Jack Layton & the human rights of Palestinians

Gentle readers, you know that I am terribly busy--I teach classes at the university, at the college, for 7 Generations, last night I taught my yoga class (we did "Animal Asanas"), I am also busy today organizing a Palestine Awareness Event, along with a host of other activities, never mind getting the laundry done--so I am behind in my posting. I have promised you posts on which I have yet to deliver: on the Vigil for the killed children of Gaza; my visit (with others) to our local Minister of Parliament's open house (carrying a sign: Gaza-Canada's Shame); stories on The Hummingbird of Hope (who came to visit me while Israel was brutally bombing Lebanon), The Blueberry Time-bomb story (about the chemical "bombing" of the forests around my city); there are others. You also know, gentle readers, that I write letters to the Canadian government to bring pressure on our elected representatives to recognize Palestinian rights and to support justice for Palestine. Last week, I received a response from Jack Layton, the NDP party leader, to a letter I had written to him earlier. So, I was compelled to craft another letter to him, in consultation with some of the community groups I engage with. Here is that letter:


Dear Honorable Jack Layton, critic of foreign affairs Paul Dewar, and MP Bruce Hyer,

We thank the Honorable Jack Layton for his response, and we are glad to know that the NDP is speaking out to challenge the Harper government and its representatives such as Peter Kent, John Baird, and others, and, we hope, Ignatieff and the Liberals, who are following the same defense of Israel that continues to silence that state's violations of Palestinian human rights.

We urgently call upon the NDP to become stronger in articulating, not only in government venues, but particularly in the media, the human rights of the Palestinian people and challenging the continuing impunity of Israel, its representatives and international supporters, such as Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff, for allowing--indeed, abetting--that impunity. Israel has refused to abide by international laws, UN Resolutions, and the Geneva Convention and there is no outcry from the NDP about this. Why is that? Many people and groups across the world are working to collect evidence of Israel's war crimes, from the Spanish judiciary, French lawyers, Amnesty International and others, to take the Israeli government and military representatives to world court.

This action is undertaken in recognition of the flagrant abuse and violation of Palestinian human rights. According to the Geneva Convention, occupying powers must protect the civilians who are subject to them; further, during times of war, certain protocols must be maintained; instead, Israel dropped phosphorus bombs on densely inhabited Palestinian civilian areas and killed civilians who held white flags in their hands, to name a few of the war crimes they committed and which are documented in images, videos, and statements.

Protecting human rights of all people, no matter what group, nation or individual is violating those rights, is not controversial but a basic legal standard.

Where is the NDP voice on this? We have not heard it.

The NDP has to take the human rights of the Palestinian people to the forefront in their public statements. Recognizing the occupation and the violation of Palestinian human rights is a necessary first step in order to call for "both sides to stop the violence." If the occupation is not recognized, then a "both sides need to stop the violence" approach just perpetuates obfuscation of Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights. The NDP must recognize and speak out on the human rights violations that the Palestinians have been subjected to by the state of Israel, not just during the Gaza massacre, but for more than 60 years.

The occupation, the blockade, the illegal settlements, the electrified fence around Gaza and the Apartheid Wall around the West Bank and their surveillance towers are at the root of the so-called "Palestine-Israeli conflict." This "conflict" is unbalanced: a powerful state occupier and colonizer armed with $3 billion worth of US military aid and state-of-the art military technologies (which Barack Obama, as per his official website, is seeking to increase along with increasing financial aid), versus the rockets and stones of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank.

The "conflict" is an occupation and resistance to occupation; we call upon the NDP to be more clear on that, and on expressing that to the public and to the Conservatives and the Liberals. The problem is not Hamas rockets; the problem is occupation, colonization, continued expansion of illegal settlements--and Canada's silence about that; indeed, incredibly, Canadians built, with tax deductions, Canada Park and the John Diefenbaker Roadway in Israel ON OCCUPIED LAND. Israeli Uri Avnery has stated that Canada is committing war crimes because the land legally, by international law, is part of the West Bank. Resistance in the West Bank and Gaza, including Hamas rockets, is the effect of 60 years of occupation and Canadian complicity in that occupation, as Canada Park, the Canadian call for the blockade against Gaza, and the denial of the rights of the Palestinian people to defend themselves, makes clear.

