Author: cpaadmin

Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada
Mr. Prime Minister:

On March 10, 2006, the Canadian representative at the UN voted against a motion calling on Israel to allow all Palestinian refugee women and children to return to their homes. The UN Economic and Social Council adopted the South African-sponsored resolution by a vote of 41-2, with only Canada and the United States voting against it.

On March 29, 2006, the Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and International Co-operation Minister Josée Verner announced that Canada was ending contacts with the duly elected Palestinian Authority and suspending Canadian aid to the PA. Canada was the first western country to officially do so, even before the US.

Your Government also issued a deportation order effective Thursday April 20, 2006 for Issam Al- Yamani. Issam is a stateless Palestinian refugee, long time Palestinian community leader and a human rights activist who lived in Canada for twenty years and has a long record in serving the community at large.

Mr. Prime Minister:

I would like to remind you of the following facts that relate to the role of Canada in the dispossession of the Palestinian people, in case your advisors did not bring them to your attention.

1. Canada was directly responsible for the Palestinian refugee problem. ” Mr. Justice Ivan Rand… played a central role in formulating the recommendations of its majority report (for the U.N. Partition Plan) … with Mr. (Lester) Pearson playing an active role in securing its passage. … Zionists were so grateful to Canada and to Mr. Pearson for the part he played in the whole process that they called him ‘the Balfour of Canada’.” (Report of the Canadian Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs published June 1985, page 49.)
2. During the creation of the state of Israel, Canadian volunteers and equipment were sent to help in the colonization of Palestine. “More than 300 Canadians eventually joined the Israeli forces while tons of military equipment, from Harvard training aircraft to radio sets, were smuggled out of Canadian ports”. (Canada and the birth of Israel, David J. Bercuson, page191.)
3. On May 11, 1949, Canada co-sponsored the U.N. General Assembly resolution 273(111) to admit Israel as a state to the U.N. That resolution stated: “Recalling its resolution of 29 November 1947 (the Partition Plan) and 11 December 1948 (the Right of Return), …decides to admit Israel into the membership of the United Nations.”

Now Canada, under your leadership, shows its true face regarding the Palestinian refugees. It was clear to all objective people that when Canada co-sponsored U.N. resolution 273, it was for the sole purpose of admitting Israel to the U.N. and not because of any concern for implementing UN resolutions, nor for human rights and dignity. Your recent vote at the UN removed the last fig leaf.

Your government and previous Canadian governments concretely supported Israeli occupation and war crimes. To mention just a few examples:

1. The Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement allows products produced in the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank to enjoy the benefits of this agreement.
2. Revenue Canada gives tax deduction status to Zionist groups that support the illegal Israeli settlements, including the so called “Jewish National Fund” that openly discriminates against Christian and Moslems, simply because of their religion.
3. Canada’s financial, political and diplomatic support for Israeli occupation and war crimes is well documented and contravenes all international humanitarian laws, the Fourth Geneva Convention andU.N. resolutions. The recent visit of former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon to Canada showed that you are not only supporting Israeli war crimes, but you are also directly participating in protecting war criminals.

Following the role of Canada in forcing the Partition Plan of Nov. 29, 1947 on the indigenous people of the Holy Land, Mr. M.S. Massoud, the President of the then Canadian Arab Friendship League declared in Montreal that we “would remember Lester B. Pearson and Justice Rand… who… did their utmost to impose upon Arabs the infamous partition scheme.”

Now, almost 60 years later, we tell you and all those who are complicit in supporting Israeli atrocities that we will also remember your hostile actions against the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim peoples.

Mr. Harper:

We are certain that the day will come when all those who are committing war crimes against the people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and other countries in the world will be held responsible and brought to justice for violating the sovereignty of these countries and for committing war crimes against their civilian populations. For the sake of humanity, we hope this will happen sooner rather than later.
We urge you to stop taking Canada down this dead-end path, which will hurt the strategic interests of the Canadian people. We call on you to stop such unconditional support for these crimes. The US Empire is rapidly crumbling economically and militarily, and no one should gamble the future of Canada on continued U.S. world supremacy.

We demand that you, your minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness put a stop to the deportation order of Issam Al-Yamani on April 20, 2006, until he can freely return to his homeland Palestine.

Yours truly,
Hanna Kawas
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
Host, Voice of Palestine

Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Dear Chief Fontaine:

Since we submitted our open letter to you on Feb. 23, 2006, we have received more endorsers to the letter. Due to the large number of organizations in particular that we received in the last week, we feel we are obliged to update you with the complete and final endorsers list.

