Category: Media Watch

Letters to the editor from Canada Palestine Association members addressing Palestine in the news.

Nakba78 – Exposing the “invincibility” of the Zionist State

As we approach Nakba78, the Palestinian nation and people stand before you undefeated, unbowed and with a new generation ready to demand their birthright. Yes, the price they have paid has been high, but it has also fully exposed the lie of Zionist and US invincibility. From Gaza to AlQuds, to diaspora communities all over the globe, Palestinians are proud of their resistance and existence. And so they should be.

They have gone through hell the last 78 years (particularly during the original Nakba and the last 30 months), but despite all predictions and attempts at eradication they cling to their dignity and principles. They have been betrayed by so many – from the reactionary Arab regimes to some of their own leaders to Western governments. But it has not stopped them from demanding what is rightfully theirs.

My father and mother-in-law were both typical of the generation that was catapulted into a reality of violent dispossession and occupation that changed their lives forever. Living and working in Jaffa in 1948 (allegedly under “British Mandate” protection), they were forced to flee for their lives when the Zionist militias attacked. My mother-in-law was pregnant and only remembers the bullets that were whizzing over their heads.

October 7, 2023 represents the new Karameh of this century for Palestinians – both challenged the fallacy of Israeli “invincibility”. Karameh (Jordan) was a pivotal battle in March 1968 after the demoralizing 1967 war. It was the first major Israeli aggression following that war and the Israeli military were out to destroy the growing Palestinian fedayeen units. They counted on their air superiority, clearly a time-honoured tactic, and although they demolished much of the town they suffered unexpected heavy losses in the process and withdrew after one day without achieving their goals. The news of Karameh spread quickly and the image of lightly armed fedayeen standing and fighting instead of retreating inspired Palestinians and Arabs across the region.

Fast forward to the Hamas resistance in Gaza the last two years, the images of Sinwar throwing his stick at the enemy drone, the fighters in sandals taking on the technologically advanced Israeli army – and you can grasp the comparison.

And don’t pretend to be surprised that Palestinians are not keen on renewing any kind of “reconciliation” efforts, despite what the so-called Palestinian Authority might claim. After more than a quarter of a century of the failed Oslo Accords, and the constant violations of agreed-upon ceasefires in Gaza and elsewhere the last year, co-existence with the Zionist genociders is not (and cannot be) an option.

As the late Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote back in September 1988 in “Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words”:

“We have the past here
We have the first cry of life 
We have the present, the present and the future 
We have this world here, and the hereafter 
So leave our country 
Our land, our sea 
Our wheat, our salt, our wounds 
From Everything, and leave”

We should study the lessons learnt over the past few years to guide us through the new realities of the declining US-Israeli hegemony in West Asia. The prophecy of the late Hassan Nasrallah has been proven correct- Israel is indeed “weaker than a spiders web”.

Here in the imperial core, our job is to help the support movement understand that Palestinians are not just a charity case, that we defend the armed resistance and that the cause of Palestine is not something that can be championed and then discarded based on crass opportunism. How many times have we seen a celebrity or allegedly progressive politician claim to advocate for Palestinians only to later throw them under the bus when politically convenient?

The hypocrisy and double standards regarding Palestinian (and all) resistance to the US-Israeli dreams of regional dominance are deeply embedded in Western narratives. We have tired of documenting all the government, media and other institutional acts of minimising and downplaying Zionist brutality and war crimes. We are done with the constant distrust and smearing of Palestinian aspirations for a life free of settler colonial interference while celebrating Zionist false claims and motivations.

Nakba78 must mean a reaffirmation of Palestinian rights – the right to their land, the right to resist and the right to return!

