December 31, 2005

Human Rights Watch letter to President Bush regarding expanding settlements
in the West Bank

Israel's continuing settlement activity is a violation of international humanitarian law (IHL), United Nations Security Council resolutions, and Israel's own commitments under the U.S.-sponsored Road Map of April 2003. The Israeli government's policy of encouraging, financing, establishing, and
expanding Jewish-only settlements in the OPT violates two main principles of IHL: the prohibition on the transfer of civilians from an occupying power's territory to the occupied territory, and the prohibition of creating permanent changes in the occupied territory that are not for the benefit of
the occupied population. In particular, Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that "[t]he Occupying Power shall not .transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." Under the road map, Israel agreed to freeze all settlement activity, including "natural growth," and to dismantle all settlement outposts created since March 2001.

December 28, 2005

LA Times - Telling it like it isn't

Illegal Jewish settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land are clearly"colonies," and we used to call them that. I cannot trace the moment when we started using the word "settlements." But I can remember the moment around two years ago when the word "settlements" was replaced by "Jewish
neighborhoods" -- or  even, in some cases, "outposts."

CPNO comment: This is an excellent article by Robert Fisk about language used by the media which obfuscates the facts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   For information specific to media distortion in Canada click here

December 22, 2005

Stop the Wall - The Eastern Wall

CPNO comment: For readers who are not familiar with the geography of the area, the eastern Wall is being constructed not between the West Bank and Israel but through the middle of the West Bank cutting it off from Jordan to the east and annexing the resource rich Jordan Valley to Israel. 

The Jordan Valley has always been a key target of Zionist expansionism. The Valley comprises over 28% of the West Bank territory and provides access to the water reserves of the River Jordan. The hilltops yield control over a significant portion of the West Bank, providing strategic locations for the effective siege of Palestinians. Today the Jordan Valley, site of the first West Bank settlements, contains 21 colonies held by around 6300 settlers. Recently, they were reinforced by the arrival of a group of colonizers redeployed from Gaza.

December 22, 2005

EJJP - Organisations defy EU secrecy:  30+ Jewish and Palestinian organisations defy EU secrecy
Dismayed by the refusal of EU to publish their own Ramallah and East Jerusalem Heads of Mission findings regarding Israeli state actions towards non Jewish residents of East Jerusalem, Jewish and other peace groups and Palestinian Solidarity campaigns around Europe have decided they must take matters into their own hands.

December 22, 2005

Ontario Liberal Campaign HQ -  Liberal Candidate Target of Ethnic Smear Campaign

MISSISSAUGA The Liberal Party of Canada called on the Canadian Coalition for Democracies to apologize for issuing a blatantly false, politically-motivated news release targeting Mississauga-Erindale candidate Omar Alghabra.

The release, issued yesterday, alleges Mr. Alghabra said in his victory speech on December 1, 2005: This is a victory for Islam! Islam won! Islam Won! ... Reporters who were present for the speech, including reporters for Rogers Television, said they did not hear the statements in question. A videotape copy of the news story, with his acceptance speech, bears that out. The videotape is available for those interested in viewing it.

December 22, 2005

Montreal Planet – Martin/Schneiderman/AIPAC-The Hijacking of Canada's Foreign Policy and the Destruction of Representative Democracy
While advising Pettigrew on Mid-East Affairs, Government of Canada expense records indicate that the only trip Schneiderman took was to attend the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington in May of this year.( View Foreign Affairs – Travel and Hospitality Expense Report ). …
During the time that Schneiderman has been advising Pettigrew on Mid-East Affairs, Canada has reversed four long standing votes at the UN to join the US, Israel and a handful of tiny Pacific Islands in opposing international law and world opinion on a just Mid-East settlement (Source: Toronto Star )

December 16, 2005

Jaggi Singh - Netanyahu riot charges are dismissed

Yesterday, the remaining charges against me related to the protest against Benjamin Netanyahu at Concordia University on September 9, 2002 were dismissed.

I had made a motion for abuse of process by the Crown (and by extension, the Montreal police and Concordia University) for their failure to disclose upwards
of 30 videos showing events from September 9, 2002. After a motion that took several days over 2005 -- and much resistance from Concordia and their high-priced lawyers -- Judge Pierre Fontaine of the Montreal Municipal Court ruled in my favor, and agreed that an abuse of process had occurred.