[on Canada Park: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2500957394773313398

Further, before the death tally of the Gaza massacre, 8 Palestinians, mostly civilians and children, are killed every day by the Israeli army or settlers in Gaza and the West Bank. In light of this continued oppression of the human rights of Palestinians and their legitimate right to defend themselves against a brutal occupation, continuing illegal settlements, and land encroachment due to the Apartheid Wall, we find very troubling part of Jack Layton's Friday Jan. 16 Press Statement, which we have excerpted and highlighted below:

"Working with the international community, Canada has a role to play in helping to end the violence. Canada should express its readiness to facilitate negotiations and assist with the international monitoring of the ceasefire, including by providing Canadians troops as UN peacekeepers. The monitoring must be implemented in a way that prevents rocket attacks on Israel and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza."

Our questions include: where is the reference to the continuing bombardment of Gaza by Israeli weapons in this statement? do the people of Gaza not have the right to defend themselves or is defense only a right for occupying or sovereign nations like Israel, Canada, and the US? Are the people of Palestine not allowed to arm themselves against aggressors or the threat of aggression and have an army, like we do in Canada? Or are they somehow outside our idea of a nation and a people? Will the Canadian government speak with the elected representatives of the people of Gaza to ask if Canadian troops as UN peacekeepers are desired? If Canadian troops as part of UN peacekeeping troops are implemented without Palestinian approval would we not then be an arm of the occupation? Will those Canadian UN peacekeeping troops also monitor the Israeli army, and if so will they then be stationed on Israeli land to stop the Israeli army from inflicting more carnage on the Palestinian people or from partaking of house demolitions, more land theft, and the building of more illegal settlements in the West Bank? Further, what role will Canadian UN peacekeeping troops be called upon to play within the US-Israel agreements to end Gaza arms smuggling which clearly labels elected Palestinian representatives that are not compliant to Israeli occupation, terrorists? What is the NDP position on this?

We have read the text of the U.S.-Israel agreement to end Gaza arms smuggling document and find what it says about "international cooperation" to prevent the Palestinian people from defending themselves from an occupying state, extremely problematic, particularly the new tools and initiatives, and are very concerned about where Canadian troops as UN peacekeepers fit in this pro-occupation agreement that obliterates the right of Palestinians to self-defense, as well as, labels their duly elected representatives as 'terrorists', hence, disallowing any meaningful way forward to a just solution to the Palestinian crisis and occupation and to the recognition of their human rights.

We have excerpted a section below that is extremely troubling, yet noting that we find the entire text of this document troubling.

[ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056175.html ]

We would like the NDP to respond to this document and clarify the role they see Canadian troops as UN peacekeepers playing in light of the trajectory and goals of this agreement. Further, we call upon the NDP to question the Conservative government and the Liberal Party on what role they project for Canadians in this US-Israeli agreement that seeks fusion with international entities, given the continuing Canadian support of the state of Israel and its impunity.

· Enhanced U.S. security and intelligence cooperation with regional governments on actions to prevent weapons and explosives flows to Gaza that originate in or transit their territories; including through the involvement of relevant components of the U.S. Government, such as U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Special Operations Command.

· Enhanced intelligence fusion with key international and coalition naval forces and other appropriate entities to address weapons supply to Gaza;

· Enhancement of the existing international sanctions and enforcement mechanisms against provision of material support to Hamas and other terrorist organizations, including through an international response to those states, such as Iran, who are determined to be sources of weapons and explosives supply to Gaza.


Urgently, we call upon the NDP to publicly recognize the human rights of the Palestinian people.

Thank you for addressing our concerns,

We look forward to hearing from you, in correspondence and in the media,


Walid and Taina Chahal, Arab Association of Thunder Bay;
Thunder Bay Muslim Association

Sniper school and more

Keffiyah camouflage...that is, Israeli Special Forces Undercover Units. You can go to school to become an Israeli undercover "soldier"--that is, if you are Jewish. It doesn't matter if you live in Tayibe, HaMerkaz Israel or Toronto, Canada, if you are a Jew you can go to school to learn how to take out Palestinians. What if you are a Canadian Jew but you don't have any money? Don't worry, the HESEG foundation will help you, that is, on condition that you are indeed a Jew, get to Israel and learn how to kill. Every time a Canadian visits a Chapters or Indigo Bookstore, their money helps send a Canadian boy to kill Palestinians. Why should our boys just kill Taliban terrorists when they can kill Hamas terrorist? To speed you on your way to become an Undercover Special Forces Soldier in Israel, visit this site for your Undercover Guide and you will be on your way to kill a Palestinian, too.