We were heartened by the response of our indigenous brothers and sisters and their organizations, who identified with the plight of the Palestinian indigenous people.

We were also gratified by the support of our Jewish brothers and sisters and some of their organizations, who opposed the war crimes and atrocities Israel is committing in their name against the people of Palestine.

Awaiting your response,

Hanna Kawas, Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association info@cpavancouver.org

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Open letter to the Assembly of First Nations

We are saddened, hurt and shocked by the visit of a delegation of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to Israel, as well as the following statement attributed to AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine:

“Indigenous people in Canada have much in common with the people of Israel, including a respect of the land and their languages. This mission is an excellent opportunity for us to share our values and our traditional ways of life, in the hope of building greater understanding, awareness and respect for our similarities and differences, both at home and abroad”.

The victims of genocide at the hands of European settler colonialism cannot and should not give cover for another form of settler colonialism that has committed and continues to commit wholesale ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people and nation. In 1948, over four hundred villages and towns were wiped off the Palestinian and world map and their cemeteries desecrated; two thirds of the Palestinian people were uprooted from their historic homeland and forced to live in reservations called refugee camps for the past fifty-eight years, most outside of their historic land. (See “All That Remains” By Prof. Walid Khalidi.

Perhaps the chiefs, elders and leaders of the Assembly of First Nations don’t know the history of the Zionist movement. In fact, it was coined on the model of the European settler colonialist movement that preceded it four hundred years earlier and committed the genocide against the indigenous peoples. The Zionist movement was also built on the South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Algeria and other European settler colonialist models of the same era – late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Here is what the first Zionist Congress held in Basle, Switzerland (in Europe) in 1897 listed as some of the aims of the movement:
“Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine secured by public law. The congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:

The promotion on suitable lines of the colonization of Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers. (our emphasis)”
And Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, wrote in his book The Jewish State in 1896:

“We should there form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism.” (our emphasis)
So doesn’t this logic sound familiar? We are sure that it is painfully familiar to your ancestors and to your people who face racism on a daily basis.

We are sorry that we do not have the means to take you on similar tours to show you what is really happening in Palestine. Perhaps you should ask the hundreds of international volunteers, including Canadians, who paid their own way to go there and bear witness to the continuous Israeli brutality against the indigenous people of Palestine (See http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/ ). We are sure your Israeli and Zionist hosts will never take you to see the remains of the four hundred villages that were systematically destroyed, nor will they show you the Apartheid wall, the refugee camps, the tens of thousands of uprooted trees nor will they tell you that over 95 per cent of the land that Israel sits on is stolen land from the indigenous Palestinian population. If Chief Fontaine thinks that Israel has respect for the land, he is either unaware or complicit in covering up the massive Israeli injustice against the indigenous people of Palestine.
We will be frank with you. In the name of the vanquished indigenous people, you are being used to justify and cover up not only the Israeli atrocities and war crimes committed against the Palestinian people but also Israeli support for racism and oppression against the peoples of Africa, Asia, central and south America.

This should not pass. The sooner you clarify your position, the sooner you will salvage your name and credibility. Already messages on the Internet are describing your collaboration with the Zionist organizations under the title: “Friends of neocolonialism meet”. We hope that you will not be remembered as friends of European settler colonialists who committed genocide against the Palestinian people and were motivated by conquest, greed and superiority, the same evil motivations that enslaved the Native people of the Americas.
It is an offence and a crime against our native brothers and sisters who are still living and to those who perished in the process of colonization, to associate with the crimes of the Israeli settler colonialist state that is committing genocide against the native people of Palestine.

Since the year 2000, over eight hundred Palestinian “Dudley Georges” were murdered every year at the hands of the neo-fascist regime in Israel.

Are these the people who you “have much in common with” and that you want to build cultural comparisons with? Are these the people you want to share your “values and … traditional ways of life” with?

If so, you are complicit in their war crimes and you should not do it in the name of the First Nations Peoples.

Indigenous peoples must never be a party to genocide against the Palestinian people nor any other oppressed people facing occupation, genocide and theft of their land and natural resources.