In his oral ruling, the judge stated that there was "gross negligence,  particularly by the managers [gestionnaires] of Concordia University", and that there was a "flagrant violation" of my right to a fair trial.

December 11, 2005

Sakhnini - The 1967 War was launched by Israel to grab more Arab lands

There was a good chance to de-escalate the crisis. U.S. Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, stated, "We were shocked and angry as hell when the Israelis launched the surprise offensive. They attacked on a Monday, knowing that on Wednesday the Egyptian vice president would arrive in Washington to talk about re-opening the Strait of Tiran. We might not have succeeded in getting Egypt to reopen the strait, but it was a real possibility."

December 11, 2005

KAIROS - A statement following the Toronto Conference on Morally Responsible Investment (October 26 – 29, 2005)

B'nai Brith and some individuals criticized the conference, claiming that Sabeel, and by extension, supporters of Sabeel, intended to delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel. These critics wrote articles in which they implied that Sabeel and KAIROS were anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. One or more of these articles were forwarded to Conservative MP Stockwell Day, who subsequently wrote a letter to CIDA Minister Aileen Carroll and Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, questioning whether CIDA should fund KAIROS. Mr. Day repeated these criticisms in the House of Commons.

KAIROS promotes a two-state solution that is based on international law, and a return to the border between Israel and Palestine as it existed on June 4, 1967. This requires Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories, and for all violence by Palestinians and Israelis to cease.

December 11, 2005

SPHR - Freedom of Speech and Palestinian Human Rights at the University of Western Ontario

The entire display, erected in the main student centre, the University Community Centre (UCC), was fully approved by the University Students Council IN ADVANCE, and the London Police Hate Crimes Division, UWO's Equity Services, and the UWO President's Office after being erected.

Despite all of this clearance, on 16 December 2004, the Clubs Policy Committee (CPC) - a sub-committee of the USC - tried and convicted SPHR without giving SPHR an opportunity to defend itself, and without even telling the club what the accusations were. After a thorough investigation by the university Ombudsperson, the decision was deemed unfair and overturned. This academic year, instead of issuing an apology for the USC's unfair treatment, the USC reinforced last year's illegal and unfair decision. On November 7, 2005, the CPC issued yet another decision "prohibit[ing] SPHR UWO from public space for the duration of 365 days".

December 7, 2005

Briarpatch - Maple Flag, the Israeli Air Force, and "the new type of battle we are being asked to fight"

Out of two hundred warplanes that took part in Exercise Maple Flag 2005 in Cold Lake, Alberta in May, only ten were Israeli F-16s. It would be easy to miss their significance. Yet, when Canadian forces  extended an invitation to the Israeli Air Force for  the first time in  thirty-eight meetings of the  Maple Flag war games, it  signalled, according to  military planners, a marked  shift in Canadian military  and political policy in the  twenty-first century: good  night Battle of Britain,  good morning Gaza......
......As Defence Minister  Bill Graham recently articulated, the emerging  military/political agenda for Canadian Forces is about "enforcing peace." In order to accomplish such enforcement upon an entire population, Graham states that the population in question "must perceive the use of force in their neighbourhood, and the civilian casualties that are suffered, as being for their greater good and not just the repressive measures of a foreign occupying force" (DND).

December 5, 2005

Toronto Star, Haroon Siddiqui - Canada makes an about-face on Mideast

What do we have in common with Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu?   Thanks to Paul Martin's pro-Israeli shift, Canada has joined them, the United States and Israel in opposing United Nations resolutions on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

December 5, 2005

Edward Corrigan - Letter to Dr. Lorna Marsden, President, York University regarding Dr. Noble and the Palestinian issue at York University

I have been following the goings on at York University for some time with deep concern. There has been an attempt to suppress discussion of Palestinian human rights at your University. This is most disturbing and a violation of free speech, academic freedom and violation of Palestinian human rights who have every right to oppose the destruction of their society. The rampant violations of human rights that successive Israeli administrations have inflicted upon the native inhabitants of Palestine must be opposed by everyone interested in justice and morality. The false charge of anti-Semitism is used to violate democratic freedoms and negate the human rights of an entire society.

 canpalnet-ottawa.org