We, in the Canada Palestine Association, denounce the British Columbia (B.C.) and Canadian governments for their colonial violence and their callous disregard of indigenous rights. This past week, additional RCMP troops arrived in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and have since engaged in violent raids on indigenous land defenders; we demand the immediate release of all those arrested, which included journalists and elders. We know that the struggles of the indigenous people of this land and the indigenous people of Palestine have always been against the supremacist settler colonialist project. We honour the brave resistance of our indigenous sisters and brothers all through their history and know that they believe, as we do, in defending their land to their last breath.
We tell Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier John Horgan that they are on the wrong side of history, and they will be only remembered for their supremacist and racist legacies.
Activists in Vancouver, who have worked for over a decade on the Boycott Israeli Wines campaign, were recently taken aback to discover that a new market for Israeli settlement wines had opened up in the United Arab Emirates UAE. This was apparently one of the dividends of the “normalization” agreements, or Abraham Accords, that are now over a year old and are fueling greater Israeli-UAE economic ties. Dividends of betraying the Palestinian people and profiting from their suffering.
Be it Dubai Ports World bidding to build ports in Haifa, or illegal Israeli settlement wines being imported into the Emirates, or members of the Dubai royal family visiting the Israel Aerospace Industries pavilion at Expo 2020, or the newly-launched Elbit Systems Emirates, these connections continue to surface. The Israeli Finance Ministry’s deputy chief economist, Lev Drucker, reportedly “sees a potential for more substantial trade levels between the countries, starting at $2 billion and building up to $6.5 billion once cooperation matures”, although financial analysts are more conservative in their estimates.[i]
And it is now evident that allowing this cooperation to “mature” means that there are no barriers to economic trade. Not violations of international law that forbid profiteering off the resources of an occupied people, and not the stained history of the Israeli military industry that literally has the blood of Palestinian and Arab civilians on its hands.
After the Abraham Accords were announced last year, Israeli media was abuzz with reports that Dubai based FAM Holdings had inked a deal with settler company representatives to import wine, tahina, olive oil and honey. Settler Council leader Yossi Dagan was centre stage at the signing ceremony in Dubai; his effusive comments at the time bragged about these new economic ties, repeatedly insisting on using the “Samaria” designation for the occupied West Bank:
“We are opening a new economic page between the best companies in Samaria and FAM. I am very excited and happy with their standing,” he said. “Samaria strives to lead in all areas, and also in export and business development,” Dagan said. “The Samaria area that I represent is located in the Israeli state’s heartland.”
According to the Times of Israel, the Tura Winery based in the illegal settlement of Rechelim, continued in the same vein with this announcement on social media:
“Now it can be revealed: We signed a special cooperation agreement on the distribution of Tura wines and [olive] oils across the UAE,” the company wrote on its Facebook page, together with several pictures of co-owner Vered Ben Sa’adon shaking hands with her new business partner at the signing ceremony in Dubai. “Straight from Rechelim in Israel to the UAE — history!”
Not to be outdone, the head of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce clarified that “the United Arab Emirates has no issue with importing Israeli products manufactured in the West Bank, as it will help boost the Palestinian economy (sic!)…We are an open market in every sense of the word”.
Reportedly, bottles from the Golan Heights Winery, in illegally occupied and annexed Syrian territory, were the first to hit store shelves in Dubai. Yair Shapira, CEO of the Golan Heights Winery, said a year ago that “we are excited to be the Israeli winery that will ‘open the gate’ and introduce the residents and guests of the UAE in Dubai to the Israeli wine industry.” Despite the recent visit of the UAE Foreign Minister to Damascus, it would seem legitimizing Israeli theft of Arab land is still very much “business as usual” for the Emirates.
Profiteering off Israeli war crimes and apartheid is morally wrong; activists should not even have to explain to these governments that they are aiding and abetting the pillage of Palestinian and Arab property and resources, which is expressly forbidden in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
However, the tide is turning; all those complicit, be they Arab despotic regimes or duplicitous Western governments and officials, will be held accountable for enabling Israel’s long and bloody history of dispossession of the Palestinians. The Palestinians, and their supporters, will never forget who stood on the wrong side of history and made a mockery of their human rights.