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Endorsed by the following groups:

• Ahlul Bayt Assembly of Canada
• Al-Huda Muslim Society
• American Muslims of Puget Sound, Lynnwood, WA, USA
• Arab Heritage Centre, Toronto, Ontario
• BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Bethlehem, Palestine www.badil.org
• Coalition for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine, http://www.coalitiontoronto.com/
• Committee to Defend Palestinian Human Rights (Worcester, MA, USA)
• Dana and Qdisiyah Local Community Cooperative, Dana, Tafila, Jordan
• Free Palestine Alliance
• International Solidarity Movement – Northern California (member of the Justice in Palestine Coalition)
• International Solidarity Movement (ISM)-Montreal
• International Solidarity Movement (ISM)-Vancouver www.ism-vancouver.org
• International Women’s Peace Service, IWPS, www.iwps.info
• Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign www.ipsc.ie/
• Islamic Foundation of Toronto, Scarborough, www.islamicfoundation.ca
• I-Witness Palestine, Southern California, www.iwitnesspalestine.org
• Jewish Women’s Committee to End the Occupation Justice for Palestinians Committee, Danbury, Connecticut, USA
• Justice in Palestine Coalition, San Francisco, CA www.justiceinpalestine.net
• Land Research Center, Palestine
• Middle East Children’s Alliance, Berkeley, Ca www.mecaforpeace.org
• Muslim Canadian Congress
• New England Committee to Defend Palestine http://www.onepalestine.org
• Niagara Coalition for Peace http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NC4P/
• Niagara Palestinian Association http://groups.yahoo.com/group/niag_pal_news/
• No One is Illegal-Vancouver http://noii-van.resist.ca/
• November 16 Coalition (Hamilton, Ontario)
• Palestine Community Centre www.palestinecommunitycentre.com
• Palestine House, Toronto www.palestinehouse.com
• Palestine Right to Return Committee, York university, Toronto www.yorku.ca/parc
• Palestine Solidarity Group www.palsolidaritygrp.org Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) www.pajumontreal.org
• Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People, Beit Sahour, Palestine (www.pcr.ps )
• Salaam Vancouver
• Simon Fraser University Palestinian Human Rights Committee (PHRC)
• Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – McMaster University (Hamilton, ON)
• Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, Concordia (SPHR)
• Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, UBC
• Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-Montreal
• The Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights (BCPR)
• The Muslim Services, Toronto, a member group of The Muslim Unity Network in Canada
• The University of Waterloo Students for Palestinian Rights
• Toronto’s Robin Hood Collective
• Vancouver Island Network for Disarmament (VIND), Coombs, BC
• Vancouver Native Youth Movement, http://users.resist.ca/~wolvesnotsheep/ email: nymchapter604@hotmail.com
• Women in Black – Los Angeles YMCA and the YWCA of Palestine Joint Advocacy Intuitive, Jerusalem

Endorsed by the following alternative media outlets:

• Albilad newspaper, London, Ontario
• Aljalia Newspaper, Toronto, Ontario
• Al-Shorouq Arabic Newspaper, BC
• Bulland Awaaz – Vancouver CO-OP Radio www.coopradio.org
• DISCUSSION, Vancouver Co-Op Radio www.coopradio.org
• Goin’ Coastal, your Indigenous Revolutionary Radio Program 101.7 fm (CHLY)
• Information: Montreal – Palestine www.imopa.ca
• Mostly Water/Resist News Collective, http://news.resist.ca
• My Two Beads Worth, Native News online http://mytwobeadsworth.com
• No More Silence Network, a coalition of Native and Non-Native groups and Individuals calling attention to the murder and disappearances of 100s of Native women, nomoresilence@riseup.net , see www.missingnativewomen.org
• Voice of Palestine, Vancouver www.voiceofpalestine.ca
• Wake Up with Co-op!, Vancouver Coop Radio www.coopradio.org

Endorsed by the following individuals (groups listed for identification only):

