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Canpalnet Picks A list of links to recommended articles. Action AlertWorld Peace Forum: Setback in Vancouver – Feb. 3, 2006 Mayor and Council renege on funding for international peace mayors’ gathering. The Vancouver City Council has reneged on its commitment to provide $50,000 for the meeting of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities and Mayors for Peace that will take place here in June 2006. Mayors from around the world will be visiting this city as part of the World Peace Forum 2006, an event to which City Councillors committed themselves last year...
Letter to the Mayor of Vancouver in Support of the World Peace Forum planned for Vancouver in 2006 March 29, 2005 On behalf of Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet) I write to urge you, as mayor, and the members of your council, to approve and to fund the World Peace Forum. CanPalNet has been but one of many, varied networks and groups that have participated in the excellent public preparatory meetings to develop a practical plan for June 2006. You too have been part of this process. Now you have the opportunity to bring these multiple efforts to a fruitful conclusion. If there are those who advise you to change course at this late date, why not grasp their arm as a friend would, allay their fears, and bring them to join as one more of many in the circle of participants. Father Cortina, a Jesuit priest and survivor of the Guatemalan death squads told us at the March 19th Vancouver rally against war: “Peace is not given, but must be cultivated with patience and persistence.” People around the world hunger for peace. To turn our back on that desperate hunger, to leave our field fallow, diminishes our humanity, and puts at still greater risk the survival of us all. This is not hyperbole. Yours sincerely, Mordecai Briemberg Check PM reaffirms support of Israel - CJN By: Diane Koven, Nov 10, 2004. Is the Council of Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) a lobby group? The last paragraph of the article states that CIJA receives its funding from the United Israel Appeal. UIA is a registered charitable organization in Canada. As such, it is not supposed to engage in lobby work, but is it doing so by diverting some of its funds to CIJA? Revenue Canada’s website indicates that one of the United Israel Appeal’s goals is to “support resettlement of new immigrants” to Israel. We have good reason to fear that new immigrants to Israel are being encouraged by the Israeli government in order to expand the illegal settlements. Write to the Honourable Carol Skelton, the minister responsible for the Canada Revenue Agency, requesting that the charitable status of the United Israel Appeal be revoked as it is funding lobbying activities and supporting illegal (according to International Law) Israeli settlements. You can write postage free to: Hon. Carol Skelton, To voice your concerns contact the Canadian Government: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Address: Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, K1A 0A2 Fax: 613-941-6900 pm@pm.gc.ca The Honourable Peter McKay To find your member of parliament: Directories A video of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, November 29, 2003, hosted by the Canada Palestine Association and ISM Vancouver. See the video of the event at www.workingtv.com/29nov03.html CUPE BC has produced a booklet The Wall Must Fall, to educate members and others on the conflict. You can read it online — and then take to your unions. Available in French and English. www.cupe.bc.ca To read a copy online: pdf version Website from Rafahwww.rafah.vze.com“It’s about our life, our community, the home demolitions, homeless families, the children in our camp... About the tragedies that happen here every day.” Website by Mohammed, an 18 year old Palestinian living in Rafah. Birthright Denied: Canadian Complicity in Palestinian Dispossession Correspondence between Hanna Kawas and the Government of Canada on his birthplace, Bethlehem, Palestine. www.cpavancouver.org — Publications  This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land by Deborah Campbell Comments and information at www.deborahcampbell.ca ISRAEL/PALESTINE How to End the War of 1948 by Tanya Reinhart www.sevenstories.com TOP |
Gaza 2006
We condemn Israel’s assault against the population of the Gaza Strip, and call on the Government of Canada to take a strong position in support of human rights and international law and against collective punishment, ethnic cleansing and state terrorism. The situation in Gaza is critical: inadequate water, electricity, and medicine; widespread hunger, poverty, and unemployment; schools and other services rendered inoperative; constant bombardments and attacks by the Israeli military. If this siege continues, more spreading disease, malnutrition, and violence are inevitable. Over the past few months the Israeli army’s actions – cynically named in the summer months “Operation Summer Rain” and now bearing the title “Operation Autumn Clouds” – have brought unbearable persecution to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, including the killing of many women, children and other civilians. During the four months ending November 8th, 335 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, including 30 women and 85 youth under 