CanPalNet web archives
Memorial for Yassar Arafat,
November 11, 2004
A memorial was held in honour of Yasser Arafat’s death at the Palestinian Community
Center on November 11, 2004. MP Libby Davies and many other visitors were in attendance. CanPalNet sends its condolences to the people of
Palestine for the loss of its leader. Click here to see selected pictures and obituaries.
Canada’s contribution to violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories — Commentary
I was shocked at the bias demonstrated by the June 6, 2003 “A Proposal for a Canadian Position on Israel and the Middle East” by
Irwin Cotler and other members of Parliament. [http://www.imopa.ca/june_canada_middleeast.htm]
I am even more upset that the Canadian government seems to have bought into it.
Irwin Cotler’s document plays on Canadian ignorance 1) of the historical facts 2) of international and Canadian legal obligations,
3) of the well-documented failure of Israel to negotiate in good faith with a powerless partner and 4) the legal legitimacy of Palestinian
resistance.
Karin Brothers (Toronto)
November 2004
Read complete letter
Israel’s West Bank and Gaza settlements
are war crimes in Canada
A Note by Michael Mandel, Professor,
Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto
Under the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act 2000, c. 24, Israel’s settlements in territories taken in the June 1967 war constitute war crimes punishable in Canada.
see note
Standing for Palestine
at the Walk with Israel
by Erica Lamacraft
Sunday morning, May 16. The siege of Rafah — “Operation Rainbow” — is
underway. Over the past 48 hours, Israeli occupying forces have destroyed 88
buildings in this Gaza Strip community, leaving 1064 people homeless; 11
Palestinian civilians have been killed and scores injured.
Read article here.
Demonstration for a public enquiry
into Canada’s mistreatment of Maher Arar
The initiative was necessary. The speakers were superb. The attendance was small. On-going
work remains urgent .. as each day’s news makes clearer and clearer.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) was the
organization that initiated a public demonstration in Vancouver Saturday January 17 to protest the deportation and torture
of Maher Arar. (It was the first BCLAA demonstration organized in 40 years).
Read report.
November 29, the UN Declaration of
the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People (2003)
The Canada Palestine Support Network (CANPALNET)
issued a public statement
titled ‘An Appeal for Calm and in Defence of
Democratic Rights’. This statement opposes the Canadian government’s
“anti-terror” legislation, profiling and persecution of residents of our
country, and the broad attack on democratic rights. It was sent with a
covering letter to then incoming Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
November 9, 2003 (Vancouver)
A coalition of activists constructed a mock wall
along Robson Street, Vancouver, B.C. as part of the international day of action
against the Apartheid Wall that is being built by the Israeli Government in the
occupied Palestinian territories. This day of action, called by The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and PENGON (The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network), marks the 14th anniversary of the fall
of the Berlin Wall.
Read full report
Palestine In Athens
by Junichi Semitsu
For opening ceremonies
I want athletes from Palestine in line
between those from Pakistan & Panama
waiting to enter the gates of the Coliseum
the only security checkpoint they know...
see complete poem
Listen to ‘Free Palestine’, by Son of Nun.
Apparently after some controversy, the song was chosen by National Public Radio listeners on their weekly
Open Mic. “Free Palestine” is posted to NPR’s website, and will remain there
for the rest of the year. Here’s one small piece of it:
“You want to end the violence? Then end the occupation.
You want to see defiance? Then deny us liberation.
This is Apartheid Palestine where sniper fire
gets showered from Israeli watchtowers.”
You can see the words and listen to it at http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/openmic/index.php?episode=47#song4.
CanPalNet Statement on the Cancellation of “The Revolution Will Not Be
Televised” by Amnesty International
...Amnesty International also has peremptorally cancelled the showing of another important film they had advertised, scheduled, and which is available. This film deals with the violations of the human rights of Venezuelans by those who orchestrated an unsuccessful coup to overthrow that country’s elected president, Hugo Chavez.
Amnesty had been pressured by pro-coup forces to cancel the film and has
capitulated. Amnesty now says that the human rights of ordinary Venezuelans are
too controversial and “political” a matter for them, and therefore they have
cancelled the showing of the acclaimed documentary “The Revolution Will Not Be
Televised”. Full Report
News from Kelowna, BC
Last Saturday (Oct 25 ), we had a rally. Over 50 people showed up.
U.S. policies in the MiddleEast were exposed. The issue of Palestine was at the core of this event. Signs and leaflets about the ocupation of Palestine were numerous.
(Three persons from the local pro-Israeli Government lobby were there with a hand recorder to tape speeches and interventions from the participants.... The heat is on...!!! )
We collected many signatures for The Canpalnet campaign to end the occupation and for the “Stop the Wall” petition.
Media coverage was good; CHBC-TV was there and presented a good segment on the evening news. Also, the Kelowna Daily Courier wrote a fairly good piece...
I appreciate receiving the e-mails from the group in Vancouver. I realize how much incredible work you do for the Palestinian cause in Vancouver. I admire your dedication.
Anne-Marie Brun, for People for People
November 9 2003: International Day Against the Wall!
This day has been designated an International Day of Solidarity with the
Palestinians Against the Wall. Dozens of groups are planning activities
for this international day to make the wall fall!
Stop the Wall Online Resources:
IWPS Statement on the death of Rachel Corrie
March 16, 2003
We are international peace activists working in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
We are shocked and outraged at the death of one of our colleagues, Rachel
Corrie. We extend our deepest sympathy to her family and friends and mourn her
passing.