• Ali Mallah, Equity Vice president, CUPE Toronto District Council
• Ali Yassir and B. Bechnak, Montreal
• Allan Brison, New Haven, CT
• Amber Ohara, No More Silence Network
• Amir M. Maasoumi, Président of “Centre de ressources sur la non-violence” (Resources centre for non- violence)
• Angie Tibbs, St. John’s, NL
• Anis BALAFREJ,Association de solidarité Maroc Palestine, Rabat, Morocco
• Audrey Huntley, No More Silence Network
• Bobby Arbess, Jews for a Just Peace-Victoria
• Bruce Katz, Co-President Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) Montreal
• Calvin Woida, Vancouver, BC
• Carol Stone, Jews for a Just Peace, Vancouver
• Charles Boylan, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (Vancouver South)
• Chiinuuks (Ruth) Ogilvie, Member “Goin’ Coastal, your Indigenous Revolutionary Radio Program, 101.7 fm CHLY”
• Clare Brandabur, Istanbul
• Dave Bleakney
• Dave Brophy, Friends of Grassy Narrows, Winnipeg
• Denis Laplante, Vancouver
• Diana Ralph, Toronto, (Jewish member of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada)
• Donna Petersen, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (Vancouver Kingsway)
• Dorinda Guadalupe Moreno, hitec aztec communications, friends of dqu : elders of 4 colors 4 directions
• Dr. Abe Mouaket, P. Eng., Toronto.
• Dr. Farid Ayad, Former President of the Canadian Arab Federation, Immediate former President of the Canadian Arab Business Professionals Organization
• Dr. Rafeh Hulays, Vice President – Canadian Arab Federation (West)
• Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Founding and former director, Indigenous World Association, 1985-2005
• Eden Haythornthwaite, Community Alliance for Public Education (CAPE), Duncan BC., Canada
• Edward C. Corrigan, Barrister & Solicitor, London, Ontario
• Ehab Lotayef, Eng., Activist, writer and poet, Montreal
• Elizabeth Block, Toronto, a member of Campaign to Stop Secret Trials and Jewish Women’s Committee to End the Occupation
• Elsie W Dean, Human Rights for Women Elders, Burnaby, BC
• Family of Reem Abu-Sbaih, Ayman and Yousef Helo, NYC
• Freda Guttman, International Solidarity Movement-Montreal
• FreeXero www.FREEXERO.com
• Gale Courey Toensing, Falls Village, CT
• George N. Rishmawi – Palestinian Centre for Rappochement between People (www.pcr.ps )
• Greg Felton, www.gregfelton.com
• Greta Berlin, Los Angeles, Volunteer, International Solidarity Movement
• Hanny Hassan, London, ON
• Harry Berbrayer, Duncan, B.C.
• Helen Michell, spokesperson for the Bear Clan families of Maxan Lake
• Ibrahim Hayani, (Professor of Economics, Toronto)
• Ingmar Lee, Freelance Writer and Forest Protection Activist www.ingmarlee.com , Pondicherry, India
• Ismail Ibrahim Nawwab, Saudi Arabia
• Ismail Zayid, Canada Palestine Association, Halifax
• James M. Craven/Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo i’poyi, Professor and Department Head, Economics; Chairman, Business Division, Clark College, Vancouver, WA., Member, Blackfoot Nation
• Jayce Salloum, Filmmaker, Vancouver
• Jeanne Svhiyeyi Aga Chadwick, Publisher/Editor, My Two Beads Worth, Native News online http://mytwobeadsworth.com
• Jeff Siddiqui, Associate Broker, Seattle, WA
• Jerome Charaoui, student organizer, Montreal QC
• Jessica Peart, Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory
• John and Betty Beeching, Vancouver
• John Pranger, Vancouver, BC
• Johnny Roberts, St. Catharines, Ontario
• Joseph Backus, Kingston, ON.
• Joseph Schechla, coordinator, Housing and Land Rights Network, Habitat International Coalition, Giza, Egypt www.hlrn.org , www.hic-mena.org
• Judith Weisman
• June L. Lorenzo, Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, USA
• Justine McCabe, International Committee, Green Party of the US
• Karin Brothers, Toronto, Ont.
• Kathryn Furlong, Vancouver, BC
• Khaled Mouammar, former CAF president, Toronto
• Khalid Khawaldeh, Dana, Tafila, Jordan
• Krista Johnston, No More Silence Network
• Lamis Jamal Deek, Native of Palestine, Daughter of exilees, Attorney with Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition
• Larry Wartel, Jews for a Just Peace, Victoria BC
• Lawrence Boxall, Jews for a Just Peace – Vancouver
• Lawrence ytzhak braithwaite, author, victoria, british columbia
• Macdonald Stainsby, Vancouver
• Marc Azar, Montréal,Québec
• Martin O’Brien, Martley, Worcester, Worcs. UK
• Marty and Martha Roth, Jews for a Just Peace, Vancouver
• Mary Hughes-Thompson, Los Angeles, Volunteer International Solidarity Movement
• Meria, Producer/Host, “THE MERIA HELLER SHOW”
• Mira Khazzam, Montreal, Quebec
• Mitzi Brown Mohamed Kamel, Freelance writer, Montreal
• Mohammed Abu Assi, Montreal
• Mohammed Shokr, Muslim Unity Group
• Nathan Stuckey
• Nazih Mroue, London, Ont.
• Nick Treanor, St.Catharines, Ontario
• Nicolas A. Sayegh, Montreal
• Nizar Sakhnini, Mississauga, Ontario
• Noah Lepawsky. ISM Volunteer, Vancouver
• Orion Carrier, Engineering Student, Victoria, BC
• Peter Eglin, Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University
• Rebeka Tabobondung, Wasauksing First Nation Rezeq Faraj, co-president of PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
• Riaz Ahmed Behra, Vancouver, B.C.
• Robert Bibeau, PAJU
• Robert Massoud, Ont.
• Robyn Bourgeois, No More Silence Network
• Ron Benner, London, Ontario
• Samia A. Halaby, born in Jerusalem and living in exile in New York
• Sandra Joy Jones, Wilmington, De.
• Shawn Smith, Ottawa
• Sid Shniad, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Smadar Carmon, Israeli Jew, Toronto, Coalition for Just Peace in Palestine and Israel
• Splitting the Sky, Indigenous activist
• Sue Goldstein, Jewish Women’s Committee to End the Occupation of Palestine
• Suliman Zabian, London, ont.
• Tammie Tupechka
• Teresa Gagne, Vancouver, BC
• Tony Ali, Vancouver
• Waldemar Belczowski, Independent Media Production
• Zainab Amadahy, Indigenous Activist