17 years old. Israeli media stated that only 130 of those killed were armed. Therefore, in less than half a year more than 250 civilians were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, not to mention hundreds more wounded and maimed. Between November 8 and 14, 47 more people in Beit Hanoun were killed. Many men between the age of 16 and 45 were arrested and taken away. Two women were killed protesting in front of a mosque that was later destroyed, and 19 women, children and men were killed by Israeli artillery while sleeping in their home. Meanwhile, to Canada’s shame, our government remains prominent among those who continue to strangle the Palestinian economy by withholding vital aid to the Palestinian Authority, because Palestinians elected a Hamas majority early this year. Palestinian public workers – teachers, hospital workers, engineers – have been without pay for eight months, devastating the economy and leaving the PA unable to maintain the infrastructure vital for the well being of its people. This amounts to collective punishment of Palestinians for the crime of exercising their democratic franchise. Israeli authorities have abducted and imprisoned dozens of Palestinian elected representatives, without a murmur of protest from the government of Canada. We call on the government of Canada to:
This statement endorsed by CanPalNet, Jews for a Just Peace, the Palestine Community Centre of BC, StopWar.ca, the Canada Palestine Association and the Trade Union Committee for Justice in the Middle East. TOPPalestinian Elections 2006
Hamas statement The outlook of Hamas, stated in its own words, is unknown to most of us. Most of us “know” of this organization only through how it has been presented in mainstream media. Regardless of our own perspectives, everyone who is serious about understanding the world needs some direct knowledge of the perspective of those politically consequential actors in the situations we are trying to understand. A single document is insufficient, but it is a step beyond the media “short-hand” and thus of some assistance in serious reflection. It is in this spirit that we distribute the post-election statement by the “head of the Hamas political bureau”, as published in one of Britain’s major daily newspapers. Canada Palestine Solidarity Network (Canpalnet) is not affiliated with or a voice for any political organization in Canada or elsewhere. We seek to bring together in effective action all in Canada who are dedicated to the implementation of international law, human rights law, and major United Nations resolutions on the question of Palestine/Israel. We see this as our contribution to a peace based on justice. “Palestinians voted for Hamas because of our refusal to give up their rights. But we are ready to make a just peace” Khalid Mish’al It is widely recognised that the Palestinians are among the most politicised and educated peoples in the world. When they went to the polls last Wednesday they were well aware of what was on offer and those who voted for Hamas knew what it stood for. They chose Hamas because of its pledge never to give up the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and its promise to embark on a programme of reform. There were voices warning them, locally and internationally, not to vote for an organisation branded by the US and EU as terrorist because such a democratically exercised right would cost them the financial aid provided by foreign donors. The day Hamas won the Palestinian democratic elections the world’s leading democracies failed the test of democracy. Rather than recognise the legitimacy of Hamas as a freely elected representative of the Palestinian people, seize the opportunity created by the result to support the development of good governance in Palestine and search for a means of ending the bloodshed, the US and EU threatened the Palestinian people with collective punishment for exercising their right to choose their parliamentary representatives. We are being punished simply for resisting oppression and striving for justice. Those who threaten to impose sanctions on our people are the same powers that initiated our suffering and continue to support our oppressors almost unconditionally. We, the victims, are being penalised while our oppressors are pampered. The US and EU could have used the success of Hamas to open a new chapter in their relations with the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Muslims and to understand better a movement that has so far been seen largely through the eyes of the Zionist occupiers of our land. Our message to the US and EU governments is this: your attempt to force us to give up our principles or our struggle is in vain. Our people who gave thousands of martyrs, the millions of refugees who have waited for nearly 60 years to return home and our 9,000 political and war prisoners in Israeli jails have not made those sacrifices in order to settle for close to nothing. Hamas has been elected mainly because of its immovable faith in the inevitability of victory; and Hamas is immune to bribery, intimidation and blackmail. While we are keen on having friendly relations with all nations we shall not seek friendships at the expense of our legitimate rights. We have seen how other nations, including the peoples of Vietnam and South Africa, persisted in their struggle until their quest for freedom