Earlier today, we lost Lee Maracle, an indigenous warrior, a writer, a poet, an activist and a revolutionary. She was strongly internationalist in her perspective and linked the indigenous struggles in Turtle Island to all oppressed peoples of the world. Her longstanding support for the Palestinian people’s struggle against Zionist settler colonialism was an example for all progressive people to follow.
On June 5, 1976, Lee introduced the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish at a packed public meeting for the Palestinian delegation to the UN-Habitat Conference. He read several poems, and she presented the English translation of “Write Down, I am an Arab” for the audience. On more than one occasion, she reminisced fondly about this experience.
Some of her more memorable and principled moments in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle are as follows:
On Oct. 1985, Lee donated a hand-woven Cowichan wool blanket as a raffle prize in support of the Palestine Children’s Hospital in Cairo.
On Jan. 1, 2006, Lee issued a statement criticizing the AFN leadership visit to Israel stating that: “… 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?”
On Jan. 24, 2021, Lee issued a statement after learning of the attempts by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to erase Palestine and the Palestinian national identity.
Lee wrote many poems dedicated to the Palestinian struggle: I am a Palestinian Woman, Songs to a Palestinian Child, Free Palestindians, and Remembering Mahmoud 1976 among others.
Voice of Palestine radio show, based in Vancouver, interviewed Lee several times:
March 11, 2008, a conversation with Lee honouring International Women’s’ Day. Lee spoke about how she had always felt close to the Palestinian people and their struggle and mentioned past solidarity actions that she and her children had participated in. The interview is 31 minutes into the audio.
Feb. 7, 2012, an Interview with Lee about the Global Day of Solidarity with Leonard Peltier; she detailed the complicity of the Canadian courts in his deportation from Vancouver and the solidarity campaign that was waged at that time. There was discussion of indigenous rights, the similarities of settler colonialist projects including Israel and North America. The interview is 24 minutes into the audio.
Mar. 27, 2012, a conversation and poetry readings with Lee Maracle who joined us over the weekend during a brief visit to Vancouver to talk about the apartheid nature of settler colonialism, both here in Turtle Island and Palestine. She also read several of her moving pieces of poetry, in particular “Remembering Mahmoud” which is dedicated to the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The interview is 27 minutes into the audio.
Lee’s memory will always live in our hearts, and her tireless work for her people and the victims of settler colonialism will live on forever.
Note: This is just a first step in documenting her indigenous solidarity with the Palestinian people; if you find other solidarity activities for Lee, please let us know and we will add it to this post.
From Turtle Island to Palestine, Colonization is a Crime.
“On Borrowed Time in Gaza: Art in Confinement” Drawings and Paintings by Palestinian, Gaza based artists: Majdal Nateel, Maisara Baroud, Maha Daya, Mohammed Alhaj, Rufida Sehwail, Ganem Alden
Mónica Reyes Gallery 602 East Hastings (at Princess), Vancouver Wednesday November 24 to Saturday November 27, 2021. Hours: 12 to 5pm Closing reception and walkthrough: Saturday November 27 at 1:00pm Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/614336096368315
Art in Confinement evokes perseverance, humanism, and creativity in dark times. The exhibition represents expressions from life in Gaza by six Palestinian artists, whose works defy a brutal Israeli blockade imposed on over two million Palestinians. Crossing states’ boundaries and aerial spaces to reach Turtle Island, the works affirm Palestinian hope, persistence, endurance, and love of art and life. The two hundred drawings and paintings are a testament of the power of art, the power of imagination under bombardment, and aspiration for a just and peaceful life in a forsaken world. Making art in Gaza is an act of survival, refusal, and resistance to unendurable conditions inflicted on Palestinians in the largest collective prison on earth. Deprivation of the Palestinian artists in Gaza from their right to freedom of movement, their right to connect with the rest of the art community and the public in colonized Palestine and beyond has not stopped them from making art. Despite Israel’s prohibition of art material and supplies from entering Gaza, or prohibiting art from exiting Gaza, artists continue to create engaging art, representing their experiences in confinement, isolation, and deprivation of basic human rights.
