We do not need to prove our loyalty!
We were alarmed and shocked when we read your weekly Bulletins July 22 and July 29, 2005. We had thought that forming “Canadians for Jerusalem” to defend the Canadian Government’s position had been an isolated incident, but it seems to us that official CAF policy is sinking further into a policy of collaboration and subjugation to the Canadian establishment.
Let us not fall into the knee-jerk reflex of feeling we have to prove our loyalties. In fact, our loyalties should not be in question, but rather the commitment of our government to ensure that all people in this country are treated fairly and with respect and that its own policies do not endanger its citizens’ well being and safety. It is our legal right to dissent, to criticize and to call the government to account for any harmful policies.
We do NOT have anything to hide and collaboration does NOT benefit the victim. Here are some of the headlines that were in your July 22 Bulletin:
- CAF Meets With the Honourable Monte Kwinter
- CAF Youth – Police Workshop
- Canadian Imams Issue a Statement Condemning Extremism
- Sharia Law and the Globalization of Political Islam Conference, August 12, 2005 (where a self- professed Zionist Muslim will be speaking – ed)
And the July 29 Bulletin went on with:
- CAF Meets with Chief of Police William Blair
- CAF Youth-Police Workshop
Let us start with the Police and Security Services:
A. The Canadian Arab and Muslim communities are not responsible for any act of terror committed by radical Muslim and Arab organizations, the same way we do not hold every individual Canadian responsible for the acts of the Canadian government’s complicity in Israeli state terrorism.
B. No Canadian police nor intelligence organization has any right to harass, intimidate or question our community on the basis of its ethnicity nor its religion; they have every right to investigate suspected criminals or terrorists. OUR COMMUNITY IS NEITHER.
C. If the Canadian local Police, RCMP and CSIS want to follow the trail of who instigates, promotes and cultivates terror organizations, they should follow the path of Canadian Government policies that work as a green house for cultivating terrorism.
D. The Progressive Arab and Muslim community always took a principled stand against all terrorism and warned the Canadian Government against its biased, criminal, anti-humanitarian and anti- international law policies. We always spoke out, contrary to the behaviour of some pro-Canadian Government Arab and Muslim lackeys.
E. Finally and frankly, we do NOT trust the police or any arm of the Canadian Government; the Canadian government has consistently proven it is not a friend of our community or our peoples in the Arab and Muslim world (we will explain that later). If you really care about our community and want to learn about the racist police treatment of minorities and aboriginal natives, it is well documented and an abundance of examples are available. And if anyone is interested in understanding the Police mentality, check the documentary IPPERWASH: A CANADIAN TRAGEDY to be shown on CBC Saturday July 30, 2005 at 10pm ET/PT (http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/feature_200904.html)
Regarding the Canadian Government, we would like to remind the current “leadership” of CAF about the following:
A. Successive Canadian governments supported and were complicit in Palestinian dispossession, and accordingly are responsible for the ethnic cleansing that befell the Palestinian people. For more details see Birthright Denied: Canadian Complicity in Palestinian Dispossession (Download PDF: birthright_denied.pdf).
B. No Canadian government apologized for it role in this dispossession.
C. Successive Canadian governments supported the Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people.
D. The Canadian Government considers Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation “terrorism”; while at the same time supporting Israeli terrorism with manpower (Canadians publicly enrol in the Israeli Army), financially (giving tax deductions to the Israeli establishment including illegal Zionist settlers and settlements), materially (the Canada-Israel free trade agreement and other loans and benefits), militarily (mostly kept secret as in the Canada-Israel free trade agreement), on the intelligence level( the close coordination between CSIS and the Israeli Mossad) and politically and diplomatically (protecting Israel at international forums and at the UN institutions).
E. The security of Israel is the “core of Canada’s Middle East policy since 1948” (see http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/middle_east/can_policy-en.asp#01 ). This has been the case regardless of Israel’s repeated violations of UN Security Council and general assembly resolutions, the Fourth Geneva convention, international humanitarian laws, and the International Court of Justice ruling.
F. The Canadian Government’s military, logistical and economic support for the US imperial ventures in the Middle East (examples: Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine) is well documented and known by our Arab and Muslim communities in Canada and everywhere else.
It is extremely regrettable that at this crucial moment in the history of our community here in Canada, the leadership of CAF has chosen to adopt this policy of unconditional support for whatever the Canadian government and its institutions put forth . Our community needs critical and intelligent responses to measures of racial profiling and discrimination. The Canadian government does not have a good track record on protecting the rights of innocent minorities (the Japanese during WWII, for just one example) and this is the area of greatest danger for our community that should receive the full priority of CAF resources.
We call on CAF and our community to boycott any meetings with the Police or the Security Services.
We call on CAF, for the sake of its own credibility, to publicly disclose what happened with the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services and Toronto’s Chief of Police.
We call on the Arab and Muslim “leadership” including the Imams to denounce all forms of terrorism including US and Israeli state terrorism, and to denounce all those who support and participate in these acts of terrorism and war crimes – and that includes the Canadian Liberal Government.
Hanna Kawas,
Chair, Canada Palestine Association www.cpavancouver.org
Host, Voice of Palestine www.voiceofpalestine.ca