Category: CPA Statements

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. Both occupations were against international law, UN Security Council resolutions and the UN Charter.

It is worth noting that all the military actions of the three above-mentioned groups were carried out against their enemies on the soil of Palestine/Israel in the case of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and in Lebanon and in cross-border clashes with Israel in the case of Hizbollah. It is well documented that Israeli Government-sponsored terrorism has reached to the four corners of the world.

We ask why the Canadian government tries to protect Israel at every turn and at every diplomatic and political level, while the Palestinian people who really need international protection are shunned by the Canadian government? Canada’s vote at the UN Security Council on Dec. 18, 2000 was just one example.

We ask why pro-Israeli groups can raise Canadian tax-deductible funds for illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land -including for the purchase of military equipment- while Arab-Canadian groups CANNOT raise money for social welfare projects?
We ask why the Israeli continued occupation, home demolitions, land theft, destruction of farmland, human rights abuses, war crimes, and death squads, are all rewarded by the Canadian government and are not considered TERRORISM? Do terrorizing Arabs and Moslems not count for the Canadian government?

The pro-Israeli organizations are not only raising money but also publicly recruiting Canadians to go participate in the war crimes against the Palestinian people. Isn’t this recruiting terrorism, not to mention against standing Canadian law?

The decision to ban Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah is a clear message to the Arab and Moslem world as to where the Canadian government stands vis-a-vis the Arab Israeli conflict. This is against the strategic interest of the Canadian people and it only serves the narrow agenda of certain lobby groups.

Furthermore, your decision will only serve to heighten support for these organizations in their home countries, precisely because of this hypocritical one-sidedness.

It is clear to the Arab and Moslem people that the West led by the US is trying to control their natural resources, especially the oil, by imposing on them the most despotic, corrupt and oppressive regimes humankind ever witnessed. The West is stupidly making enemies in the whole World not only in the Arab World. This policy is going to backfire. The West should not ask innocently: Why do people hate us?
Dear Prime Minister, it is about time that the Canadian government reflects the true interests and wishes of the Canadian people. We had hopes that since you are not running again for reelection that you would not succumb to pressure from any interest group; we were hoping that you would stand on the side of human rights, international law and justice. To be honest with you, you are disappointing the Arab, Moslem and all peace loving Canadians.

You do not want this to be remembered as your legacy.

Yours Truly
Hanna Kawas
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver

Right Honorable Jean Chretien
Prime Minister of Canada

Dear Prime Minister:

Today marks 36 long years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights of Syria.

While the Canadian Government has maintained publicly that this occupation is illegal and must end, it actions speak otherwise and support this occupation economically and politically. Economically the Canadian government maintains a free trade agreement with Israel, and politically it did not support the significant resolutions that call Israel to task on its illegal policies of house demolitions, illegal settlement building, war crimes and human rights violation of Palestinians including the civilian population of the West Bank and Gaza.
In the case of Iraq occupying Kuwait in 1990, we saw a different resolve and actions from the Canadian government…

The least that can be regarding the different reaction to these two occupations is that it is hypocrisy and double standards.
During this year’s “Walk With Israel” in Vancouver the Jewish Western Bulletin reported on May 30, 2003:

“Stephen Owen, member of Parliament for Vancouver-Quadra, brought greetings from the federal government, which he said has been one of Israel’s greatest international allies since the state’s inception in 1948.”

Mr. Prime Minster:

You CANNOT imagine the mental, physical, moral and economic suffering the Palestinian people have endured since the establishment of the state of Israel. The Canadian government of that time was instrumental in Israel’s creation and accordingly complicit in all the injustices that have been inflicted on the Palestinian people and nation.

The new so called “Road Map” will only add more broken promises to the Palestinian people and accordingly will compound Palestinian suffering, resentment, anger and hate, – yes, hatred toward all those who support Israeli war crimes and its violations of international law, UN resolutions and the Fourth Geneva convention.

