Category: Featured

Support the Defense Fund for Tamam al Zobaidi and her Family

Update Oct/2015:

Eight months ago, Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver… Read more

Update Oct/2015:

Eight months ago, Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver started the Tamam Defense Fund to help Tamam and Kenza al Zobaidi challenge Israel’s arbitrary denial of their legitimate Jerusalem residency rights. The response of supporters across Canada has been heartening; your support not only helped the family meet the financial costs for the legal process, but also let them know that they are not alone and that many people are committed to standing up to Israel’s outrageous policies that can render a family stateless and status-less.

The current escalating Israeli repression in Palestine, particularly in East Jerusalem, highlights the vulnerability of Palestinians under occupation but also shows Palestinians’ determination to hold onto and cherish their birthright, their heritage and their homeland. The case of Tamam and Kenza has now gone to the next stage in the Israeli legal system, as the Israeli tribunal judge upheld the original Ministry of Interior decision and even ordered the family to pay an extra penalty. They must now spend further time and money in appealing all of this to the Israeli district court, which is both expensive and stressful (the appeal to the district court will cost around $10,000).

We know that your political and financial support has been pivotal in helping to keep this case moving forward and we are asking all friends and supporters to continue with publicizing and donating to this campaign. Please also approach any groups you are part of and ask them to consider making a donation and highlighting the case on their websites and social media. We have been able to raise over $5000 towards the family’s legal fees so far, but more is needed; $4200.00 was already forwarded to the family and over $1300 is currently in our Crowdfunding account. Together we can continue to challenge Israeli ethnic cleansing and finally put a stop to these cruel measures that divide families, separate parents from children and ultimately have the goal of making daily life impossible for Palestinian Jerusalemites.

Please donate generously to this fund which will go towards the al Zobaidis’ legal expenses, and make your checks payable to:
Canada Palestine Association
(write in the Memo: Tamam Defense Fund)
and mail to:
CPA
c/o BC Market
930 12th St., New Westminster, B.C., V3M 4K6

Cheques can also be dropped at BC Market address
Or Donate online

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Canada Palestine Association (CPA)-Vancouver is starting a Defense Fund for Tamam and Kenza al Zobaidi (mother and daughter), who were denied their legitimate residency status in Jerusalem by the Israeli occupation authorities and accordingly their birthright. Also, Tamam has now “become, essentially, stateless, and risked falling out of ‘legal’ status in Canada, which would render her unable to work, receive health care or enroll her child…in school” (Electronic Intifada, Oct. 6, 2014). Sobhi and Tamam al Zobaidi are well-known in the Vancouver Palestinian and progressive community and their friends are shocked by this development.

East Jerusalem is recognized by all countries in the world including Canada as illegally occupied territory; in spite of this, Israel continues to act as the rightful owner of Jerusalem against all international humanitarian laws, UN resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel continues with its settler colonialist policy and ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their historic homeland.

Please donate generously to this fund which will go towards the al Zobaidis’ legal expenses, and make your checks payable to:
Canada Palestine Association
(write in the Memo: Tamam Defense Fund)
and mail to:
CPA
c/o BC Market
930 12th St., New Westminster,
B. C., V3M 4K6

Cheques can also be dropped at BC Market address
Or Donate online

For more information on these racist policies towards the indigenous Palestinian people of Jerusalem (both Christians and Muslims), see the report from the Israeli Human Rights group B’Tselem:
Revocation of Residency in East Jerusalem
And the report by the Society of St. Yves, Catholic Center for Human Rights, Jerusalem.
The legal status of Palestinians in Jerusalem

BDS VANCOUVER Coast Salish Territories

BDS VANCOUVER
Coast Salish Territories
(Sub-Committee of Canada Palestine… Read more

BDS VANCOUVER
Coast Salish Territories
(Sub-Committee of Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver)

Basis of Unity

a. Endorsing the Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS objectives:
“These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194” – See more at: http://www.bdsmovement.net

b. Regardless of its national and/or geographic location, any company, organization or institution that is empowering Israeli war crimes, ethnic cleansing and Apartheid is complicit in them, and accordingly is subject to the economic and cultural boycott call.

c. We believe in the universality of human rights, and that the injustices that befell the Palestinian people should be rectified.

Organizational Structure

The committee will operate as a collective, with all decisions being made democratically, by majority vote.
• Membership is open to individuals who subscribe to, and actively work to promote, the committee basis of unity; and who pay CPA membership dues ($15 a year).
• Applications for new membership will be ratified by the committee collective, by majority vote.
• Members are entitled to attend CPA regular meetings if they choose to do so.

