely use a shoot to kill strategy, which they also taught to the London police who shot Jean Charles de Menezes (Jimmy Burns Financial Times July 25, 2005 and other articles.). Yes, we do hate it when some Palestinian areas have an 80% unemployment rate because Israeli "border" police will not allow them through check-points to go to work, their orchards, or to school. And yes, we do hate it when pregnant Palestinian women give birth at check-points for the same reason, resulting in at least 30 newborn infants dying at Israel checkpoints in a two year period. ("Children Under Occupation" Appendix F in our Complaint.)

In Israel, Israeli Jews are for the most part only subject to Israeli police. Palestinian Israelis on the other hand are subject to both Israeli police and the Israeli military interchangeably. As Michael Ben-Yair, Attorney General of Israel from 1993 to 1996 said, Israel has two judicial systems: one - progressive, liberal - for the Jews; a second - cruel, injurious - for the Palestinian Arabs. (Ha'artez News, March 3, 2002.) Members of the Niagara Palestinian Association have been tortured by these cruel, injurious Israeli policing bodies. The use of torture is routine and officially sanctioned in Israel. When one of our members was 16 years old, he was throwing stones at an Israeli tank. He was arrested. While the Israelis were beating him, he fell to the ground and said "Guys, my hip, my hip." Rather than softening their blows or letting him up, they beat him harder until his hip totally shattered. They then arrested him and put him in jail for 18 months. His leg is now 2 inches shorter and he has a permanent limp. Israel placed another of our members in a concrete closet for three months, with only a small opening near his eyes. He was allowed out for one hour a day to eat and lie down.

In October 2000, 13 Palestinians were killed during a demonstration by Israeli police. This week the Israeli Justice Ministry's Police Investigation Unit released its decision that none of the Israeli police who killed these 13 unarmed Palestinians will be prosecuted, despite concluding that officers issued directives to snipers to open live-fire on the stone throwing protesters. Additionally the Or Commission found that officers could have prevented clashes and that live-fire was used without justification causing death and that evidence had been concealed, yet still no Israeli police have been prosecuted. ("No officers to face charges for October riots as ministry closes investigation" Jonathan Lis, Haaretz 19/09/05; "No police charged in rioters' deaths" Jerusalem Post Sept 18, 2005. "Arab, left wing MKs blast decision" Jerusalem Post Sept 18, 2005.)

Are these the "best practices" we want Canadian officers to use in Canada? I don't think so.
I can't imagine that the Hamilton Regional Police Services Board was aware of these practices when they approved Chief Mullan's trip to Israel.

Leslie Lasky, president of the United Jewish Appeal Federation, whose Toronto chapter hosted two Israeli Defence Forces representatives, who were illegally recruiting in Toronto schools in May (page 6 of our Complaint), is quoted in the Hamilton Spectator yesterday as saying our complaint, "borders on anti-Semitism." ("Tomorrow's hot topic: Police chief's Israel trip" by Sharon Boase Hamilton Spectator, Sept 20, 2005.)

Our complaints are not anti-Semitic. As Canadian citizens we expect that our right to public dissent be protected without the slander of automatically being labeled anti-Semitic. “Many try to silence any critical discourse of Israel's practices by calling it anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. The obvious fact is that the government of Israel has been labeled by many international human rights organizations and various  United Nations bodies as a frequent violator of human rights and the rule of international law.” (Omar Alghabra, President Canadian Arab Federation,  “Re: ‘Police chief's Israel trip was bound to blow up on him- and it did.' Hamilton Spectator, March 26, 2005.)

What we are criticizing is the political ideology of *Zionism and the practices that stem from creating and maintaining an exclusively "Jewish State" at the expense of the indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians. Canada and all of our public institutions, such as police services, supposedly embrace anti-racism and multicultural and religious diversity. So why would we want to emulate Israel which as an exclusively "Jewish State" and which is
therefore racist by definition? Ironically, South African Apartheid and the creation of Israel were both implemented in 1948.

*Zionism is an ideology founded by Theodore Hertzel in 1897: “Among the Jews, a theory, plan, or movement for colonizing their own race in Palestine, the land of Zion, or if that is impracticable, elsewhere [such as Argentina and Uganda], either for religious or nationalizing purposes. http://www.brainydictionary.com/words/zi/zionism186636.html  

“A Zionist is anyone who upholds the continued existence of a “Jewish state” in Palestine, which can only be at the expense of the indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians. The State of Israel holds itself out as a “Jewish state”. An anti-Zionist is anyone who upholds the right of all of the people of Palestine to national self-determination, which includes the right of the return of the Arab refugees, and which can be achieved in the framework of a unified democratic
republic in Palestine.”

