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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
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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.

Canada’s Record at the UN General Assembly 2013:
17 Votes Against the Palestinian and Arab Peoples, And In Support of Israel Aggression and Apartheid

Canada’s voting pattern at the United Nations shows that the current government blindly and unconditionally supports Israel’s position, even when it is in contradiction with officially stated Canadian policies. The most recent UN General Assembly voting record of Canadian representatives demonstrated the shameful and biased positions of the Canadian Government that fly in the face of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Canada voted against the vast majority of the resolutions relating to Palestine/Israel (the one exception we could find was an abstention on humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees). Israel’s fan club in the UN, according to Prof. Richard Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, includes “its three staunchest supporters, each once a British colony: the United States, Canada, Australia, with the addition of such international heavyweight states as Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands.” (The combined population of these three “heavyweight states” amounts to less than the population of the Palestinian city of Hebron or the Canadian city of Burnaby).
Here are just a few highlights of Canada’s position:
– Canada voted against the Right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (Not really surprising, given Canada’s own long history of trampling on the rights of aboriginal people).
– Canada voted against “2014: International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” (Don’t wait for any official celebrations in Ottawa to mark this!)
– Canada voted against “the right of all persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967”. (And yet Canada hypocritically insists it “does not recognize permanent Israeli control” over occupied territories.)
These votes are further proof of Canadian complicity in settler colonialism (1,2,3,14), occupation (11,13,14,15,17), ethnic cleansing (6,8,9), land theft (8,11,13,14,15), apartheid(1,2,9,11,12), war crimes (7,9,10,11,13,14), human rights abuses (7,8,9,11,12,13), theft of natural resources (8,17), state terrorism (9,16) and nuclear proliferation (18) (numbers indicate relevant resolution listed below).

Here is the record – Canada has voted against all significant UN resolutions dealing with Palestinian human and national rights. Grassroots organizations and all people of conscience must challenge this outrage being implemented in our names, so that future generations will not be burdened with the shame and consequences of such reckless and criminal policies.

Hanna Kawas,
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
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Detailed Canadian Voting Record on Relevant UN Resolutions 2013:
17 Votes Against, One Abstention
1. The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (A/C.3/68/L.68): 178 in favour to 7 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 4 abstentions (Cameroon, Paraguay, Tonga, Vanuatu).
2. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People “2014 the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” (A/68/L.12): : 110 in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 56 abstentions.
3. Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat (A/68/L.13): 108 in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 59 abstentions
4. Special information programme on the question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat (A/68/L.14): 163 in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 7 abstentions (Cameroon, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Togo, Tonga).
5. Assistance to Palestine refugees (A/C.4/68/L.12):173 in favour to 1 against ( Israel), with 8 abstentions ( Cameroon, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Paraguay, South Sudan, United States).
6. Persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities (A/C.4/68/L.13) by a recorded vote of 170 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Palau, Marshall Islands, United States), with 6 abstentions (Cameroon, Kiribati, Panama, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
7. Operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (A/C.4/68/L.14): 170 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 6 abstentions (Cameroon, Kiribati, Malawi, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
8. Palestine refugees’ properties and their revenues (A/C.4/68/L.15) was adopted by a recorded vote of 172 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 5 abstentions (Cameroon, Kiribati, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
9. The work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (A/C.4/68/L.16): 95 in favour to 8 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, Panama, United States), with 75 abstentions.
10. The applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the other occupied Arab territories (A/C.4/68/L.17): 169 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 7 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
11. Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan (A/C.4/68.L.18), 167 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 9 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Honduras, Kiribati, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
12. Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (A/C.4/68/L.19): 165 in favour to 8 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, Panama, United States), with 8 abstentions (Cameroon, Honduras, Kiribati, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu)
13. Peaceful settlement of the Question of Palestine (A/68/L.15): 165 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 6 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Tonga).
14. Jerusalem (A/68/L.16): 162 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 8 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Togo, Tonga).
15. The Syrian Golan (A/68/L.17): 112 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 58 abstentions
16. Oil slick on Lebanese Shores (A/C.2/68/L.26):169 in favour to 6 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Palau, United States), with 4 abstentions (Cameroon, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Tonga)
17. Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources (A/68/446): 162 to 5 against (Canada, Israel, Micronesia (Federated States of), Palau, United States of America) with 9 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras, Jamaica, Malawi, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Tonga.)
18. Risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (A/68/414): 169 in favour to 5 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Palau, United States), with 6 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, India, Panama).
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Statistics for countries with the most number of votes at the 2013 UN General Assembly (68th session) cast against the Palestinian and Arab peoples’ human rights and national aspirations:
Israel…18
Canada…17
Federated States of Micronesia…17
Palau…17
United States…17
Marshall Islands…14
Australia…6
Panama…2

Dec. 20, 2013
Open letter to John Baird, Canadian Foreign Minister
Mr. Baird:
Your latest call for the removal of Richard Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, smacks of hypocrisy and racism; it also exposes your (and your government’s) blind support for Israeli war crimes and Apartheid.
While your government officially claims that “Canada does not recognize permanent Israeli control over territories occupied in 1967 (the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip)”, you are nonetheless supporting not only settlement building but also settlement products that are not exempt under the “Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA)”. You, your Prime Minister and your government also support unconditionally the discriminatory policies of the “Jewish National Fund” (JNF), which is financing illegal Israeli settlements and the infamous Canada Park that is built on the rubble of three Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank. By doing so, you are violating the Fourth Geneva Conventions to which Canada is a signatory.
Your comments not only “undermine the fundamental values of the United Nations”, they also deny the terrible suffering and the slow genocide of the Palestinian people since the Zionist ethnic cleansing started in 1947/48. Recently, your spokesperson Rick Roth dismissed the new mini-genocide, the “Prawer Plan” which the Israeli government is planning for the Bedouin Israelis, as an “internal Israeli matter”.
You called for Prof. Falk to be fired “for his numerous outrageous and anti-Semitic statements”. However, it is your statement that is outrageous and libellous considering that he is a Jewish international law scholar that fought all his life for the truth, justice, equality and peace (contrary to what your government stands for). Once again it is you Mr. Baird that is promoting anti-Semitism by claiming that everything Israel does falls on the shoulders of all Jews. We asked you previously, clearly to no avail: “Mr. Baird: Don’t Equate Zionism with Judaism”‏.
Stop taking your marching orders from Tel Aviv and start, if you care for your dignity and humanity, listening to the vast majority of Canadians who yearn for peace and justice.
Hanna Kawas,
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association