Related article:“From Jerusalem to the Grand River, Our Struggles are One“ by Mike Krebs and Dana Olwan.

We call on our community, as we did in our Position Paper on Canadian Elections 2004, to vote for candidates who are interested in serving humanity and the people’s interest at home and abroad, and not to give any backing to those who are benefiting materially from the Israeli lobby in Canada. We call on our community and our Canadian supporters to defeat all those who are in the current Canadian Cabinet including the Prime Minister, who are complicit in supporting, maintaining and covering up for Israeli occupation, atrocities and war crimes. We must also work to defeat all those Canadian Parliamentarians who belong to the “Canada-Israel Interparliamentary (Friendship) Group” (for their names and party affiliation see: http://www.canpalnet-ottawa.org/election2006.html).
We also ask our community to reject those mercenaries in our midst who are seeking only their own self-interest and betraying our causes by supporting those who are complicit in war crimes against the Palestinian, Iraqi, Haitian, Afghani and other people all over the world.

We should stand up for the right of self-determination for indigenous people everywhere, especially the Canadian Natives and also the Quebec people.

Self-determination is a sacred right and no power on earth can deny it to any people whatever the strength of the occupier and no matter how long the forceful subjugation of that oppressed nation. (1.)

The Liberal Government

Since the 2004 elections that saw the Liberal Party unable to form a majority government, the Liberals have ruled this country, usually with the parliamentary support of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

Aside from small concessions to the NDP, the Liberals ruled as dictators, threatening the other parties with speedy elections that allegedly would not be popular with the Canadian public.

This atmosphere allowed them to continue with and consolidate their racist policies against minorities (including racial profiling, the use of security certificates and the racist anti-terrorism Act against Arabs and Muslims) with little or no protest from their allies in the NDP.
It also allowed them to carry on implementing the programme of the Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel (LPFI) who took over the most sensitive positions in the Canadian Cabinet and appointed pro-Israeli officials in many Canadian ministries and departments. (2.)
It is worth noting that all these changes carried out by the Liberal government came against the will of the majority of the Canadian public. In fact, according to a poll conducted by the Canada Israel Committee “83 per cent of Canadians believe Ottawa should remain neutral in its approach to the Middle East conflict … 36 per cent said they felt federal policy was tilted towards Israel, and only 4 per cent believed policy favoured Palestinians.” (Globe and Mail Nov. 12, 2004)

NDP

Regrettably, two NDP members belong to the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group (3.), including Alexa McDonough who, in an exchange with the Montreal Planet, justified her membership in this group by claiming it would allow her “to dialogue with progressive Canadian-Israelis”. Furthermore, when she prepared her report “Global Perspectives” on Human rights, she ignored the human rights of the Palestinian people.