The sponsors' Propaganda Agenda of this trip was very effective. To read our findings in this regard and our thoughts on the "Security Measures" learned, please see pages 11 and 16 of our Complaint.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Premier Dalton McGuinty has told the Canadian Arab Federation that he will never allow a trip like this to happen again. This is not enough. Reparatory action must be taken to mend the damage that has already been done. And the Hamilton Wentworth Police Services Board needs to develop policy to ensure that their officers never again accept funding and training from a foreign government which is involved in human rights abuses, such as I have described. Despite Premier McGuinty's promise, the Hamilton Wentworth Police Services needs new policy, because politicians come and go.

2. Some organizations have requested that local police services reimburse taxpayers for the approximately $2,000. per officer who participated in the trip. On the other hand the Niagara Palestinian Association and the Niagara coalition for eace request that the Hamilton Police Service or the province send the Chief Mullan and the same Ontario Police delegation back to the Middle East but this time to the occupied Palestinian territories, to Palestinian Canadian chosen locations, to Palestinian areas in Israel (some
of which are worse than the refugee camps in the territories), and to meet with joint Jewish/Palestinian peace organizations; NOTE: There is a fundamental difference between Ontario police officers going to Israel to learn Israeli police and military tactics, and Ontario police officers going to the occupied Palestinian territories on a Fact Finding Mission to learn about the day to day living conditions of Palestinians under Israeli police and military rule.

3. Hamilton Police Service, if they have not already done so, to create requirements to ensure that the Police Service Board reflects Hamilton's multicultural and religious diversity.

4. Meet with Palestinian Canadian victims of Israeli torture.

OPEN INVITATION

We would be pleased if you would accept our invitation to attend various cultural and educational events held by Palestinian Canadian organizations and supporters of Palestinian human rights. They are an ideal opportunity to get to know the Canadian Palestinian and solidarity community, to sit in a relaxed atmosphere to learn about Canadian-Palestinian and solidarity concerns, and the on-going suffering of Palestinians in the territories, in Israel, and in exile.

We would be happy to meet at any time with Chiefs of Police, police officers and elected officials who are interested in discussing Canadian-Palestinian concerns.

I appreciate your time and attention. Thank you.

Linda
See www.canpalnet-ottawa.org
for Canada-Palestine news.
----- Original Message -----
From: Graeme MacQueen
To: Linda Belanger
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 1:53 PM
Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: RE: September 21 meeting in Hamilton re trip to Israel]


Dear Linda:
You've probably already received this note, but if not I'm sending it on. Without wanting to point the finger at anyone in particular, I would haagree with the gentleman below that "our side" was not without its faults in Hamilton's recent fiasco. I am a strong believer in self-criticism, and I believe if we don't do it we'll keep repeating the same mistakes. I hope those of us who participated in the criticism of the chiefs' visit will have a chance to do some self-criticism and reflection.

All the best,
Graeme MacQueen

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fwd: RE: September 21 meeting in
Hamilton re trip to Israel
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 11:07:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Khaled Mouammar < benwalid@rogers.com >
To: Khaled Loutfi Mouammar < benwalid@rogers.com >



As per Ali's note, these are things we should prevent from happening at our
October 14 meeting.
Khaled
Ali Cheaib < ali.cheaib@mohawkcollege.ca > wrote:
From: "Ali Cheaib" < ali.cheaib@mohawkcollege.ca >
To: "'Khaled Mouammar'" < benwalid@rogers.com >,
"'Omar Alghabra'" < 3omar@rogers.com >,
"'Mohamed Boudjenane'" < ed@caf.ca >,
"'Elias Hazineh'" < ehazineh@hotmail.com >,
"'Issam Al-Yamani'" < IAlyamani@aol.com >
Subject: RE: September 21 meeting in Hamilton re trip to Israel
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 08:14:26 -0400


Thank you Khaled for the clear synopsis on the botched meeting with Hamilton
Police Services Board.  I would like to add another cautionary item to the
list: the irresponsible behaviour of some of our own people during the
meeting that has given media in this city an excellent point to spin left
right and center thus accusing us of ruining that rather important event and
flashing the picture of an outraged individual who was actually being calmed
down by a friend, to be portrayed as if the two men where "fighting" each
other.

