“Write down!/I am an Arab/and my identity card number is 50,000…Record!/I am an Arab/You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors/And the land which I cultivated/Along with my children/And you left nothing for us/Except for these rocks../So will the State take them/As it has been said?!…Write down on the top of the first page:/I do not hate people/Nor do I encroach/But if I become hungry/The usurper’s flesh will be my food/Beware ../Beware ../Of my hunger/And my anger.”
—Excerpt from “Identity Card,” by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who fled with his family from Galilee to Lebanon when Israel was founded in 1948. The family returned to Israel the next year where Darwish grew up as a “present-absentee,” a designation indicating he hadn’t returned in time to be recognized as an Israeli Arab.
About 200 people gathered in Halifax last week to hear activist and journalist Yves Engler speak about his new book Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. Engler’s talk coincided with Israel’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 new housing units for Jews in occupied East Jerusalem. The Israeli announcement embarrassed US vice-president Joe Biden, who happened to be visiting Israel. Poor Joe. The longstanding Israeli policy of establishing Jewish settlements in occupied Arab territories is a flagrant violation of international law and Biden knows it. Yet only a few hours before the announcement, he had reaffirmed the Obama administration’s “absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security.”
Now, the red-faced American VP was forced to criticize Israel. Canada’s Foreign Affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon, soon followed suit. It was strangely out of character because the Harper government is normally one of Israel’s most fervent backers. “Canada stands side-by-side with the State of Israel, our friend and ally in the democratic family of nations,” Harper declared on Israel’s 60th anniversary in 2008. “We have stood with Israel even when it has not been popular to do so, and we will continue to stand with Israel, just as I have always said we would.”
Harper is not the first Canadian PM to express such support. As Yves Engler’s book makes clear, Canada has consistently ignored or glossed over Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands and its imposition of an apartheid system in which Palestinians are routinely denied their human rights. In the occupied West Bank, for example, Palestinians have been pushed into enclaves “encircled by a massive wall, had their water and land appropriated and are subjected to daily humiliation at military checkpoints.”
The 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza live in an open-air prison cut off from the outside world and denied adequate supplies of food, water, medicine, electricity and the building materials needed to rebuild after Israel’s devastating 22-day armed assault that left more than 1,200 Palestinians dead.
Engler documents the many ways in which Canada supports Israel’s continued occupation in a myriad of ways—everything from sales of military equipment and close co-operation between our spy agencies to the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-deductible donations that support Israeli institutions such as universities, parks, the military and, in some cases, illegal settlements in the West Bank. Palestinians, meanwhile, find it difficult to raise money in Canada because many of their charities have been listed as illegal terrorist organizations.
Finally, Engler points to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, a group of members of parliament who plan to submit a report to the Harper government this spring. The Coalition says it will not try to persuade Harper to outlaw legitimate criticism of Israel, but it could, for example, seek a ban on Israeli Apartheid Week held every year on university campuses to protest against the oppression of Palestinians. Jewish groups claim that IAW is inherently anti-Semitic and are calling for universities to ban it. Engler argues IAW should widen its focus so that it not only condemns Israeli government actions, but also protests against Canada’s complicity in supporting Israel’s apartheid regime.
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2010.
Everyone says that the settlements are a violation of international law – where is the proof? I suggest that it is not an open and shut issue – disagree (civilly) with this all you like, but read this and critique it from a legal perspective – http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Gu…
As for the apartheid issue – Arab-Israelis are full citizens of Israel. They have freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of political dissent, freedom of speech and so on – they have their own political parties with representation in Israel’s national parliament. Members of the Arab community are also represented in the judiciary and in Israel’s foreign service. Some even have served in the military.
While I am not so naive as to suggest that everything is rosy for Arab-Israelis, any more than it is for Jews who have moved to Israel from Ethiopia, Russia or the Arab countries – they certainly are not subject to apartheid.
If one speaks of the Palestinians in the West Bank – the controls in place are for well-dcoumented and unassailable security reasons – not racial ones.
The Palestinians in Gaza are another story altogether. There are no Israelis in Gaza. Yet when the Israelis left in 2005, the Palestinian leadership took the opportunity not to seek peace with Israel nor to take advantage of the considerable infrastruture left behind, but to turn Gaza into a giant terrorist base.
How come the oft-stated threats to destroy and annihilate Israel are never mentioned? The Palestinian leadership would not practice apartheid because there would not be any Israelis or Jews to keep separate.