Mr. Prime Minister:

I urge your government to take a stand on the side of history, humanity, justice and peace and to demand an unconditional end to the illegal Israeli occupation of all Palestinian and Arab land. Furthermore, the Canadian government must implement this position in concrete steps and reflect this policy without interference from lobby groups and Israeli or US dictates.

I have been waiting for 36 years to go and live in my hometown Bethlehem and my homeland Palestine. No force on earth will stand in the face of my and my people’s dream.

Yours truly
Hanna Kawas
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association

By Hanna Kawas

Why did the Vancouver Nov. 17, 2002 Coalition not want to link the war on the Palestinians with the war on Iraq in all of its publicity (amazingly, some of the publicity did not even mention Iraq)?

This decision to ignore the war on Palestine in its publicity was taken at an organizing committee meeting in October, and passed by a majority vote. Our staunch opposition to this position arises not from a narrow sectarian concern, but rather from a long-standing commitment to the aspirations of all the Arab people and the interests of the Canadian people. The record of Canada Palestine Association (CPA) stands for itself. Not only is support for the Iraqi people an integral part of what we do, we were also the first (and only) group in this city to demonstrate against Israel’s destruction of Iraq’s Ozirak reactor in 1981, and the first group to demonstrate against the impending U.S. war on Iraq in the fall of 1990.

Lets look at the situation today.

The US government has declared that its objectives for the attack on Iraq are:

• To force Iraq to abide by UN Security Council resolutions.
• To get rid of “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq.
• To have a regime change in Baghdad.

It is also well known that:

Israel, since its creation in 1948, is the country with the worst record of violating UN resolutions, the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel is the only country in the whole Middle East that possesses 400 nuclear warheads with the largest stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and the capability of delivering them.

Israel is also working for regime changes in Baghdad and Palestine, and for that matter with any regime that challenges US and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.

So why deny the anti-war movement the main arguments that expose US hypocrisy and double standards and demonstrate the TRUE cause of why the US is carrying on this war against Iraq, Palestine and the whole Arab nation: the control of the region and its natural resources, as part and parcel of the US drive for world hegemony? Why not expose Israel for what it really is: an advanced military base with the most sophisticated and deadly US weapons that serve Western interests in the region? Why push to marginalize the Palestinian struggle?

“Israel is the American watchdog in the Middle East, and that’s why the Palestinians remain victims of one of the longest military occupations… Israel is the representative of the United States in that part of the world.” John Pilger, The Progressive, November 2002

We are sure that the Nov. 17 coalition didn’t serve the Canadian public by denying and hiding the facts, and we are more than sure that the coalition did not serve the interests of the Arab people nor the Palestinian people. Palestine and Iraq are linked whether they recognized this fact or not, and whether they ignored it or not. When and if the US launches its attack on Iraq, the events that will unfold in the Arab world will make this insistence on separation between Iraq and Palestine look not only shortsighted, but also insensitive to the aspirations of people in the Middle East.

Here are a few facts to consider:

• Israel is the architect of the 1990’s US policy of so-called “dual containment” against Iraq and Iran.
• George Bush’s Zionist speechwriter David Frum was the architect of the “Axis of Evil” phrase.
• Ariel Sharon stated, “‘Iraq is a great danger. It could be said it is the greatest danger’…but he added that ‘strategic coordination between Israel and the U.S. has reached unprecedented dimensions’.” (Haaretz, August 13, 2002) And on November 4, 2002, Sharon told George Bush in front of reporters. “We never had such a cooperation in everything as we have had with the current administration.” Washington Post 11/04/2002
• “Israel is secretly playing a key role in U.S. preparations for possible war with Iraq, helping to train soldiers and Marines for urban warfare, conducting clandestine surveillance missions in the western Iraqi desert and allowing the United States to place combat supplies in Israel, according to U.S. Defense and intelligence officials.” USA TODAY, 11/03/2002

The US opposed any linkage between Iraq and Palestine in 1991 and now again in 2002. Was this new coalition supporting this US objective as did their predecessors in “End the Arms Race” in 1991?? We recognize the tactical value of broad-based coalitions; however, such coalitions become meaningless without clearly defined minimum principles. Although there are new and encouraging trends emerging, the Canadian labour, left and peace movements have regrettably in the past demonstrated a consistent and entrenched pattern of denying the legitimate rights of the Palestinian and other suffering peoples at crucial junctures. This needs to be examined in more depth than can be attempted in this statement but here are just a few examples.

