Author: cpaadmin

Open Letter to Solicitor General of Canada Re: Banning of Palestinian Groups

Today, six B.C. groups sent the following letter to the Honorable Wayne Easter, Solicitor General of Canada, regarding his announcement last week about the banning of three Palestinian organizations. They stated: “We…denounce this biased and politically motivated announcement, the timing of which…was highly questionable.” The groups were Canada Palestine Association, International Solidarity Movement-Vancouver, No One Is Illegal-Vancouver, Palestine Community Centre, Palestine Solidarity Group and Stopwar.ca.… Read more

“Feedback on Evil Brain’s Wall”, letter to the editor of The Westender

By Gary Keenan

Dear editor,

Kudos to columnist Brian Peterson for his insightful and much needed column regarding Israel’s construction of an apartheid fence or wall around the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

Apart from inspiring increased armed resistance, including terrorism, by illegally encroaching on more Palestinian land and water resources, the fence also demonstrates the utter bankruptcy of Zionism.

It is now 107 years since Theodor Herzl et al.… Read more

Open Letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham

By John and Elizabeth Beeching

October 7, 2003
Hon. Bill Graham Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons Ottawa,
Ontario, K1A 0A6

Mr. Bill Graham,

I was shocked to learn at a meeting October 4, 2003 that over 94,000 volunteer have gone to Israel to join their armed forces according to the Jewish Western Bulletin A link on the web site indicates that 278 or 3% are Canadians.… Read more

Open Letter to Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell

By Hanna Kawas

Larry Campbell
Mayor of Vancouver

Dear Mr. Mayor:

We received your invitation to participate in the nomination process for the 2003 Cultural Harmony awards; we regret that we will not be able to participate due to our opposition to one of the signatories on the invitation, Mr. Erwin Nest, Chair of Special Advisory Committee on Cultural Communities.

Mr.… Read more

“Arafat’s fate should rest in Palestinian hands”, editorial in the Vancouver Sun

By Gary Keenan, published in the Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, September 23, 2003 in reply to “Forget about peace until Arafat and Sharon are out of the way, Norman Spector, September 19th, 2003.”

Arafat’s fate should rest in Palestinian hands

Columnist Norman Spector neglected to mention the extremely important fact that Yasser Arafat is the democratically elected leader of Palestinians in the occupied territories.… Read more

“The Sharon government is a giant laboratory”, letter to the Editor of the Calgary Sun

By Gary Keenan, in reply to the Calgary Sun article “Realities of Israeli oppression rarely aired in North America”

Kudos to Bill Kaufmann for his insightful commentary on Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestinian lands. (“Realities of Israeli oppression rarely aired in North America,” Sept. 1.) Kaufmann’s reference to the fact those who criticize Israel’s policies are frequently and unjustly accused of being anti- Semitic by Israel’s supporters brings to mind the wise words of Uri Avnery, renowned Jewish Israeli journalist and former member of the Knesset:

“The Sharon government is a giant laboratory for the growing of the anti-Semitism virus.… Read more

CJC Chair Misleads Public

Statement by Canada Palestine Association and Arab Palestine Association

Recently, in an article titled “Still much on CJC’s Plate”, the chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), Pacific Region, Nisson Goldman was quoted as saying:

“Congress has done a good job of meeting with the leadership of the Palestinian and Muslim communities in British Columbia, he said, though he regrets that more members of those communities have not attended some of the events organized to bring them together with Jewish British Columbians.”… Read more

Letter to the Editor of the Georgia Straight regarding the targeting of non-combatants

By Gary Keenan. The following letter was published in Vancouver’s Georgia Straight, in the May 30-June 5 2003 issue, in reply to “Letter to editor from Cam Small”, May 22-29 2003

Dear editor:

Of the many reliable sources that refute Cam Small’s assertion that “there has never been any evidence to suggest that [Palestinian] noncombatants are being targeted [by Israeli soldiers]”, I quote from an article by Chris Hedges (former bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News in Jerusalem and Middle East bureau chief for the New York Times), who witnessed children being shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied Gaza Strip: “Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered…but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.”… Read more