Some pespective please.
I would respectively suggest that anyone who can believe the balderdash in that site (http://www.mfa.gov.il ) explaining how settlements are perfectly legal is clearly a zealot with no respect for, or any idea of, International law. The settlement are obviously NOT illegal under Zionist ”law”, we don’t doubt that. All that the entire world (without a single exception) says is that they are illegal under the Geneva Conventions on Warfare. Which trumps Israeli law….sorry about that, but thems the breaks when you embark on a career as an occupier trying to annex as much as you can of the occupied land. The rest of us kinda frown on this sort of stuff.
Just two questions for our reasonable Zionist friend….if the whole world is wrong and the settlements are indeed legal, why has even that abject yes-man of the Israel that is otherwise known as the United States of America not dared to move its embassy to Jerusalem? Or to recognize this city as Israel’s capital despite huge Israeli/Capitol Hill pressure?
While I don’t agree with settlements or settlers in the west bank or East Jerusalem, there still are questions, how many Israelis have walked into a coffee shop or bus shelter with a bomb strapped around their waist ?? how many Palestinians rejoice at these acts by passing out candy in the streets. Why would / should we support these terrorists.
support isreal.palestinians will simply turn the land into a terrorist haven to launch attacks into isreal.plus isreal supports western values while palestinians do not.look at hezbollah and that other group hamas.great people to have running a country.they would definitly make the world more secure with these wack jobs in power.by the way the great palestinian movement the plf under arafat was trained and supported by Otto Skorzeny.hiltlers commando along with 2 egyptian presidents sadat and nasser after ww2.he was a hard core nazi who with many other nazis moved his influence into the middle east.also check out the anti-semetic propaganda that these arabs use.it is nearly identicle to what the nazi’s used in world war 2.so no i will not support any political group born from nazi’s
why does it seem that only the left can have such strong views.even to the point of undermining our security and way of life are able to place their opinions without any backlash.hell you people support communism.the greatest man made affliction.it is worse then national socialism.with this said stop cencoring my views.strong as they are they are supported.do some research and look into my claims.then write an article on it.or are you to bias and would rather control the information you give.
How convenient of you to loath the effects without mentioning the cause. In your fantasy world, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in the late 80’s by some crazy Palestinian wandering into an Israeli coffee shop with a bomb strapped to his chest. Never mind everything that happened before the first intifada since the creation of the state of Israel in the 40s.
It’s easier for you to just think of Palestinians as ‘savages’ because it helps you justify the cognitive dissonance you and other supporters of Israel experience when it comes to Palestine. On one hand, you probably agree that military aggression, illegal deportations, and confiscation of land and property are wrong (specially if they happen to you or someone you know). On the other hand, you’re OK for those things to be done to Palestinians.
Engler is right. The Zionists stole the land and haven’t stopped stealing land. They also kill, torture and imprison the people who do own these lands. There is no other side than this please learn the simple history. Canada has a Free Trade Agreement and a Security Agreement with Israel. Canada is also a settler-state based upon much the same process of colonization and genocide. But Canada has succeeded in ways Israel can only dream of.
>>>There is no other side than this please learn the simple history.
Actually, there is another side and the history is not simple. What is evidently simple is your mind.
What a terrible article. Wark hardly says anything about Engler, instead he uses his speech as a soapbox to present an incredibly biased account of the Israel/Palestinian conflict. Luckily I know quite a bit about the history and current issues of the conflict, from different perspectives as well. If this was not the case, however, I would be lead to believe that all Palestinians are helpless and non-violent victims and that Israel is completely to blame for everything bad that has ever happened to a Palestinian. Of course there is no mention as to why Israel attacked Gaza. There is no mention that once Israel removed it’s presence entirely from Gaza in 2005 the Palestinians elected a terrorist organization that was originally formed to do try and destroy Israel. Wark blames everything on Israeli occupation but then conveniently leaves out the part about how Israel leaving Gaza resulted in the strengthening of a extremist regime that killed members of their political rivals, other Palestinians, until they fled the area completely. These are the same people who intentionally put combat fighters in the midst of innocent families, schools, mosques and even hospitals. This is Hamas occupation, not Israeli.
The irony is that Wark provides such a one-sided and ignorant article and supports Engler’s idea that IAW, equally as biased as this article, needs to be expanded.