and justice was accomplished. We are no different, our cause is no less worthy, our determination is no less profound and our patience is no less abundant. Our message to the Muslim and Arab nations is this: you have a responsibility to stand by your Palestinian brothers and sisters whose sacrifices are made on behalf of all of you. Our people in Palestine should not need to wait for any aid from countries that attach humiliating conditions to every dollar or euro they pay despite their historical and moral responsibility for our plight. We expect you to step in and compensate the Palestinian people for any loss of aid and we demand you lift all restrictions on civil society institutions that wish to fundraise for the Palestinian cause. Our message to the Palestinians is this: our people are not only those who live under siege in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but also the millions languishing in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and the millions spread around the world unable to return home. We promise you that nothing in the world will deter us from pursuing our goal of liberation and return. We shall spare no effort to work with all factions and institutions in order to put our Palestinian house in order. Having won the parliamentary elections, our medium-term objective is to reform the PLO in order to revive its role as a true representative of all the Palestinian people, without exception or discrimination. Our message to the Israelis is this: we do not fight you because you belong to a certain faith or culture. Jews have lived in the Muslim world for 13 centuries in peace and harmony; they are in our religion “the people of the book” who have a covenant from God and His Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him) to be respected and protected. Our conflict with you is not religious but political. We have no problem with Jews who have not attacked us - our problem is with those who came to our land, imposed themselves on us by force, destroyed our society and banished our people. We shall never recognise the right of any power to rob us of our land and deny us our national rights. We shall never recognise the legitimacy of a Zionist state created on our soil in order to atone for somebody else’s sins or solve somebody else’s problem. But if you are willing to accept the principle of a long-term truce, we are prepared to negotiate the terms. Hamas is extending a hand of peace to those who are truly interested in a peace based on justice.
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaignTo: Palestinian territories and Golan Height Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI) Dear friends, On behalf of the Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet) I am writing to add our name as an endorser of your statement [see below]. The three objectives which you outline in your statement also are our objectives. The steps you encourage us to undertake to achieve these objectives make sense. We shall work to the best of our capacities, in coordination with others in Canada, to generate, reinforce and expand initiatives for boycott, sanctions and divestment. Sincerely, Bethlehem, 14 July 2005 Dear Partners, friends and Supporters all over the globe; On the behalf many the Palestinian Civil Society organizations (see attached call with list of Palestinian organizations), I am sending the attached call to the our supporters and partners in international community requesting a compressive boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel. Today the Israeli colonialist and racist entity is escalating its oppressive and inhuman systemic policies and measures against the whole Palestinian people every where. Israel, protected by the USA and its allies, is becoming a dangerous state acts above the law and seems to get way with its crimes and violation of the international legitimacy and human rights principles. The late construction of the colonial separation wall around the Palestinians populated areas is a best example of the Israeli racism. The wall is designed and constructed in intentions to put the Palestinian population inside ghettos, not only separates Palestinians from Israelis, but also isolated Palestinians from each others and their land. The illegal building of the Zionist colonies and Jewish-only-roads, on the land taken by force from the Palestinian farmers in West Bank, added to the daily suffering and sense of injustice among the Palestinians citizens, reinforcing, at the same time,a racist discriminatory and the racial superiority of the Israeli settlers. The Israeli occupation and the daily humiliation and aggression continues to touch every single Palestinian citizens in every aspect of our daily life. Using the occasion of one year on the ICJ decision of considering the wall as illegal, and refusal the state of Israel to comply with the court decisions, a wide sector of the Palestinian Civil Society organizations including NGOs, Professional associations, political parties, women organizations and and refugee committees — from inside and outside Palestine — have launched a collective call to the international community requesting compressive boycott - Divest and sanctions on Israel. While, we are certain of your support to our struggle against the oppression, occupation and racism, we seek your endorsement of this call. Whenever