Category: Featured

This year, the Zionist organizations in Vancouver celebrated “Israel’s 64th Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut” on April 25, 2012 at “The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts”. The event was presented by the “Jewish Federation” of Greater Vancouver, sponsored by the “Jewish National Fund”, Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ”Jewish Independent” and the Executive Hotel Vintage Park, along with 55 “Community Partners” including the “Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture”.
We know that many social justice and pro-Palestinian organizations have held some of their public meetings at the Peretz Centre, believing that the Centre is “secular” and progressive. We believe at this crucial junction in Palestinian history that all those who support the Palestinian struggle should be aware of whom they are dealing with; and further, if they support the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions BDS against Israeli Apartheid, they must also boycott all those who support the settler colonialist project in Palestine.
When we learnt of their most recent “Partnering”, we wrote the following letter to the Peretz Centre.
“It has come to our attention that your name was one of many organizations that are “Community Partners” in the “Celebrate Israel’s 64th Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut” (see Jewish Independent March 23, 2012, page 16, the back page). This is not the first time that your “secular” organization celebrates Israel’s “independence day”. We have been boycotting your centre and all events that were held in it since your first such endorsement of our Nakba (forced dispossession), although we have refrained from taking a public position.
Recently, leading Palestinian activists in the diaspora (of which I was one) issued a statement criticizing Gilad Atzmon for both his actions and statements on “Jewish identity”. The debate that has opened up around this issue requires us to also be critical of people of Jewish background who refuse to openly condemn Israel’s Apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and/or those supporting these Zionist policies. The time is now for all people of good conscience, especially those who identify as being of Jewish faith, to publicly distance themselves from these racist and discriminatory practices. In so doing, they will also further the struggle against anti-Jewish sentiment and prove, especially to the Palestinians, that many Jewish people are not willing to blindly follow “tribal loyalties”. Silence at this crucial point in history is complicity and can only be viewed as such.
We intend now to go public. Please respond to this email with any information that might clarify your position.
Thanks for your attention.”
We then received two emails from Richard Rosenberg, the president of the “Peretz Centre”. He told us in the first email dated April 6, 2012 that: “if we were to withdraw from the ‘Community Partners’ we would once again be marginalized in the Jewish community” and “On Thursday, April 19th, we will be having an executive meeting of the Peretz Centre, and your concerns will be discussed”. In his second email on May 1, 2012, he reiterated what he said previously and added that “Recognizing the Independence Day of Israel does not at all commit us to endorse current Israeli policies”…and that “the Peretz Centre is essentially not a political nor a lobby group.”
We believe that Mr. Rosenberg and his executive preferred to ignore our points and bury their heads in the sand. We regret to tell them that “recognizing the Independence Day of Israel” is a political stand that denies the Palestinian people their rights and their existence. Furthermore, by recognizing the pro-Israeli Zionist organizations as “the Jewish community”, the Peretz Centre is also contributing to promoting anti-Semitism and hurting the wellbeing and interests of all Jews by attributing to them the war crimes that Israel commits. We wish that all of the Peretz executive and membership attended the meeting that was held in Vancouver for the Israel historian Ilan Pappe on May 5, 2012, or that they have read Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi’s book the Original Sins.
As we said in our original letter to them, it is incumbent on Jewish people all over the world, including in Israel, to disassociate themselves from the Zionist settler colonialist project, a project that is directly responsible not only for denying the Palestinian their rights and humanity, but also for promoting anti-Semitism against Jews. We believe that Jews who claim to support the Palestinian people and still claim loyalty to the Israeli state (the Zionist settler colonialist project) are not helping the struggle to combat anti-Semitism. One recent example of this “tribal” loyalty is the recent position of Norman Finkelstein on the objectives of the BDS movement.
Progressive Palestinians can NOT carry this anti-racist struggle on their own and they should not be asked to nor expected to; now is the time for Jewish people (to quote Ilan Pappe) to focus on what is just, not simply what seems possible or convenient at this current juncture in time. They have to reclaim their humanity and stop patronizing those who are partnering with Israeli Apartheid, war crimes and the continued ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
Hanna Kawas, Chairperson
Canada Palestine Association

The Palestinian Committee of the Canada Palestine Association (CPA) extends its full support to the Voice of Palestine (VOP) Collective in its endeavors to pass a resolution at Coop Radio in support of the NCRA resolution that called for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. We also support the VOP statements, including Coop Radio places itself on the wrong side of history and Support for Palestine is Support for BDS‏.

We call on Coop Radio members and programmers, and all progressive organizations in Canada and across the world, to endorse our call.

To endorse this position, please email us at info@cpavancouver.org

In Solidarity
Nadine Kallas
Chairperson, Palestinian Committee
CPA

The following is an open letter that was sent on Nov. 7, 2011 to John Baird, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister regarding the incident that resulted in the departure of Linda Sobeh Ali, the representative of the “Palestinian Authority” to Ottawa.

