In November 1947 Canada voted at the UN in support of giving over 50% of historic Palestine to European Jews to allow them to create a new state after the horrible events of the Holocaust. But we paid scarce attention to the appalling consequences for the people who were already living there. A number of Palestinian Canadians remind their fellow Canadians that the Palestinian ‘Nakba”, which started 72 years ago, is not over. Read the statement of the Nakba Commemoration Initiative…
A few days prior to Israel’s Memorial Day (April 27th), Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy (seen here last November meeting with a Canadian delegation in Tel Aviv) asks “Why Didn’t You Tell Us About the Palestinian Village of Tantura?” Read more… (more…)
April 17th is Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. There are an estimated 4,520 Palestinian prisoners in crowded Israeli jails, including men, women and children as young as 14. In the face of well-founded concerns that COVID is spreading in its prisons, a global outcry is rising demanding Israel release Palestinian prisoners, particularly women and children and those held without charge under so-called “administrative detention”. So far, Canada, which claims to be a “friend of the Palestinian people” has not shown any interest. Read more…
There once was a time in which Christian, Muslim and Jewish Palestinians were neighbours and friends, remembers Samia Khoury. That was before the establishment of Israel in 1948. Since then, Israel has not let anything, even the coronavirus pandemic, get in the way of its ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian people. Mrs. Khoury is the former president of the Palestinian YWCA and member of the Beirzeit University Board of Trustees. Read her letter about what Israel is doing this Easter under the cover of the COVID crisis. … (more…)
Up to the beginning of March, a debate had begun in various legislatures in Canada over anti-Semitism and how to fight it. The city councils of Montreal (above), Calgary and Vancouver discussed and declined to adopt a controversial motion which defines anti-Semitism in a way that is aimed to shield Israel from criticism. But those behind the motion have had some successes elsewhere. When the Corona virus crisis abates there is little doubt they will be back to continue their campaign. Why is the motion they are proposing so problematic, and what can be done about it? Read more…
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 