Lest we forget that Engler was the ringleader during the incident at Concordia when Netanyahu was prevented from speaking by a violent mob that vandalized school property and assaulted Jewish students. According to Engler, what should be happening on campuses is giving more of a voice to radicals on one side while preventing the other side from even having the opportunity to speak.
Engler and his ilk want peace in the Middle East about as much as they want reasonable dialogue. For them, having the opportunity to beat their own drum through identifying with victims and denouncing a perceived evil is the real MO. They’re all such morally upstanding people. Their parents must be so proud.
universities are extremely left wing.it is funny how there are communist parties at these universities,radical environmentalists, anarchist. we have movements that are anti-western, yet these groups are allowed to openly preach their bullshit message.these hypocrites are so weak with their values that they are more then willing to take advantage of all the west has to offer.so any ideas that are contrary to the ill-informed,dreamy eyed left, are going to be silenced.
bruce wark should have his degree stripped from him.any university that graduated him in journalism should be ashamed at his level of journalistic knowledge.he is as bad as those drivers that were graduated in ‘Canada’s worst drivers’
it’s pretty straightforward actually. terrorist organizations exist there because of “Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands”. they are a reaction to that; an incorrect reaction, but a reaction nonetheless.
NEWS FLASH Bruce!
Israel is not Apartheid State, under Israeli Law everyone is equal, everyone including Arabs are fully apart of the government and enjoys the same rights as EVERYONE unlike South Africa which blacks had 0 rights and 0 representation in the government and Bruce and NEWSFLASH under Oslo Accords Palestinians are govern under the Palestinian National Authority which under international Law is the legal government of the Palestinians
Links to the basic laws of Israel, sorry Bruce if this offends the radical left because the Apartheid allegory makes no sense:NOTICE WHEN IT SAYS “APPLIES TO ALL”
http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/eng/…
ALSO:
Here’s a link to the current Israeli Knesset members and parties:
http://www.knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/Fact…
Notice the Arab parties such as Ra`am-Ta`al and Arab MKs too can be seen at:
http://www.knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/Fact…
APARTHEID???? well I guess this is Bruce Wark leftest Propaganda at work but I guess he wants that Dream Job with Hamas propaganda wing or Iran’s Press TV because this article sound like it come from either of the two and Bruce if you want to do something PLEASE STOP USING A COMPUTER or cell Phones or go to the doctor or Stop using are health care system since most were either made or design by Israeli’s and maybe your readers should look at what comes from Israel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHwyW9xOyI
“The Israeli announcement embarrassed US vice-president Joe Biden, who happened to be visiting Israel. Poor Joe.”
really?
not according to Joe Biden here is speech at Tel Aviv Universality
(In Full)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViLI3Onwl6w
or another case of Bruce Wark’s Hamas/ Iran propaganda which could be argued according to Global Security Hamas does spend a lot of $$$$$ on propaganda in the West and its says
“Some fund-raising and propaganda activity takes place in Western Europe and North America.”
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/wor…
Just a thought
@Sohail:
according to US law it is
JERUSALEM EMBASSY ACT OF 1995
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-104publ4…
Me B Cranky,
The website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is hardly an objective place to go for information about the morality or legality of the actions of the Israeli government in relation to the Palestinians.
But one doesn’t do much better by passively accepting the version of truth put forward by most main stream news organizations. The powerful Jewish lobby in both Canada and the United States is able to rapidly mobilize any time the ‘conventional view’ is contradicted by a wayward journalist armed with a few inconvenient facts. Stories are ‘killed’ or ‘corrected’ to conform to the wishes of the Israelis, journalists are brought into line, even politicians are ‘schooled’ and intimidated if they dare to question the motives or the legitimacy of the Israeli government. How these issues are portrayed here in North America is of the utmost importance to the Israelis, because if they ever lost the unconditional financial, political and military support of the U.S. government they would have to sit down and negotiate in earnest with their neighbours AND with the Palestinians.
This is unlikely to happen anytime soon, though, because of the powerful lobbying of groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Expressing displeasure with how the Israelis are using all that financial and military aid has been redefined as the ‘New Anti-semitism’. The Israelis and their lobby in the Diaspora throw the ‘anti-semite’ charge around quite freely, which the odd result that being a North American gentile and expressing a view held by a significant minority of Jews living in Israel will get one branded an ‘anti-semite’.
Because of all this, American foreign policy in regard to Israel and her neighbours has been the captive of the Israeli government for decades. Policy is decided in Tel Aviv and implemented in Washington, D.C.