Mr. Baird:

We emailed you on Oct. 22, 2011 enquiring about the version of the Palestinian poem read in Arabic by a young Palestinian girl “Palestinian, my name is Palestinian”, that was tweeted by Linda Sobeh Ali representative of the “Palestinian Authority” and allegedly stated “destroy the Jews”. We informed you that if this was the case, we will “take a stand against anti-Jewish racism.” So far we have not received any response from you nor from your Parliamentary Secretary. Does your lack of response to us mean that you are interested only in people who support Israel, rather than those who take a stand against anti-Jewish racism?

We do acknowledge the prompt response of the Globe and Mail Associate Editor, the only media that responded to our enquiries and supplied us with the link to the version that the Palestinian envoy was supposed to have tweeted.

We would like to note that the original version of this poem with the correct translation (link included above) has both a Turkish and English translation under the video. This version was uploaded to YouTube on 11 Dec 2006 and was seen by 1,264,274 people so far. Both the Turkish and English subtitles correctly translate the Arabic word “Sahyoon” as Zionism and not Jews (Yahood). The one and only inaccurate version (with just 3,550 viewers) was posted and produced by Bokra Lena (Tomorrow Is Ours), and used the correct Turkish version with the Turkish subtitles but superimposed on it different English subtitles, substituting “To a war that will destroy oppression and kill the soul of Zionism” with the words “…& destroy the Jews”. We unequivocally denounce this forgery as well as the anti-Jewish hatred it promotes; we believe that equating Zionism with Judaism serves only the anti-Semites, the Zionist lobby and their stooges and objectively hurts the Palestinian people and their struggle. In our statement “Jason Kenney Is Promoting Racism” we noted that “Zionism and anti-Semitism are two faces of the same coin”, citing documentation to back up our argument.

It is ironic that you and the Canadian government target a representative of this “Palestinian Authority” which praised you (we don’t understand why), worked closely with the Zionist organizations here, and served your government and Israeli policies rather than the interests of the Palestinian people. It seems you do not tolerate even their pretence of serving their own people.

We also would like to express our profound disappointment at the so-called “Palestinian Authority” that no longer speaks for nor represents the vast majority of the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspirations. The Palestinians have thousands of capable, eloquent, knowledgeable and committed people all over the world who are daily defending Palestinian human and national rights and who can effectively challenge the Zionists and their narrative. But the PA makes its decisions without consultation with the Palestinian communities in diaspora, thereby hurting the struggle of the Palestinian people and betraying the tens of thousands of martyrs who fell over the past century, fighting first British colonialism and then Zionist settler colonialism. This PA envoy has moved on, as has her predecessor; however, it is the Palestinian Canadian community and its supporters that are left to deal with the misconceptions created and exploited with this incident.

Canada was the first country to sign the so-called “The Ottawa Protocol on Combating Antisemitism”. Both you and the Canadian Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney signed this document on September 19th of this year.

This protocol offers the following as one example of anti-Semitism: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.” And although the document does make token mention that criticism of Israel is not always anti-Semitic, it then immediately goes on to state…“But singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium – let alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction – is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is dishonest.”

The Globe and Mail reported, when noting that there was an incorrect English translation in the subtitles for the poem: “Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), which first sent Ms. Sobeh Ali’s video tweet to Mr. Baird’s office, said both versions are unfit to be circulated by a Palestinian envoy. ‘You’re speaking to someone who doesn’t see a difference,’ Mr. Fogel said”.

It is clear to us that Mr. Fogel’s main concern and yours is not anti-Jewish hatred (anti-Semitism) but rather the defence of Israel. That is why you and your government do not differentiate between Zionism and Judaism; this is why Mr. Fogel insists that he is “someone who doesn’t see a difference”. This policy of equating Judaism with Zionism does in fact promote anti-Semitism and this is why we ask people of good will especially our Jewish brothers and sisters to challenge those who equate them.

Mr. Baird:

We know about your unconditional support for Israeli war crimes, ethnic cleansing and apartheid and we and hundreds of thinking Canadians have no doubt about your biased policies (see online petition). Frankly, we no longer expect you to treat the Palestinians as human beings. But we believe your policy is (hopefully not intentionally) promoting anti-Semitism in many ways, especially by putting on the shoulders of all Jews every crime Zionism, and its manifestation Israel, is committing against humanity.

For your information, Jews were the first to oppose and fight against Zionism. In 1897 on the occasion of the first Zionist Congress, the Executive Committee of the Association of Rabbis in Germany stated in its anti-Zionist manifesto: “Judaism obligates its adherents to serve with all devotion the Fatherland to which they belong, and to further its national interests with all their heart and strength.” (Unease in Zion, Ehud Ben Ezer, Page 22)

Equating all Jews with Zionism is a very dangerous policy and we are concerned that your government is creating an atmosphere of racism against both Jewish Canadians and Palestinians. We are concerned because we care for the dignity and humanity of the Jews and because we and our homeland, Palestine, ended up as the sacrificial lamb for the European Holocaust.

So please Mr. Baird:- don’t blame the Jews for the evils of Zionism.

Hanna Kawas, Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association