In the absence of effective political intervention by our governments in ways
which would respect the human, national and democratic rights of the
Palestinian people, we come to live in solidarity with them. Every day we are
here we witness the brutality of the Israeli military occupation. We believe in
the necessity of documenting what we see and reporting it to the world. And
like Rachel Corrie, we believe in the necessity of direct intervention through
non-violent resistance.
Rachel died trying to prevent the collective punishment of innocent civilians.
Her death should not have happened, and those responsible should be brought to
justice. If, tragically, her death was meant as a warning to us as peace
activists, we want to tell those responsible that we will not stop bearing
witness and will not be silent.
The International Women’s Peace
Service, Salfit governorate, Palestine.
Email: iwps@palnet.com
Website:- www.womenspeacepalestine.org
Operating in the Salfit governorate, the International Women’s Peace Service
monitors and responds to human rights abuses in the area.
Report Back from the West Bank
Two CanPalNet Members reported back after spending nearly 3 months in the West Bank. The venue which was rented cancelled the contract at the
last minute, saying the event was too political. After much discussion, the board relented and let the event continue. Read the report by Pat
Katagiri, and Canpalnet’s statement about the cancellation and reversal which was read out at the event.
Photographs by Cindy Reeves.Full report
It’s the small personal stories that you don’t forget
Book Review by Morgan McGuigan
ReadingSearching Jenin is like reading a nightmare. Each chapter is another person with another terrible tale to tell. Yet, they are true stories told by people living in Jenin when the Israeli army invaded in early April, 2002, an invasion we were told was not an invasion but a strangely labelled “incursion.”
Article
Someone asked me...
by Linda Todd
Someone asked me what I was doing to discourage suicide bombers. I wrote this reply: Article
Zionism and its critics: Labour, the left and anti-Semitism
A presentation by Sid Shniad
to the Trade Union Committee for Justice in the Middle East Forum: Trade
Unionists and the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
February 27, 2003, Vancouver, BC
Complete presentation
Huwarra Checkpoint
by Pat Katagiri, International Women’s Peace Service – Palestine
His name is Ya’il. He’s maybe 20 years old, of medium height, build. He wears
glasses. He’s an Israeli soldier working a shift at Huwarra checkpoint, just
outside of Nablus in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank. It’s Saturday,
a work day for Palestinians. Many of them want to get to Nablus, for work,
school, doctor’s appointments. They can’t pass until Ya’il says so.
Full Report
Report from the West Bank
by Pat Katagiri, International Women’s Peace Service – Palestine
Pat Katagiri, who is currently in the West Bank with the IWPS, sends in a
report. February 25, 2003 Full Report
A quick reminder to savor the small successes.
by Paula van der Hijden
A few weeks ago I was on the Internet at the Vancouver Public Library. I had
wanted to visit www.electronicintifada.net to gain information about Palestine
from an alternative media source. To my surprise, Cyberpatrol (the Internet
filtering software used by the Vancouver Public Library) classified this
website as “hate speech”. Full Article
Lasting Images from After Jenin
A Film Review by Gaik Cheng Khoo
This film begins with the documentary filmmaker being led through the destroyed
houses in the refugee camp of Jenin. A woman and her children are wading
through the rubble, looking for remnants of their lives. She is dazed, unable
to believe that she has lost everything in that one attack.
Full Review
Divine Intervention: A Review
A Film Review by Paula van der Hijden
After having just moved from Nazareth to Vancouver, my husband and I recently
saw Divine Intervention at the Vancouver International Film Festival. The film
features the gloomy faced director, Elia Suleiman, as a character whose father
is sick and whose girlfriend, Manal Khader, lives on the other side of an
Israeli checkpoint.
Full Review
Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948
by Tanya Reinhart,
reviewed by Mordecai Briemberg
Neatly designed in a five by seven inch format, this is a book you can read in
sections on public transit, carry stuffed in a pocket or bag. Above all, it is
a well-organized “handbook” for the eventful last three years, from Camp David
to Taba to Israel’s last two years of “slow ethnic cleansing” — “the second
half of 1948” in the words of Israel’s military commanders.
Full Review
In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian
Story
by Ghada Karmi
Reviewed by Salwa Farah
Overwhelmed by the sense of familiarity and personal connection Ghada Karmi’s
book In Search of Fatima invoked in me, I had to put it down and reflect on my
own identity. I too left my country at the age of eight, leaving behind
childhood memories for a foreign land...
Full Review
A Grave and Gathering Danger
by the CanPalNet Education Committee
George W. Bush delivered a blunt message to the UN on September 12, 2002:
Saddam Hussein presents a “grave and gathering danger” to the world.
He claimed Iraq has contravened numerous UN resolutions, including Resolution
687 (which calls for the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction throughout
the Middle East), but Bush made no mention of Israel’s systematic violation of
UN resolutions dating back to 1948, nor its stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Full Article
Canpalnet Statement November 2001
The September 11 bombings shocked us into the realization we too are
vulnerable. Living with the insecurity of being prey to violent, arbitrary,
deadly attack has been the fate of many peoples around the globe for all too
long a time. That insecurity has become the fate of citizens of the Empire as
well. On September 11, terrorism suddenly assumed global dimensions.
Full Statement
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