possible organize boycott campaigns— including economic, cultural, academic, sport, social boycott— in your respective societies as well as making pressure on governments to halt their cooperation with the state of Israel until its complete withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian territories, and the compliance with the international legitimacy and laws. In Solidarity Hanan Aruri Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights 9 July 2005 One year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel’s Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, Israel continues its construction of the colonial Wall with total disregard to the Court’s decision. Thirty eight years into Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel continues to expand Jewish colonies. It has unilaterally annexed occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and is now de facto annexing large parts of the West Bank by means of the Wall. Israel is also preparing — in the shadow of its planned redeployment from the Gaza Strip — to build and expand colonies in the West Bank. Fifty seven years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners, a majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless. Moreover, Israel’s entrenched system of racial discrimination against its own Arab-Palestinian citizens remains intact. In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions; Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace. 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:
Endorsed by: see full document, including lists of endorsers For additional endorsement, please contact:
Palestine is not for sale!Al Ahram, Jamal Juma’ Friday April 22, 2005 Following reports of Palestinian resistance during February and March, one cannot help but notice two striking features. Firstly, there has been wide-scale escalation of popular resistance confronting the ever intensifying Israeli occupation and apartheid, which has come to encompass all areas of the West Bank. Hebron, Beit Surik, Saffa, Ni’lein and Budrus in particular, have been the scene of intense resistance over recent weeks. Moreover, the Ramallah demonstration on 14 March reflected the highpoint of mobilisation against the apartheid wall currently taking place across the West Bank. Secondly, the Palestinian struggle has escalated against a backdrop of political developments, all of which are designed to make Palestinians passive subjects while the racist colonisation of the apartheid wall project continues unabated on their land. Lecturers vote for Israeli boycottGuardian Unlimited, Polly CurtisFriday April 22, 2005 The Association of University Teachers today voted to boycott two Israeli universities over their failure to speak out against their government. Delegates at a conference in Eastbourne voted, against the wishes of the executive, for an immediate boycott of Haifa University, which they accuse of restricting the academic freedom of staff members who are critical of the government, and of Bar Ilans University, which has a college in the disputed settlement Ariel. The boycott, which is now official union policy, will follow a plan prescribed by a group of 60 Palestinian academic and cultural bodies and non-governmental organisations, which calls for British academics to severe links with Israeli institutions but to exempt Israelis who speak out against their government’s policies towards the Palestinians. The executive had asked delegates to defer the debate until the facts of the cases included in three motions were confirmed. A third boycott, against the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was dropped as delegates queried the evidence of accusations it had evicted Palestinian families to build dormitories. There were cheers as the motions were passed. Shereen Benjamin, from Birmingham University, one of the authors of the motions, told EducationGuardian: “It is a much better result than we’d dared to hope for. What it does is put the issue on the agenda at a higher profile than it’s ever been. “As an educator I applaud that people are discussing this ... We think the boycott of Haifa will send a clear message about
academic freedom in Israel.” Speech on International Women`s Day at the EU Parliament in a debate about violence against womenBy Nurit Peled-ElhananInternational Women`s day, The European Parliament, Strasbourg, 8.3.2005 Thank you for inviting me to this day. It is always an honour and a pleasure to be here, among you. However, I must admit I believe you should have invited a Palestinian woman at my stead, because the women who suffer most from violence in my county are the Palestinian women. And I would like to dedicate my speech to Miriam R`aban and her husband Kamal, from Bet Lahiya in the Gazza strip, whose five small children were killed by Israeli soldiers while picking strawberries at the family`s strawberry field. No one will ever stand trial for this murder. When I asked the people who invited me here why wouldn’t they invite a Palestinian woman the answer was that it would make the discussion too localized. I don’t know what is non-localized violence. Racism and discrimination may be theoretical concepts and universal phenomena but their impact
is always local, and real. Pain is local, humiliation, sexual abuse, torture and death, are all very local, and so are the scars.