The “End the Arms Race” demonstrations of the 1980s, led in succession by then mayors of Vancouver, first the Zionist Mike Harcourt, and then later by none other than Gordon Campbell, were billed as massive popular achievements at the time.

What did these demonstrations really achieve (certainly not the education of Gordon Campbell), aside from heralding the downfall of one of the few deterrent forces – the USSR- against US hegemony? And why, following that downfall, were they not followed up by the same massive demonstrations against the new sole mega-superpower, the US?

The traditional “anti-war” movement during the Gulf War in1991 supported the sanctions on Iraq, which makes it complicit with all the atrocities committed against the Iraqi people since then. Another shameful aspect of that movement was the racist attitude it practiced against Arab Canadians here, with its attempts to marginalize them from the 1991 anti-war events. Last year’s attempt by grassroots individuals and organizations to form Mobilization Against War and Racism (MAWAR) was aborted by the same “anti-war” forces who transformed the agenda, created contradictions and succeeded in marginalizing the pro-Palestinian support movement. Unfortunately, MAWAR was eventually destroyed.

For all the above reasons, CPA urges all progressive, anti-imperialist and genuine anti-war activists and trade unionists to take a stand and to not allow the same old defeatist and revisionist forces to hijack the progressive anti-war agenda.

In an interview with Newsweek on Sep. 10, 2002, Nelson Mandela stated: “But what we know is that Israel has weapons of mass destruction. Nobody talks about that. Why should there be one standard for one country, especially because it is black, and another one for another country, Israel, that is white.” We call on all future coalitions, in the interest of world peace, to not be intimidated by the Zionist forces and to take a principled position against these double standards, as have the anti-war forces in most of the rest of the world. The huge anti-war protests all over the world on the second anniversary of the Palestinian intifada were an example of this principled unity.

To take a stand is the only way to defeat these useless rituals that serve only the status quo and do nothing to support the suffering people of Iraq and Palestine. We will not allow anybody to trample on or attempt to sabotage the true aspirations and interests of the Palestinian and Arab people.

History Will Be Our Witness

By Hanna Kawas. An open letter sent by Hanna Kawas to Canada’s Foreign Minister John Manley.

Dear Mr. Manley,

On Jan. 18/ 2001, Agence France Presse(AFP) reported that Palestinian demonstrators in Balata refugee camp near Nablus denounced Canada and Australia for their offer to RESETTLE the Palestinian refugees, and that they burned an effigy of you during this protest. Perhaps this surprised you. Why is there such a strong feeling on the part of the Palestinian refugees, considering that they have lived in miserable conditions under the mercy of UNRWA handouts for the past 52 years, and under continuous Israeli bombing and siege for the past four months? Why would they reject the “good life” in Canada and Australia? As a Palestinian-Canadian, and a Palestinian refugee from the city of Bethlehem, allow me to offer an explanation.

Canada is directly and morally responsible for the dispossession of the Palestinian people

Briefly, here are a few examples of the historical complicity of the Canadian government in the continuing dispossession of the Palestinians.

