Category: Media Watch

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

State repression, and the spirit of resistance!

By Marion Kawas

On October 15, 2024, both the Canadian and US governments listed Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as a “terrorist” group and ratified their years-long persecution of both the organization and its representatives. The banning of Samidoun, however, was not an isolated incident; rather, it falls into the broadening and still ongoing harassment of pro-Palestine advocates in many Western countries. Subsequently, in the US, Addameer is now banned as well.

From universities to media outlets to health agencies, there has been a concerted effort to squash the pro-liberation and pro-resistance Palestinian narrative. Just recently, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada proposed sweeping new restrictions on university formations that will limit freedom of speech.

Meanwhile, mainstream media continues its biased reporting. Although they may occasionally run a piece to “balance” their image (cue CBC), their declared overall policy is still…No to Palestine. Even after the Canadian government’s performative recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state, still the media refuses to use the word Palestine in most instances.

But let’s return to Samidoun and how their being designated as “terrorist” has affected pro-Palestine advocacy here. We must recognize that it did have chilling repercussions and influenced the trajectory of what many activists are willing to include in their solidarity work.

The last year has seen an overemphasis on cultural aspects of Palestinian resistance and a downplaying of support for the armed resistance. Not that the cultural field isn’t important, it is, but not to the detriment of the underlying principles of the Palestinian struggle. Despite a lot of talk about “Centering the Thawabet”, there is little in the way of concrete implementation of most of its basic tenets.

However, it is enlightening (and heartening) that despite all their repression, the Zionist lobby and the Israeli media have admitted that the principles they targeted in Samidoun’s messaging are still being put forward today by other organizations. Multiple groups have accelerated their demands in recent months that the prisoners will always be the compass, and further, that they will not be silenced.

In an article earlier this year, I wrote the following:

“Even for those that felt they had political differences with Samidoun, once people are arrested and targeted, it is our duty to close ranks and defend them. This is the only response that can and will stem the violent repression currently underway, both in Palestine and globally. 

Slogans are not enough, we must be willing to put those words into action. The only reason the Palestinian struggle is still alive is because of the bravery of generations of its fighters during the last century. We cannot shy away now from honouring that proud legacy of Sumoud and resistance, the Palestinian people deserve our last breath of courage and strength.”

And now with the phoney ceasefire and all that entails, we are entering a defining moment in Palestinian history. We must be clear that the Palestinian right to armed resistance is protected by UN Resolution A/RES/43/106 of Dec. 8, 1988 that “Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for their independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”.  

We must be clear that calling on the Palestinian resistance to “disarm”, something that the Israeli-US military aggression was unable to achieve in its two years of carpet bombing, is a non-starter. Why would anyone disarm while still under the mercy of an incredibly cruel and brutal genocide? While still being bombed daily and while the so-called ceasefire deal is being violated on all levels?

We must also resist the temptation to allow other voices to narrate and dominate the Palestinian viewpoint. It is positive to have elected officials or UN representatives support the struggle for Palestinian liberation, but they do not have the legitimacy nor the understanding to determine what is required at this stage.

In fact, the Palestinian Resistance organizations in Gaza have shown themselves to be highly effective and resourceful in their strategy over the last two years. In years to come, it will be studied in history books how these groups and the Gazan people managed to resist with so little and despite the overwhelming forces aligned against them. From the Western imperialist countries to the Zionist colony, to the rotten Arab regimes who were supporting this vicious attack over the last 2 years…Gaza has stood against all of them.

The will to survive and to resist demonstrated in Gaza should be an example for us all. If the Palestinians in Gaza are going back to destroyed homes and neighbourhoods, knowing what faces them, then the least we can do as solidarity activists is to honour that spirit. The spirit of a people that have resisted for over a century and plan to keeping on doing so, a spirit that will never surrender.

Yes, we are bitter!

Statement carried in AlMayadeen English: Canadian Palestinian Association…

Statement carried in AlMayadeen English: Canadian Palestinian Association condemns global complicity in Gaza | Al Mayadeen English

Recently, there has been a flood of mainstream officials finally claiming to recognize the genocide in Gaza. To Bernie Sanders, to those UN officials and other Western politicians and personalities who recently discovered their morality…we acknowledge your late support but our souls are shrieking inside us, why didn’t you speak out sooner? What motivates you now, when there’s less risk? How many of our kids have died during your silence?

Do you think we will ever forgive any of you? And even when you finally “do the right thing”, do you feel remorse for the harm you created before? We are waiting for an acknowledgement of how your prior silence gave licence to genocide.

You still tiptoe around the Palestinian right to armed resistance, as if our very survival is a minefield for you. We remember how you held us responsible to convince you that we deserved your support, even as our people were being massacred. How the onus was on Palestinians to “justify” that we were worthy to be heard and to have dignity. Even at that, our voices were consistently sidetracked for the first celebrity or progressive Jewish person that finally spoke out.

Yes, we are bitter. Bitter that you still give more credence to everyone except the actual people who have survived 77 years of dispossession and Zionist brutality.