Just this month, NDP leader Jack Layton sent a statement to the Israeli Ambassador Alan Baker, that smacked of opportunism, offering condolences on the health of Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon http:// www.ndp.ca/page/2754 . For more of Layton’s “slippery” positions, see his recent conference call with the Zionist group CIJA http://www.cija.ca/eng/Laytonfullenglish.pdf

For all the above reasons we can NOT, in good conscience, call on our community to vote as a bloc for the NDP in spite of their declared progressive social agenda. We should here recognise the principled positions of some of the NDP candidates, especially Libby Davies and Svend Robinson, towards the human and national rights of the Palestinian people.

Conservative Party

The fanatically pro-Israeli and pro-U.S. positions of the Conservative Party are well known. However, if you want to know more about where the Conservative Party stands on the issues of Israeli war crimes and apartheid, see their party leader’s conference call with CIJA http://www.cija.ca/eng/Harperfullenglish.pdf

Conclusion

Finally we urge all members of our community and the Canadian public at large to defeat all those who are taking Canada on the path of supporting US imperial designs in the Middle East and all over the world. We must not allow them to implicate the Canadian people in the oppression and subjugation of other peoples and nations, something nobody should stand for or allow. We must support those candidates that have a proven record in taking principled positions in favour of working and oppressed people, both here in Canada and abroad. We are not alone, as the majority of humanity stands for peace, justice and freedom.

Canada Palestine Association

Footnotes
In 1947 Canada played a major role at the UN in creating the state of Israel and accordingly in denying the Palestinian people the right to self-determination. “The general Assembly turned down the only reasonable suggestion-a referendum in Palestine and submission of the legal problems to the International Court of Justice” (Alfred Lilienthal, “What Price Israel?” p.72-73)

“Mr. Justice Ivan Rand… played a central role in formulating the recommendations of its majority report (for the U.N. Partition Plan) … with Mr. (Lester) Pearson (then the under-secretary of state for External Affairs) playing an active role in securing its passage. … Zionists were so grateful to Canada and to Mr. Pearson for the part he played in the whole process that they called him ‘the Balfour of Canada’.” (Report of the Canadian Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs published June 1985, page 49.)

This Canadian position of denying peoples in Canada and all over the world the right to self- determination is historically consistent with long standing policies of Canadian colonialism, ethnic cleansing and hegemony.

Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel LPFI came as a result of the forming of the “Israel Emergency Cabinet” (in Canada!) and then the “Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) where it “works with other organizations and individual members of the community to ensure our voice is heard where it counts – in government, media and on campus”. A quick look at their Policy Proposals confirm that they have achieved most of their objectives. See Canada & the Middle East: (PDF | HTML)

All Palestinian and Arab resistance groups that were targeted by the LPFI are now officially on the “Canadian Listed entities associated with terrorism”. So according to the Canadian Government and Canadian law, those who are resisting Israeli occupation in accordance with international law are “terrorists”, while Israel that is committing atrocities and war crimes against the Palestinian people, on a daily basis and in defiance of international law, is NOT.

At the UN General Assembly 2004 session, Canada moved further into supporting Israel and changed its position on three resolutions. In the Globe and Mail under the title “In case you missed it, our Mideast policy has shifted” John Ibbitson wrote on Dec. 3, 2004 “Nonetheless this government felt no need to tell anyone in advance of the significant change in foreign policy, knowing that those who support the change would hear of it, and those who oppose it would not.”

At the UN General Assembly 2005 session, Canada flipped on three more. The main resolution was urging Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied since 1967. The General Assembly voted 156 for and 6 against, with nine abstentions: Canada, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Uganda and Vanuatu. Canada also voted against two more resolutions of routine support for U.N. organs working on behalf of Palestinian rights. On both, only eight states were opposed — Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and the United States.

Prime Minister Paul Martin attended, along with 150-160 parliamentarians, the inaugural dinner for CIJA where he reaffirmed his support for Israel and the “Sharon Plan for Gaza”. “Canada will not, nor will ever waiver in our support for Israel”, he said. (Canadian Jewish News, Nov.11, 2004)

On Nov. 13, 2005, Ariel Sharon addressed delegates from the United Jewish Communities 74th annual general assembly in a pretaped video at the Toronto Convention Centre. Prime Minister Paul Martin addressed the same crowds and “gave a strong and unequivocal endorsement” of Israel. “Israel’s values are Canada’s values,” Martin said. “Shared values of democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights.” (Martin scolds UN on Israel, Toronto Star, November 14, 2005)

The Canadian Forces extended an invitation to the Israeli Air Force, for the first time ever in thirty- eight sessions, to the Maple Flag war games. This signalled, according to military planners, a marked shift in Canadian military and political policy in the twenty-first century. Exercise Maple Flag is a six-week international air combat exercise held annually at 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta. Out of two hundred warplanes that took part in Exercise Maple Flag 2005 Alberta from May 15-June 24, ten were Israeli F-16s.