1. The Canadian Balfour and the U.N. Partition Plan to create Israel: ” 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.)
2. Canadian volunteers and equipment to dispossess the Palestinian people: “The (Canadian) government was reluctant to draw attention to this matter (the Zionist volunteers) and refused to invoke the Foreign Enlistment Act (a law passed to discourage Canadians from fighting fascism during the Spanish Civil War) … 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. The recruiting of volunteers and the smuggling of arms were done with the active knowledge and assistance of leaders of the United Zionist Council…” (Canada and the birth of Israel, David J. Bercuson, page191.) Not one of the culprits who broke the Canadian law and the U.N. embargo were brought to justice, although they brag about it every year when they celebrate the founding of the Zionist State of Israel.
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), and taking note of the declaration and explanation made by the representative of the government of Israel before the ad hoc Political committee in respect of the implementation of the said resolutions {my emphasis}, the General Assembly … decides to admit Israel into the membership of the United Nations.”

Justice Delayed, Justice Denied

During the past 52 years, since the adoption of U.N. Resolution 194(111) of Dec. 11, 1948 recognizing the Palestinian right of return, the Western World – including Canada – has been encouraging, supporting and protecting Israel in its violations of international law and U.N. resolutions. Your latest statements to the “Toronto Star” on Jan. 10, 2001 (although not posted on your ministry’s web site) are part of this longstanding biased position in favor of Israel and against the legitimate aspirations of the dispossessed Palestinian people. You are attempting with this ‘trial balloon’ on behalf of Israel and the U.S. to not only circumvent U.N. resolutions, but also to split the Palestinian people and their consensus on the right of return and on ending Israeli occupation. The U.N. resolutions Canada introduced and claimed to support during the process of creating Israel should be binding on all Canadian governments; without taking practical steps to implement them, sweet-talk alone does not absolve you from your direct and moral responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinian people.

In the “Toronto Star” article, you refer to our right of return as “that dream” and then state that you “are prepared to receive refugees” and “are prepared to contribute to an international fund to assist with resettlement…”

It seems very clear that you are offering your services not out of concern for the plight and suffering of the Palestinian refugees, but to save Israel from its obligations regarding U.N. resolutions. Was the purpose of these resolutions to create facts on the ground in Israel’s favor and then to call the parts relating to the Palestinians a “dream”?

Almost every Palestinian in this country knows how you have treated us since the creation of the state of Israel. We have been and continue to be treated as “terrorists” and “criminals” by different Canadian departments including Immigration and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and NOT as victims of the most atrocious crime committed against a whole nation. If you are indeed trying to introduce a new humane Canadian policy towards the Palestinian people, may we suggest that you treat us the same way you treat Israeli citizens and allow us to enter Canada as visitors without a visa. Or may be you should offer the Israelis what you are offering us: resettlement in Canada if they renounce their “Law of Return”.

End Israeli Occupation

I read your letter of January 12, 2001, to Mr. Nabil Ayyad, the president of the “Canadian Palestinian Centre”. It is also not posted on your ministry’s web site. If the letter is authentic, I think that CIDA’s donations of $330,000 for Palestinian humanitarian institutions are commendable. Any donation is appreciated, but I am sure you realize that this meager amount will not change the total picture of suffering. One victim of a car accident here in Canada could get more compensation than what you sent. Recent estimates put the injured by Israeli Occupation Forces(IOF) at 16,000 since the start of the Al Aqsa intifada on September 28, 2000, in addition to the estimated 350 Palestinians murdered by the IOF. The only way to stop this carnage is to force Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands, dare we suggest the same way you and your western allies forced Iraq out of Kuwait, without waiting for 52 years of U.N. resolutions and “peace talks”.

In your letter to Mr. Ayyad, you affirmed Canada’s support for Resolution 194. If that is truly so, why are you calling the right of return a “dream”? Why are you offering to “resettle” the Palestinian refugees? Why are you still protecting Israel by extending diplomatic, economic and political support, while leaving the Palestinians under the mercy of a brutal military machine? By abstaining on the
recent U.N. Security Draft Resolution (Dec.18/2000) to send International Forces to protect the Palestinian people, you carry a direct responsibility for the failure of that resolution and accordingly for the current bloodbath the Palestinian people are enduring.