Now you want us to applaud your Oslo 2.0, this phoney recognition of a “Zionist Palestinian state”. For months, we have been warning of the dangers of this insipid plan that aims to distract and deflect from the ongoing genocide. Western regimes want us to believe that their conditional recognition of a demilitarized and gutted “Palestinian Authority” (with no authority) somehow compensates for their complicity in the massacre of Palestinians. These governments, including the Canadian government, are recklessly endangering the strategic interests of their own countries and peoples; their support for genocide and the vicious state repression of pro-Palestine advocacy will haunt them for centuries.

We are also bitter about the Arab regimes and their empty slogans, thinking they can still deceive their own people. Egypt signs a $35 billion deal with Israel for gas, the Gulf regimes give the US billions of dollars (and a free jet), and then they all want us to believe they don’t have immediate means at their disposal to change the trajectory of this US-Israeli genocide and massacre.  

Yes, we are bitter, in ways that run deeper than you will ever understand. But our time is coming and the sun will rise over Palestine. As surely as the monstrosity of Zionism will be booted to the dustbin of history.

Why I Hate Zionism and Will Never Forgive its Disciples

On June 6, 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and the capital city of Beirut under the guise of destroying the PLO Palestine Liberation Organization. This eventually led to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which occurred even after PLO forces had left Beirut. Protection of Palestinian civilians had been part of the deal negotiated with the US envoy at the time, Philip Habib, but such US guarantees were not worth the paper they were written on. 

And now history repeats itself in Gaza, except with more brutality and a longer timeline. After 1982, we measured time by whether events happened before or after that Israeli invasion. Now, we measure time by the genocide in Gaza. 

The Western officials that are suddenly finding their “morality” to cover up their complicity are despicable. From the smirking Matthew Miller, who for months defended the Biden government’s actions and now claims he believes “Israel committed war crimes” to the leaders of Canada, France and the UK who promised “concrete action” and have done less than nothing, we say your words are an insult to the Palestinian people. 

Miller claims he was just a “spokesperson for the president, the administration”, similar to the “I was just following orders” excuse. And one Israeli media outlet even went so far last week as to tell us that “Most Israelis are not aware of what is going on in Gaza” due to media censorship.  And these utterings from rats fleeing a sinking ship are equally insulting to all those who have opposed the genocide, many of whom have paid a heavy price for their staunch position. 

To claim that most Israelis are not aware of the genocide in Gaza, when so much of the society is militarized and a large part of the population is involved directly in military operations through the draft and the reserves, is absurd.  

And even for those pro-Zionist figures that have genuinely changed their position after 600 plus days of genocide, we say that we appreciate your support, but we also need an acknowledgement of the harm that you did previously. Because the horror that has been inflicted on the whole Palestinian nation and its collective psyche will take generations to heal.  

This is the third article I have written under the “Why I Hate Zionism…” theme and each one comes from a place of increased bitterness and a hardened heart. We fight each day to maintain some semblance of our sanity and our humanity.  

In my second article in September 2024, I wrote that we never imagined that we would still be witnessing these daily horrors. Now, nine months later, we have nothing left to say to the world. We have used all our words, all our lived experiences, all our wisdom to try and shut down this Israeli monster that is hellbent on humiliation, destruction and death. 

And we have no illusions about who is orchestrating, financing and supporting this horror – successive US regimes, other Western governments and reactionary Arab puppets. When Arab Gulf leaders can promise four trillion dollars to Donald Trump in the blink of an eye but not feed the starving people in Gaza, and when the UAE embassy in “Israel” sends greetings to the genocider while Gaza burns, then we know where they stand. These Arab Zionists are in fact directly financing US military supplies to the Israeli state, paying for the bombs and ammunition that are destroying Palestinian and Lebanese lives and habitat. 

In 1982, Ariel Sharon was held complicit in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. However, he later was “rehabilitated” and went on to become Israeli PM in 2001. And recently many Western commentators want us to believe that what’s happening now is all the fault of Benjamin Netanyahu. He will be the “fall guy” and then we’re expected to accept that Israeli society will now return to some level of respectable behaviour. 

But not this time. Zionism has been exposed in a way that did not happen before; it has been shown as the rotten settler-colonial ideology it always was. And once it is defeated, which it will be, we will not forget nor forgive those who were more than ready to participate in oppressing the Palestinian and Arab peoples for so long. 

In December 2023, two months into the genocide, Rev. Munther Isaac said: “Your charity and your words of shock will not make a difference after all of this… we will not accept your apology after the genocide.”  

And now, those words are more than just part of an inspiring message. They are a cornerstone of our approach going forward (although most of the recent “converts” are not even apologizing!). No excuses, no explanations will ever convince us that there was any logical rationale for complicity in Zionism and its devastating impact on Palestine’s people, environment, national cohesion and dignity. 

(Third article in the “I Hate Zionism…” trilogy by Marion Kawas)
Part I: Why I hate Zionism… and so should you! | Al Mayadeen English
Part II: Why I hate Zionism and its backers more than ever! | Al Mayadeen