By Marion Kawas
Cover photo Michael YC Tseng

First published in Al Mayadeen English

Hanna Kawas on Gorilla Radio Apr 15, on Palestinian prisoners and Canadian state repression

“Palestinians, both in Palestine and those among the diaspora, and their allies observed Palestine Land Day March 30th. It was the 50th commemoration of the 1976 murder of six people protesting the State theft of land in Galilee. Israel chose the same date to pass in its Knesset the ‘Death Penalty for Terrorists Law’, an infamous, one-sided statute codifying capital punishment (for some) while providing only limited recourse to appeal, or commutation. Worse, the “Gallows Law” is expected to apply equally to Palestinian children.
Hanna Kawas is chairperson of Vancouver’s Canada-Palestine Association. He’s too a long-time radio journalist whose program, Voice of Palestine had been a beacon for the city’s diaspora community, and others facing both Canadian state repression, and media marginalization…CPA will be front and centre this Friday, April 17th in Vancouver, at Creekside Park for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.”

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Hanna Kawas, John Helmer April 7/15, 2026

Boycott Genocidal “Israel” and its Enablers!

Over the last year, a new campaign has been gathering momentum in British Columbia, Canada that aims to ban the sale of Israeli wine in publicly owned liquor stores. Activists in BC have a long history of calling to deshelve Israeli wines, starting in 2008; that campaign was modelled on a previous local one against South African wines, called “Don’t Drink with Apartheid”.

This new initiative carries the slogan Don’t Drink with Genocide, and their public campaign letter stated: “It’s time to call on the BC government to ban Israeli wine in order to pressure the Israeli government and defend the rights of Palestinians.”

All the Israeli wines in BC liquor stores are linked to either vineyards or operations in West Bank or Golan Heights settlements. But even if they weren’t, we would and should still be boycotting them. No longer can we call to boycott just “settlement products”; this false dichotomy is untruthful and promotes a dangerous narrative.

The whole economy and infrastructure of the Israeli state is linked with the “settlement enterprise”, and the genocide in Gaza has fully exposed the rotten foundation that all of that rests on. In a Mondoweiss article over 4 years ago, I noted: “Gone are the days when many activists felt they must temper their comments and ‘soft sell’ the demand to boycott all of Israel, its entire state apparatus and any complicit companies.” Surely, after the genocide and carnage in Gaza, this must be the only position going forward.

A decade ago, you could argue that campaigns against illegal settlement products had a place in the Boycott Israel movement, but only as a first step or entry point towards something more.

As I concluded in 2021: “The danger lies in letting settlement boycotts become the dominant feature of BDS work and allowing their limited parameters to set and restrict the agenda for most Boycott Israel work. 
A further danger of focusing mainly, or only, on settlement boycotts is that it reinforces the faulty concept that the two-state solution is still viable and a worthwhile goal for Palestine advocacy. It traps activists in this circular spin that falsely gives the impression to supporters that the illegal settlements are the most important obstacle to any genuine peace with justice for Palestinians.”

Boycott beyond the settlements: The sequel

We are past telling consumers that its somehow more egregious and more worthy of boycott when a product has links to the settlements. No, after two years plus of live-streamed horrors from Gaza, of beheaded kids and murdered medical staff, we demand that all and any Israeli products be banned and boycotted.

There is a move now to re-ignite boycott campaigns and we must be vigilant to not allow this energy to be co-opted by those who, for reasons of ideology or convenience, want to retreat back to the focus only on “settlement products”.

Yes, its an “easier sell” in the imperial core to highlight more obvious violations, like Israeli settlements in what are “internationally recognized” occupied territories. But if we learnt anything from the last decade of boycott work, its that governments including here in Canada, are more than happy to turn a blind eye to not only international law, but even their own stated policies when needed.

For example, a huge effort was mounted some years ago to focus attention on the labelling of these wines in Canada, which then and now carry the “Product of Israel” wording. Although such labels clearly violated even the Canadian government’s position on the illegality of settlements, still the government appealed an initial decision that the labels were “false, misleading and deceptive”. The final court ruling was classic double-speak and ultimately referred the issue back to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The Zionist lobby interpreted this to mean that the “Product of Israel” label could remain on the bottles so long as they added “clarifying information”. And so it stands – activists documented a few months ago that Teperberg Winery’s Malbec was labelled as “Product of Israel” at a BC liquor store and on the official website.