It is unfortunate that the other major parties lack the will or guts to reflect the wishes of their electorate on the Palestinian situation. This is nothing new, they don’t reflect the wishes of the people on other Canadian social, cultural and economic issues. The Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel expanded their influence to other parties, including the NDP and the Bloc, and now include 43 MPs who support Israeli Apartheid and WAR CRIMES. They are calling themselves the “Canada-Israel Interparliamentary (Friendship) Group”, and for some of their press releases see:
http://www.liberalsforisrael.com/documents/statements/pdf/press_release_election_new_chair_15feb05 _en.pdf http://www.liberalsforisrael.com/documents/statements/pdf/interparl_r27oct05_en.pdf

The Executive Committee
British Columbia Teachers’ Federation
100 – 550 West 6th Avenue,Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 4P2

Dear Executive Committee Members:

We have become increasingly concerned by recent actions on the part of the BCTF executive regarding the Palestinian/Israeli issue. While the campaign for Divestment from Israel is gaining momentum in Canada, the latest being 20 Québec groups who recently called for a boycott of Israel, including the Québec union of CEGEP teachers, you seem to have fallen on the side of injustice and reaction.

We watched the BCTF executive intervene in late 2004 in an attempt to derail a resolution condemning Israel’s Apartheid wall at the BC Federation of Labour convention, which was originally presented by your own social justice advisory committee. By the way, Canadian Zionist leaders publicly took credit for initiating that intervention. Fortunately another resolution, this one also presented by teachers, the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association, did finally make it to the floor and passed.(1)

We also noted how the BCTF executive was reported to have played a major role in defeating BCTF Assembly resolution 149 last June by not endorsing it. That resolution called on “the Canadian government (to) support the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)” regarding Israel’s wall.

Then, on July 15, 2005, the B.C. Teachers Federation placed a quarter page ad in the Jewish Western Bulletin (JWB) wishing them “Happy 75th Anniversary … from the teachers of B.C.” Also, on Dec. 23, 2005, the B.C. Teachers Federation placed another quarter page ad in Jewish Independent (formerly the JWB) wishing them “Happy Chanukah! Holiday greetings from the teachers of B.C.”

For your information, the Jewish Independent (formerly the JWB) is a mouthpiece for Zionism and has always supported Israeli Apartheid policies and its war crimes against the Palestinian people (see “Dispute over art exhibit, Bulletin ‘complicit in war crimes,’ says Hanna Kawas” (2) and “Bulletin award is scandalous” (3)

The “Jewish Independent” (JWB) is a right wing paper that never supported trade union struggles or anti-imperialist and anti-war movements. While most of the rest of Canada opposed the war in Iraq, the JWB actually supported it (4), as well as supporting other US-Israeli policies in the Middle East and all over the world. Any review of their web site confirms what we are stating.

The BCTF ads in the “Jewish Independent”, coupled with your other recent actions, clearly show that the Executive has crossed the line from being indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinian people to publicly advertising in a paper that supports war crimes against the Palestinian people. We will not be surprised if the BCTF Executive buys a commercial in the “700 Club” wishing Christians “Merry Christmas”, or an ad in a pro-Saudi Arabia paper wishing the Muslims “Happy Eid”.

It would seem the BCTF Executive gave in to blackmail, pressure and dictates that came from many pro-Israeli lobbyists both inside the BCTF and outside, especially major Canadian media outlets. The pressure by the Canadian media on the BCTF has been well-documented and includes, amongst others: two Vancouver Sun articles by Pete McMartin, one on May 2, 2005 entitled “BCTF tactics akin to U.S. Republicans, One-sided resolutions, TV ads undermine teacher credibility” and a May 25, 2005 article “Israel’s wall divides B.C. teachers, Resolution before June meeting calls for dismantling of barrier”; and a May 31, 2005 Globe and Mail article “Teachers, Campbell in nasty showdown.”

