Open Letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin (2)

Silence On Israeli Terrorism Is Complicity

By Hanna Kawas

The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada

Dear Prime Minister:

Over the past ten days, 112 Palestinians were killed, including five just today. So far we did not hear any condemnation from Canada, as a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, regarding this Israeli terorrism directed against the civilian population of the Palestinian territories.… Read more

Message to the American Public During the 2004 Elections

By Hanna Kawas, Chairperson of the Canada Palestine Association, who was born in Bethlehem in 1948,
the year of the Palestinian Nakba. The following message was sent to the American people.

Open Message from a Bethlehemite Palestinian to the American people
including our Arab American community members

You are in the midst of a massive brain-washing campaign conducted by the institutions of the US government, the mainstream media and the multinational corporations.… Read more

Position Paper on Canadian Elections 2004

Since the 2000 federal elections, many negative developments took place regarding official Canadian policy towards the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, the situation in the Middle East, and the systematic racism against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims in Canada. The responsibility for these policies falls squarely on the shoulders of the ruling Liberal Party (see appendix 1).

At the level of the New Democratic Party (NDP), first there were positive developments during the leadership race and then negative developments the closer we came to the elections.… Read more

Open Letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin (1)

By Hanna Kawas

Prime Minister of Canada
Rt. Honourable Paul Martin

Dear Prime Minister:

On January 9, 2004, the Jewish Western Bulletin carried a disturbing article under the title “Israel supporters in cabinet” ( http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/archives/Jan04/archives04Jan09-01.html ) One member of “Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel”, Stephen Owen, the new Canadian minister of public works and government services, brags (even gloats) about the influence their group has in the new Cabinet.… Read more

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

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

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

Whose Interests Will the Abrogation of the ROR Serve?

By Hanna Kawas (in response to Elias Tuma)*

We are witnessing a calculated campaign of highly publicized attacks on the Palestinian Right of Return (ROR), aimed at confusing, demoralizing, terrorizing (physically and politically) and frustrating the Palestinian refugees and people with the sole purpose of forcing them to abrogate this right. It started with the Camp David “generous offer” and continued with Palestinian advocates such as Sari Nusaybeh, pushing to drop the ROR if Israel met other conditions, as if we are in a Bazaar, and as if what is on the line is vegetables to be traded and not inalienable rights for human beings.… Read more

Open Letter to the Canadian Prime Minister Regarding the Banning of Moslem Organizations

Dear Prime Minister:

The Canadian government’s announcement to ban the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the Lebanese group Hizbollah, as “terrorist groups” is ill advised, biased and outrageous.

The two Palestinian groups were formed 20 years after the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. The Hizbollah group was formed after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the subsequent occupation of large areas of Lebanese territory.… Read more