For more info, or to become involved with the committee, please email us at: cpavancouver@gmail.com

Biased CBC Coverage‏

Letter to CBC News Vancouver Regarding Biased Coverage

August 1, 2014
News… Read more

Letter to CBC News Vancouver Regarding Biased Coverage

August 1, 2014
News Editor, CBC News Vancouver
We believe that your coverage of local events regarding the Israeli aggression on Gaza has been biased as well as unbalanced.
We had thousands of Vancouverites that took to the streets in downtown Vancouver on July 3, 2014, July 12, 2014, July 19, 2014 and July 25, 2014 to protest Israeli war crimes and the complicity of the Canadian government in them. The July 12 rally was held in front of your headquarters in Vancouver, and the July 19 protest also marched to and protested in front of your headquarters for around five minutes. You did not see fit to report any of these actions except for a short reference to the “anti-Israeli” rally on the July 19 edition of the news.14:50 -15:15 (25 seconds)
In contrast, on July 27, 2014, a much smaller group of pro-Israeli demonstrators got extensive coverage with personal interviews about their feelings and opinions regarding what is happening (almost six times the coverage of the thousands that showed up for our rallies). 2:22 seconds.
We are having a rally this coming Saturday, Aug. 2nd at the Art Gallery and we will march to your headquarters at 3:15 pm. We are hoping to hand you this letter and have a delegation meet with you or a CBC representative to deal with this one-sided coverage that smacks of racism against the Palestinian people.
Hoping to hear from you,
Hanna Kawas (Chair, Canada Palestine Association) hkawas@msn.com
On Behalf of Rally Organizing Committee

c.c. CRTC, CBC Ombudsman

Open Letter to Surrey Mayor and Council re Ehud Barak’s Visit

Feb. 18, 2014
Open letter to Mayor Dianne Watts and Council Members of the… Read more

Feb. 18, 2014
Open letter to Mayor Dianne Watts and Council Members of the City of Surrey

On Dec. 17, 2013, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) reported that the “Mayor of Surrey Leads Trade Mission to Israel”.

CIJA then reported on Dec. 19, 2013, under the title INNOVATION IN ACTION: Surrey Trade Mission to Israel a “Game Changer”, that “The City of Surrey looks forward to hosting former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak along with the former leaders of Greece and Australia as part of an international panel on global innovation (at) the city’s Surrey Regional Economic Summit on February 27th, 2014.”

We would like to draw your attention to the following facts:

1. To invite the Israeli war criminal Ehud Barak as a speaker to the “Surrey Regional Economic Summit” is outrageous and beyond belief. It is like inviting a bank thief and killer with blood on his hands to address the banking industry. We are not using the term war criminal frivolously; please refer to just a few documented examples of Barak’s terrorism and murderous past at the end of our open letter.

2. On July 9, 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations called for a broad and sustained Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel “until it complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights”. What the City of Surrey is now doing amounts to crossing the picket lines of the BDS Movement, a movement that represents and includes large numbers of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and Canadians of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds that reside and live in Surrey. Please do not participate in empowering Israeli war crimes, Apartheid and ethnic cleansing in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Humanitarian Law; otherwise your involvement will make the city complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It seems to us that the city of Surrey is following on the footsteps of the Canadian Conservative Government which is making Canada and now Surrey part of Israeli Occupied Territory. Complicity in Israeli war crimes is not MORAL, and should not be perceived as a way to advance personal careers – it will not and should never be treated as such.

We ask all the Surrey Councillors to come clean and disassociate themselves from what the Mayor is doing to Surrey, a city full of diverse and dynamic communities. We hope that payback time will come at the next municipal elections for those who are complicit in violating International Humanitarian Law and putting personal interests ahead of their constituent’s needs.

