A delegation of 18 Canadian parliamentarians, led by MP Marwan Tabbara (Lib. Kitchener South – Hespeler), spent 6 intensive days visiting Israel/Palestine in April 2018. The official report of their trip has just been released and makes for interesting reading. It seems they were quite disturbed by what they saw/heard. Read more.
Discrimination
Can Israel ever stop being a “fortress” and become a “home”?
In a public interview last April in Toronto, famed Israeli author David Grossman (r.) lamented to CBC’s Michael Enright: “Israel is a fortress, but not yet a home”. A Palestinian Canadian, whose parents were expelled from Mandate Palestine in 1948, suggests that Jews in Israel can only feel at “home” when Israel acknowledges the refugees’ tragedy it created in 1947/48 and accepts equality. Read more… (more…)
What’s behind the Trudeau government’s new phrasing that Canada is “a friend of Israel” and “a friend of the Palestinian people”?
In diplomacy, words matter. After saying for years that Canada was an “ally” of Israel, that terminology was quietly dropped last month. We now say Canada is a “friend of Israel, and a friend to the Palestinian people”. That sounds balanced. CTIP’s research department has discovered some of the ways Canada puts that apparently “balanced” statement into practice. Read more…
Is the Canadian and international media starting to change how it reports the conflict in Gaza?/ Israeli sniper wounds a Canadian doctor
Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian medical doctor, was one of the hundreds shot by Israeli snipers on Monday. Will this influence how the Canadian public sees the carnage in Gaza? There was already some evidence that the Israeli killings of unarmed protesters was starting to influence how mainstream publications are reporting the events. Not all, but some are becoming more openly critical of the astonishing Israeli violence. Read more.
Many Nakba commemoration activities planned for Ottawa
A Palestinian grandmother holds the key to her house that she has never been allowed to return to. Several groups are planning activities in Ottawa to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the “Nakba” – and educate the Canadian public about the expulsion of over 3/4 million Palestinians from their homes in 1947/48. Read more..
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 