It is true unfortunately, that the local violence inflicted on Palestinian women by the government of Israel and the Israeli army, has
expanded around the globe, In fact state violence and army violence, individual and collective violence, are the lot of Muslim women today, not
only in Palestine but wherever the enlightened western world is setting its big imperialistic foot. It is violence which is hardly ever
addressed and which is halfheartedly condoned by most people in Europe and in the USA. BC Federation of Labour passes motion against the Apartheid Wall
Mohammed Chelali and Ehud Yaniv, delegates from the BC Teachers Federation, spoke in favour of the resolution against the Wall which subsequently passed with only one vote against it. (photo credit Stephen Howard, BCGEU). see BC Fed Resolution The Wall Must Fall: What you can do:
Go to Questions for Candidates for suggested questions to ask candidates in the Canadian federal election held June 28, 2004. Click here for a list of further articles from CanPalNet’s web archives |
CENSORSHIP
In 2006 the Canadian Jewish Congress is waging a campaign to prevent Ontario school school children from reading the words of Palestinian and Jewish Israeli children presented in the book Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli children speak, by award-winning Ontario author Deborah Ellis. The Toronto Star reported on this censorship campaign on March 2. Another article March 15 documents the spreading campaign, and a March 16 Toronto Star editorial compares this with other current censorship issues. The book had been recommended by the Ontario Library Association as one of those eligible for their prestigious Silver Birch Award, winners chosen by the votes of school children who read the eligible books. Nine year old Evie Freedman, a grade four student in Ontario told the Toronto Star she was upset by the effort to ban this book. She has already read Three Wishes and told the Toronto Star reporter: “I don’t usually enjoy non-fiction books, but I enjoyed it. It had the voices of real children. It was actually real-life things that kids in other countries are going through and I’m really interested in that.” Groundwood Books, PEN Canada, The Writers’ Union of Canada, and The Association of Canadian Publishers have responded and continue responding to censorship of Three Wishes. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association also has urged the Canadian Jewish Congress to reconsider its efforts to stop Ontario school kids reading the words of Palestinian and Jewish Israeli school kids. Letters should be sent to the Ontario Library Association and its executive director Larry Moore, stating your opposition to censorship of their recommendations for the Silver Birch Award, and congratulating them on their integrity and courage in opposing the pressures of the Canadian Jewish Congress. The address is: info@accessola.com March 2006: AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy Alison Weir reports in Counterpunch, March 18/19: ”In the midst of journalism’s ‘Sunshine Week’ — during which the Associated Press and other news organizations are valiantly proclaiming the public’s ‘right to know’ — AP insists on conducting its own activities in the dark, and refuses to answer even the simplest questions about its system of international news reporting.Most of all, it refuses to explain why it erased footage of an Israeli soldier intentionally shooting a Palestinian boy...” March 2006: Rachel Corrie’s words — “Too Hot for New York” The Nation reported March 16th on the storm of protest in response to a New York theater company’s decision to self-censor by postponing, indefinitely, its production of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie, composed from the journal entries and e-mails of the 23-year-old from Washington State who was crushed to death in Gaza three years ago under a bulldozer operated by the Israeli army. In November 2003 Canpalnet members distributed leaflets to people going into Kidsbooks in Vancouver, one of the largest children’s bookstores in Canada. This was to counter the efforts of one of the owners of Kidsbooks to silence the voice of a Palestinian child, as conveyed in Elizabeth Laird’s book A Little Piece of Ground. See full report. Free Speech Shutdown at Northern |