The BCTF Executive regrettably allowed itself to be manipulated by the well- financed pro-Israeli lobby, at times it seems even against the will of your own membership. The JWB first published a critical article on June 3, 2005 of the BCTF (5) and then after your representative assembly which squashed the resolution that called for support of the International Court ruling, they praised you in their editorial on June 10, 2005. (See: “Mazal tov to the BCTF” 6) Meanwhile the local Palestinian solidarity movement and the anti-war movement were never consulted nor did they ever interfere or try to influence the democratic process inside the BCTF.

If the BCTF Executive cannot determine their strategic allies in the local Jewish community, then your union and the whole trade union movement is in trouble. Here we could offer you some advice; if you want to wish a Jewish paper happy anniversary then the Canadian Jewish Outlook www.vcn.bc.ca/outlook/ “Canada’s Progressive Jewish Magazine”, the “secular Jewish publication with a socialist-humanist perspective” would be the best candidate. And if you want to wish the Jewish community a “Happy Chanukah” why not send it to the “Outlook” and to “Jews for a Just peace” www.jewsforajustpeace.com, who supported your strike and struggles and are truly seeking a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

In closing, we call upon the BCTF Executive to stand up for the genuine interests of your membership, not just minority lobbyists, and to uphold the progressive principles that your union and all Canadian unions should advance.

Hanna Kawas
for/ Canada Palestine Association www.cpavancouver.org

Statement Endorsed by:

• Palestine Community Centre, Vancouver www.palestinecommunitycentre.com
• Palestine Solidarity Group, Vancouver www.palsolidaritygrp.org
• Voice of Palestine, Vancouver www.voiceofpalestine.ca

Footnotes

1. http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/archives/Dec04/archives04Dec24-02.html
2. http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/Archives/Aug03/archives03Aug01-01.html
3. http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/Archives/Nov02/archives02Nov29-22.html
4. http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/archives/April03/archives03Apr18-08.html
5. http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/archives/June05/archives05June03-14.
6. html http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/archives/June05/archives05June10-14.html

Dear Friends

Following is a letter sent to the AFN by a long time friend, Lee Maracle.

Lee is an indigenous activist who supported the Palestinian struggle since the 1970’s. She shared the same platform with Mahmoud Darwish and Shafiq Al-Hout at a meeting we organized in 1976 during the UN Habitat Conference in Vancouver.

Lee is of Salish and Cree ancestry and a member of the Sto:loh Nation, and is the author of critically acclaimed “Ravensong”, “I am Woman”, “Bobbi Lee-Indian Rebel”, “Daughters are Forever” and the poetry collection “Bentbox”.

Hanna Kawas

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On the AFN visit to Palestine
By: Lee Maracle

I have been a consistent and clear supporter of the rights of the Palestinian people to their homeland free of Israeli occupation and annihilation since 1972, so it was with much shame and chagrin that I read that the AFN sent a delegation to Israel, to commune with the Israelis and to share culture, language, religion, tradition and values. What a shock! First, this is tantamount to laying a wreath at Vorster’s grave in the interest of [honoring apartheid] or traveling to the U.S. to share the values of the Custer Committee celebrating the massacre at Wounded Knee. Just exactly what values is the AFN sharing with the Israeli’s?

It does not take too much historical digging to find out that Israel is the newest colonizing settler state in the world, that it displaced several million Palestinians, corralled them into refugee camps and denied them the basest of human rights. Hunger, displacement from their homelands and lack of medical care all dog the Palestinian people: the original citizens of Palestine.

Canada was a gift from Britain to the white male settlers of Canada who cleared the land, killed the Indians and Buffalo in exactly the same way that Israel [was a gift from US and Britain to the European Jews] has cleared the land of Palestinians, expropriated their villages, farms and murdered all those who resist. Both settler populations had an obligation to dispossess and oppress the Indigenous people to maintain the settler regime. Both sets of people have done so. Does Mr. Fontaine imagine that he is essentially a Euro-settler, one of Custer’s boys or is he fulfilling a puppet role for Canada in the same way that Israel serves the oil interests of the United States?

The traditional values we hold dear are freedom, the end of oppression and justice for all. We have demonstrated these values as Indigenous people [the Leonard Peltier Defence Committee, the Native Study Group, Red Power advocates and Native Youth Movement in the past have all engaged in anti- colonial activism] supporting Mandela in his struggle against apartheid, the Palestinians in their struggle for liberation and Native people in our struggle for Self-determination. We want to assure the “Indians of the middle east” that we will continue this support despite the bizarre behavior of the AFN puppets.