Dr. Yousef Jabareen MK, member of the Israeli Knesset, is one of the new generation of Palestinian leaders. A Palestinian citizen of Israel, 44 year old Jabareen will be in Ottawa for a week of meetings with Canadian officials, NGOs and other civil society organizations. At his only public event, on Tuesday, October 18th, he will present his “Vision for hope” in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Learn more…
There are about 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel. They are not Jewish but they form about 20% of the Israeli population. They have the right to vote, and are represented in the Israeli Knesset (parliament). Jewish Israelis prefer to call them “Israeli Arabs”, but they usually refer to themselves as “Palestinian citizens of Israel”. (Sometimes the term they use is “Palestinians of ’48,” referring to those who remained in what became the State of Israel in 1948.)
Dr. Jabareen, a human rights lawyer and lecturer, was first elected to the Israeli Knesset in 2015. He is one of the 13 member “Arab Joint list”, which acts in a coordinated way inside the Knesset. (There is also one Jewish member of the Knesset who is part of the list.) It is not an easy task to represent excluded or alienated citizens. Recently, the Knesset adopted a law that makes it very easy for the (Jewish) majority to expel any Knesset member not seen as sufficiently loyal to the Jewish State of Israel.
The Palestinian/Israeli conflict:
A vision for hope
Dr. Yousef Jabareen, MK
Tuesday, October 18th 7:30 p.m.
First Unitarian Congregation
30 Cleary Avenue, Ottawa
Public meeting – all welcome – free admission -donations accepted
free parking – OC transpo Bus route #2.
During his week in Ottawa, Dr. Jabareen will have private meetings with Canadian officials, elected politicians, labour leaders, think tanks, academic groups and other NGO’s. He will also have separate meetings with members of Ottawa’s Jewish and Palestinian communities.
He has two objectives on his mind:
- First, he wants to bring to the attention of opinion leaders in Canada that the 1.5 million Palestinians citizens of Israel face considerable challenges struggling for equal rights with Israel’s Jewish citizens.
- Secondly, he is interested in better understanding how Canada protects minority rights – including language rights and the rights of its aboriginal people. Canada may not be perfect, but he feels he may be able to learn something useful in Canada which he could try to press for in Israel.
Come, hear and ask questions on October 18th!!
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Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 
Please PM Justin Trudeau and the LPC govt make a Public Statement about the struggles of the Palestinian people in the Illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem for over 50 YEARS; and Gaza which is the Biggest Open Air Prison the World has ever seen.
Palestinians lose their homes and land and even Entire Villages on a daily basis to make Way for illegal settlements for people of Jewish religion from Israel and all over the World!
The LPC govt this year made it illegal for companies and organizations to promote BDS!!!
How can Palestnians Get Justice and Fairness by peaceful means?? Canada, the USA and other world powers are Turning a Blind Eye to the Plight of the Palestinian people in their daily life!!
I’m Catholic of Ftench Canadian blood since the 1600s and I ask my Canadian Govt to make a Public Statement in support of Palestinian freedom from subgugation of illegal occupation that doesn’t stop.
ALSO Foreign Affairs needs to get involved in Real Peacemaking NOW to stop the suffering.
Canada wants Peace for Israelis BUT that won’t happen until Palestinians live in peace from its occupier.
Cécile Paquette Crouchman.
@Cécile
The USA mostly doesn’t agree with your characterization of the situation. The Republican platform explicitly “rejects the false notion that Israel is an occupier”. It opposes “measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms” i.e. it doesn’t believe there is any fixed border. It recognizes the right of Israel to declare sovereignty beyond the 1967 lines and the commentary essentially asserts Israeli territorial rights in Palestine. The Democratic platform while not nearly that strong explicitly rejects BDS. The drafts that have been circulating of a potential UN resolution, representing the most pro-Palestinian mainstream positions change the 1967 border in line with the Clinton parameters.
The reason the USA doesn’t back your position is that they don’t agree with it. International law is not as clear as BDSers like to claim on these issues. International law recognizes the right of people living in a territory to have a government that represents their interests regardless of how their ancestors arrived in that territory. That’s a position rejected by BDS. BDS rather asserts an “anti settler colonialism” ideology preaching a doctrine of permanent racial ownership of territory regardless of current inhabitation.
This is an idea which is frankly ridiculous to Americans virtually all of whom live in towns and cities that have undergone multiple waves of change in their ethnic makeup in the last century. Take for example Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded by Quakers. It quickly had minorities of freed blacks, Scottish, Germans and Swedish. Those groups today represent a tiny fraction of the population of Philadelphia. The fact that Quakers don’t rule Philadelphia is not seen as oppression but rather the sorts of natural changes that happen to a territory with time.
It would be really great, Peter, if Dr. Jabareen’s event were available as a webcast for those of us too far away from Ottawa to attend.