Birthright Denied

In my own personal experience, Canada has denied me my birthright. As if it was not enough that Israel dispossessed me, my family and my people, Canada has to take the side of my oppressor and deny even the existence of my country, Palestine. When I applied for my 3rd Canadian passport on June 9/ 1997, the Passport Office in Surrey, the CEO of the Passport office in Ottawa, Mr. M.J. Hutton, and your predecessor Mr. Axworthy all refused to acknowledge the fact that I was born in Palestine, and that Palestine is my country of birth. They refused to put this on my latest Canadian passport, even though the other two Canadian passports I was previously issued showed PALESTINE as my birthplace. (For more detail on the subject, see ‘Birthright Denied‘ published by the Canada Palestine Association, June 1999.) The above incident is not an isolated one. It is a part of pro-Israel policies adopted by successive Canadian governments that aim at liquidating the national character of the Palestinian people.

Hypocrisy and Double Standards

As a proud Palestinian, I don’t appreciate you calling my people’s struggle against the Israeli Occupation Forces “acts of terror”. I do not appreciate you equating the legitimate resistance of my dispossessed people with the violence of a brutal occupier and oppressor.

Why this hypocrisy and the double standards? You never referred to the French resistance against Nazi occupation as “acts of terror”, and more recently, you did not label the Kuwaiti, East European, Afghani, Bosnian or Kosovar resistance as “terrorist”. Are we Palestinians less human, to the point that international law and human rights standards do not apply to us?

Finally, when you accepted the Kosovars, the Indochinese and other refugees you did not put a condition on them to renounce their right of return to their respective homelands. Why demand that only from the Palestinian people, or else their chance to come to Canada is in jeopardy? In your interview with the “Toronto Star”, you said, “Palestinians are not going to cease to exist either. They are going to need a place to live.” While it is true that we refuse to disappear, the only place we need and want to live in is Palestine, no matter what the western powers’ schemes might be for the Middle East and its peoples.

Thank you for your attention

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

An appeal from the Canada Palestine Association to all members of the Arab and Moslem communities

Since we distributed our position paper on Nov. 14, 2000 to the Arab and Moslem organizations, all we have received from these groups is silence or a whole range of excuses. For example, why we should not support the NDP because they are not “ an effective voice.” Why we should give the Liberals another chance, and see how they behave after the elections. Why we should vote for individual candidates who “support our causes” even if they are members of a party that is condoning Israeli slaughter against our people. And the most precious excuse: how we should “unequivocally and vigorously reject” voting and determining the political outcome on a ”single issue”!!

It seems to us that the leadership of the Arab and Moslem communities in Canada and North America in general are not much different than the existing leadership in the Arab and Moslem World. They are both failing the Palestinian people and they are not deceiving anybody except themselves and their cronies.

This is why we are directing our call to you, the individual members. We call on you to vote with your conscience. In fact, most Canadians vote on the most important “single issue” to them, whatever that may be. We certainly know what is the most important “single issue” to the Zionist organizations. We urge you to read the attached “Position Paper: Vote for Justice, Vote for Palestine” carefully and make an informed decision. We also urge you to make a commitment to not be influenced by personal or material gains. Our brothers and sisters in Palestine are scarifying with the ultimate, their lives and the lives of their loved ones so as to achieve freedom.

In the last week, many analysts in the media are recognizing the possibility of a minority government. If this does happen and the NDP forms a coalition government with the Liberals, then we have achieved our immediate objective. It is defeatist to argue that because we are not well financed and well organized, we should skip election after election without having any impact on the political process.

On Oct. 20, 2000, the Vancouver Zionist paper, the “Jewish Western Bulletin” wrote in its editorial: “ Moreover, if there is ever a genuine threat to Israel’s existence, the full force of Diaspora Jewry will come to its aid. The Palestinian partisans cannot even come close to making such claims.”

LET US PROVE THEM WRONG!!

Hanna Kawas,
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association