I understand the highly charged environment that we operated in on that
evening and how easy it was for our adversaries to exploit the situation.
But what I cannot understand is the immature and reckless reactions that you
and I witnessed that night when a couple of irresponsible individuals from
our side decided to leave the room in such a nervous and hysterical manner.

With all due respect to these people and their personal experiences that may
have caused them to act in that manner, but I truly do not wish to be at all
associated with such a group of anarchists that hurt the cause and provide
media with a healthy dose of tabloid style reporting.  It is a shame to get
into a situation where after the dust settles, the victim becomes the
aggressor and in between we become faced with a tremendous task of damage
control.

Have a good day,
Ali.










_________________________
Ali Cheaib, Professor
School of Computer Science and Engineering
Room E132 - Fennell Campus
Box 2034
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada L8N 3T2
Voice: 905.575.1212 x.3226
email: ali.cheaib@mohawkcollege.ca
URL : cs.mohawkcollege.ca





From: Khaled Mouammar [mailto:benwalid@rogers.com]
Sent: September 22, 2005 1:27 PM
To: Omar Alghabra; Mohamed Boudjenane; Elias Hazineh; Issam Al-Yamani
Subject: September 21 meeting in Hamilton re trip to Israel


I am writing to update you regarding the public meeting, that took place at
the Aquarius Theatre in Hamilton last night, to hear our complaint regarding
the trip of Hamilton Police Chief Mullan to Israel.

Eighteen presenters were scheduled to speak, 13 in favour of the complaint
and 5 against it.
The hall was packed with 300 people and the pro-Israeli side outnumbered our
side by 4 to 1, which was a major handicap and a huge disappointment.

It was evident from the start that Bernie Morelli, the Chair of the Hamilton
Police Services Board, who chaired the meeting, was biased towards the
pro-Israeli side who were quite intimidating by their numbers and behaviour.
He did not seriously attempt to stop the Zionists from booing and
interrupting our presenters. Moreover, he kept interjecting our
presentations claiming they were too political.

In spite of all this harassment the first three presenters were able to
deliver their speeches with courage, competence and dignity:

1) Ken Stone from Community Coalition Against Racism

2) Maryam Ibrahim from Solidarity for Palestinian Rights, McMaster
University

3) Peter Leibovitch from Hamilton Steelworker Area Council (Peter was unable
to attend because he was held up by Stelco labour negotiations, and his
speech was read by Ann Holubeshen from Palestinian Community Group).

The next presenter on the list was Susan Howard-Azzeh, president of Niagara
Palestinian Association and co-chair of Niagara Coalition for Peace. Her
presentation also included a PowerPoint presentation projecting pictures of
Israeli police brutalities. The heckling by the Zionists mounted and the
Chair asked her to halt her PowerPoint presentation. She refused, and
accused the Chair of bias and discrimination. The Zionists escalated their
disruptive tactics blocking the projection of the images on the screen,
pandemonium ensued and the meeting was cancelled.

The Zionists came prepared to the meeting, they mobilized their troops.Their
strategy was to unnerve and bully our presenters and pressure the Chair to
do their bidding. They were able to succeed due to the absence of our
supporters which encouraged the Chair to rule in their favour whenever they
heckled.

On October 14, our complaint against Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair's
orchestrated trip to Israel will be heard by the Toronto Police Services
Board. It is imperative that we mobilize our communities fully this time to
prevent the Zionists from dictating the conduct and the outcome of the
meeting. By our strong presence we send a clear message to the chair that
this issue is very important to our communities and also that we will not
tolerate him giving preferential treatment to the Zionists.

I am making a strong appeal to you to publicize this event and campaign
seriously for it from now until October 14 to ensure that our communities
mobilize seriously for this upcoming meeting in Toronto.

The Zionists are taking our complaint seriously and this is why they
mobilized strongly for it in Hamilton, because they want to prevent us from
exposing to the public the human rights abuses committed by Israel and its
racist nature.

It is imperative that our community rise to the challenge now to send a
clear message to the police and the politicians that we will not tolerate
the importing of abhorrent Israeli police practices to Ontario and that we
will not remain silent while our civil rights are being trampled over.

A person dies when he refuses to stand up against injustice and for that
which is right.

Khaled Mouammar