100% of the sales of the artworks, ranging in price from $50 to $1500 will be going to the artists and art therapy programs for children in Gaza. This exhibition is a call for support of Palestinian artists who live and work under extreme conditions in Gaza.
In June of this year, the story of how Dubai Ports World was helping to squash opposition to the Israeli Zim shipping company in a small Canadian town caught the interest of many progressives worldwide. Lest anyone think this was an isolated incident, Canadian media recently highlighted another saga of Canada-UAE-Israel partnership.
This time around, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper is taking centre stage as the head of the advisory committee to Toronto-based AWZ Ventures. According to a CBC article, “AWZ Ventures finances Israeli surveillance technology systems, including facial recognition and crowd detection systems and services that deliver comprehensive information on individuals in real time.”
The media focus now is that AWZ Ventures is facilitating the sale of this “technology to the United Arab Emirates — a country with a troubling human rights record”. (No mention of Israel’s “troubling human rights record”, mind you.)
Again, as with the Zim story, the finer details are bizarre. Not only does AWZ Ventures have former Mossad, CIA and MI5 figures on its advisory board, it is also opening a subsidiary in the UAE. And heading up this new subsidiary with be the former Canadian diplomat and representative to the Palestinian Authority, Katherine Verrier-Fréchette.
The new company, aptly dubbed AWZ Horizons, will also be helping to promote the sale of this Israeli technology “to other countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, and countries in North Africa.” This seamless transition from Canadian diplomatic envoy to high-level cybersecurity merchant speaks volumes about the “neutrality” of Canadian foreign policy.
AWZ Ventures itself is an interesting study. Along with the notable international figures, Richard Fadden, former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service works for the company. And former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day is also reportedly involved.
Fadden, one of the few who was quoted by Canadian media, said: “A lot of this technology is useful in fighting terrorism and that was my main interest,” he said. “Some of the technology that has been developed helps develop a sense of what’s going on, on the one level on social media, so you can accumulate information…”
In July of this year, AWZ Ventures also entered into an official partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense and its Directorate of Defense Research and Development (MAFAT) and launched Awz X-Seed. The goal of this new spin-off will be to invest in “pre-seed” and “inception” stage companies in Israel developing innovative security technologies. According to Stephen Harper at the time: “Together, Awz and MAFAT will uniquely evaluate and develop early-stage technologies, creating a model that is unmatched anywhere.”
It was also noted that the “Portfolio companies will further benefit from Awz Ventures’ business development offices in Canada, the US, and UAE that will support the companies in expanding their global client base.”
So, to sum up, a Canadian-based company with an advisory board headed by a former Canadian PM and full of former spies, is marketing Israeli cybersecurity and surveillance technology to dictatorial Arab regimes. And even partnering with the Israeli government to help develop more of the same.
The detrimental use of these technologies has been well-documented in recent years, the most notable case being a possible link in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Journalists and human rights activists, including from Amnesty International, have reportedly been targeted by repressive governments with the aid of these Israeli surveillance tools.
However, the media parameters that focus only on the sale of these Israeli technologies to despotic regimes are flawed. The Israeli government’s “troubling human rights record” is also relevant, and the fact that their security and defense innovations are field-tested on Palestinians and Arabs is well-known. And Israel’s abuse and torture of Palestinian prisoners is also well-known, as was evidenced by the recent treatment of the Gilboa 6 after being re-captured.
As the Dubai 2020 Expo is finally underway, with an Israel pavilion spearheaded by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we must be clear on who is powering and financing this unholy alliance of Israeli apartheid and Arab reactionary regimes. Western governments and capital interests are fully complicit in these violations of Palestinian and Arab human rights.
(Article by Marion Kawas, that was published in Mondoweiss).
Vancouver rally (June 2021) to support #BlocktheBoat and Shut Down Zim