The Palestinian people are now at a critical juncture and need our principled support more than ever. We are boycotting their oppressor, the Israeli state, and all those who give it sustenance who also have blood on their hands. We are boycotting this modern-day monstrosity called Zionism and we owe it to ourselves and the Palestinians to be meticulously clear on our objectives.

By Marion Kawas
(Cover photo is a recent picket in Nanaimo, BC)

Mark Carney’s Hypocrisy at Davos

After seeing the full text of Canadian PM Mark Carney’s hypocritical speech at Davos, one might despair at the lack of understanding in many responses. Carney performed as if he was the next great challenger to US imperialism. If there weren’t so many lives and futures at stake, it would have been laughable.

But first, lets unpack Carney’ s statements.

His much-touted Davos speech was only newsworthy in one aspect, and that was his admission that not only was the international “rules-based order” a complete fraud but also that Western powers consciously supported this fraud.

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically, and we knew that international law applied with varied rigour, depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”

Although he refers repeatedly to the communal “we”, he did not acknowledge that his own government was one of the most complicit in that, nor did he accept any responsibility for Canada’s role in the genocide in Gaza. So we take his new-found and convenient commitment to challenge the US-led imperial hegemony with a grain of salt.

“We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.
This bargain no longer works.”

Well, PM Carney, this bargain never worked for most of the global south; it always only worked for those Western powers eager to prop up US imperialist designs. Which is why your pledge towards “acting consistently, applying the same standards to allies and rivals” rings so hollow.

Carney went on to say: “When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window.”

Oh really! We are waiting for your revised statements then on Venezuela, Haiti, Iran, Gaza and others. Acknowledgement without accountability, especially when that acknowledgement is motivated by self-interest, is the height of liberal double-talk and hypocrisy.

But then you’ve done this before. A look at how your alleged “recognition of the state of Palestine” quickly degenerated into a de-militarized (if you will) “Zionist Palestinian state” was instructive.

As Canada Palestine Association noted in August 2025, this would be “the trajectory of how this is supposed to unfold. An entity (we can’t call it a state) that must be demilitarized and is forbidden to decide who can run in its own elections. And, as has been detailed before, all of this is expected to occur with ‘mutual’ recognition of Israel by those Arab states who have not yet done so and the eventual dismantling of UNRWA.”

And now lets move to the social media-induced amnesia and superficiality. Even progressives in Western countries often jump from one issue to the next without questioning their own knowledge, or lack thereof, and the effects of supporting struggles with no commitment to long-term solidarity. The thirst for social media stardom means that many activists are too busy chasing the next “hot topic” to ever have time to delve properly into a fuller understanding of the struggles they claim to be supporting.

Gaza and Venezuela are two examples, but this is not a new phenomenon. However, it has been magnified in recent years by the nature and functioning of the digital and social media environment.

And don’t even get me started on celebrity activism – that will need a whole book to properly analyse. Not that the support of celebrities or others isn’t appreciated, it is. The problem arises when their positions are embraced as the ultimate guide to what’s necessary for principled solidarity. Despite all the chatter about centring Palestinian voices, it rarely happens in any meaningful way.

US imperialism has killed millions of innocent people around the world and destroyed the futures of millions more. From Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq to Palestine to Lebanon, to Cuba and Venezuela, the people of the world know who their enemy is and also know who has been aiding and abetting US hegemonic schemes. Mark Carney and the Canadian government are like rats fleeing a sinking ship; they have blood on their hands that will not easily be forgiven nor forgotten.

By Marion Kawas, also published on AlMayadeen English: Mark Carney’s hypocrisy at Davos | Al Mayadeen English