Signed by:
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign
Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver
Canadian Boat to Gaza
Critical Criminology Working Group at Kwantlen Polytechnic Univ.
Fraser Valley Peace Council
Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD)
Siraat Collective, Vancouver
Voice of Palestine
___________________________________________
Examples of Ehud Barak’s terrorism and War Crimes:

• In 1973 Ehud Barak participated in the targeted assassination of three leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization – Abu Youssef al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan and Kamal Nasser, a Palestinian poet and PLO spokesman. According to Wikipedia he was part of the “covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman”.
• On March 11, 1978, Barak murdered an 18 year old Palestinian female prisoner Dalal al-Mughrabi in cold blood. According to the British Guardian: “Mughrabi’s body was dragged off the tarmac and shot several times by Barak in images captured by the media.”
• Ehud Barak was one of the Israeli commanders who led the Israeli death squad on April 16, 1988 that killed the beloved Palestinian leader Khalil El Wazir (Abu Jihad) in Tunis. This international terrorist attack was carried out outside of Israel in Tunisia. David Yallop, the British investigative journalist, in his book “To the Ends of the Earth” stated “This, with other elements, confirmed that the killing squad were in continuous radio contact with the Boeing flying just outside Tunisian air space. In the plane were, among others, Major General Ehud Barak, deputy to the Commander-in-Chief; Dan Shomron, Chief of Staff; Air Force Commander Avihu Bin-Nun; and the Head of Military Intelligence, Amnon Shahak.” Page 226
• From December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, as the Israeli Defence Minister, Barak led the Gaza massacre that resulted in the murder of around 1400 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
• On 15 September 2009, a report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict was released. The report concluded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. Following is just one example from the 574 page report, section 1732: “From the facts gathered, the Mission found that the following grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. As grave breaches these acts give rise to individual criminal responsibility. The Mission notes that the use of human shields also constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
______________________________
Note (Feb 27, 2014): The Canadian corporate media, in its usual complicit and cowardly manner, did not run one single story about the “Open Letter”, although we emailed it to all relevant media outlets in Canada.
Curiously, in contrast to the Canadian media’s silence, many Jewish Zionist media outlets reported it. See:
“The Canadian jewish News” Groups protest Barak visit to Surrey, B.C.
“The Jewish Press.com” Canadian Pro-Palestinian Group Protesting Ehud Barak Visit
“JTA” Canadian pro-Palestinian group protesting Ehud Barak visit
“The Jewish Daily Forward” Canadian Pro-Palestinian Group Protests Ehud Barak Visit, Called Former Prime Minister an ‘Israeli War Criminal’
Arutz Sheva “Israel National News” Canada: Anti-Israel Groups Attempt to Prevent Ehud Barak Visit
“Solve Israel’s Problem” Canada: Anti-Israel Groups Attempt to Prevent Ehud Barak Visit

Denounce Assault on Palestinian Journalists by Harper’s Security

Following is a Statement from Voice of Palestine and Canada Palestine Association:… Read more

Following is a Statement from Voice of Palestine and Canada Palestine Association:
We, in the Voice of Palestine and the Canada Palestine Association, denounce the aggressive and possibly criminal behaviour of the Canadian security accompanying PM Stephen Harper at the holy place of the Nativity church. We demand an investigation and an apology from the Canadian government; their hypocrisy has no bounds and as one Palestinian journalist stated: “You wouldn’t do this in Israel (to Israeli journalists)”.
Hanna Kawas,
Co-host, Voice of Palestine
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
________________
We received the following message from Amer Hjazi, the Palestinian journalist who was roughed up by Harper’s security; some of the Canadian media did not tell the accurate story of (and tried to trivialize) what happened to this Palestinian journalist, in a real expression of “solidarity” with fellow reporters!!
Jan. 21, 2014-01-22 (Translation of the original Arabic)
On Monday morning, the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper visited the Nativity Church; after the security check, only seven Palestinian journalists were allowed to cover the event and we abided by the instructions given to us by the Palestinian and Canadian security. When the Prime Minister arrived, we were allowed to take footage outside the church. When we entered the church, the Canadian security forbade us from filming in spite of the mediation of the Palestinian security. The Canadian security treated me and my colleagues roughly, and I was assaulted by one of PM Stephen Harper’s guards; I was beaten on my chest and was hurt. My colleagues stopped filming and we protested this Canadian maltreatment outside of the Nativity Church (with a work stoppage). Their behaviour was unbecoming of guests on our land; they should have shown respect for their hosts. The Palestinian Union of Journalists asked for an official apology from the Canadian Embassy, we did not receive any so far. I personally ask for an apology from the Canadian Prime Minster.
I ask you to stand in solidarity with me to regain my integrity.
Update: On Jan. 24, 2014, Amer Hjazi reported that he had been to the Canadian Embassy in Ramallah to ask for an apology, and the Embassy refused to apologize. Amer has a picture of the guard who assaulted him in his possession.