Undercover is not your style? There are more options at the Israeli Special Forces school. Maybe you dream to become a sniper? Well, you too can have your chance to sniper shoot a child in Gaza by entering the Snipers School.



But you don't have any experience killing so you would like to start at the beginning? Then you should read the Israeli Special Forces Infantry Soldier Guide.



You want more choice? Sniping and undercover are not man enough for you and you know some of the basics because you play World WarCraft constantly? Well, how about entering the Israeli State Terrorist School? You may get a chance to try out your urban guerrilla warfare training in the specially built "Gaza" village, that is, at the new Ground Troop Training Centre (GTTC)! You could do sight-seeing in Beersheba while there, and (pardon the pun!) kill two birds with one stone.

"Built a year and a half ago, the GTTC is a mock Arab village complete with outlying rural areas, a downtown district and a winding maze of streets and alleyways, pregnant with the constant risk of an unexpected close encounter with the enemy."


There are many options to satisfy your urge to get your finger or eye behind some brand new military technologies made in the U.S.A. You can begin by learning all about the latest Optics ; the combination of training at the Israeli Special Forces school and using state-of-the-art US made military technologies will surely help you reach your killing goals.

Palestine is the land, Israel is a state

Lawrence of Cyberia, a British woman who lives in the US, (linked on my sidebar) , blogs in detail and in depth on Palestine, putting together informative analyses from her vast knowledge and research of many years. Her posts are informative because she draws on a diverse array of sources; some of her blog posts must take days to put together, if not weeks. Any blogger who does this sort of in-depth, time-consuming investigative journalism/research and posting with links to other sites gets kudos from me. It takes A LOT of time to put together even a short post--that is, if you are working with issues that need to be articulated in such a way to express their complexity and importance, and in such a way as to bring justice to the issue and peoples that you are talking about, and it such a way to allow your readers to link to more material and to formulate their own interpretations--so her work is truly outstanding. (I also think her play on words for her title is really clever on a number of levels, as it talks back to gender, appropriates Orientalism, and plays on land/cyberspace dichotomies!) I recommend a look at her latest entry, 30 January 2009
Those People in Gaza: Where Do They Come From, And Why Are They So Mad? . In it, she compiles a number of photos from the Palestine Remembered site with other historical materials, to create a photo essay to challenge the myths that hold dominance about the land of Palestine.


Who is the Terrorist?

Lawrence of Cyberia and Gilad Atzmon (below) dismantle the false dichotomies of Jew/Arab or Israeli/Palestinian, to show that, whatever our ethnicity, religion, skin colour, "race", or nationality, we meet in cultures of resistance that transcend all boundaries.

Gilad Atzmon, a Jewish jazz sax musician born in Israel but who "feels no sympathy, compassion or nostalgia toward the occupying state of Israel" lives in the UK and is an anti-Zionist human rights activist. Atzmon was interviewed recently and has this to say about his former homeland:

"What we see in Gaza is holocaust denial in its making. The Jewish state exercises hardcore barbarism. Yet, the world keeps silent. Once again we are confronted with the realization that giving a mandate for a national home for the Jewish people has been demonstrated to be a grave lethal mistake. The only question is how to dismantle this monstrous suicidal hawkish creature without turning our planet into a fireball."

His message to the Palestinian people of Gaza:

"My Dearest brothers and sisters. It is heartbreaking to watch the death and carnage inflicted on you by the Jewish state. We all see what you are going through and we all know that justice is on your side. I beg you not to lose hope. Evil always comes to an end and Israeli evil is no different. Israel will come to an end though we may have to do something to bring this end about.

However, one thing is rather clear. The so called ‘liberal’ west failed to save you, sadly enough; the Arab states failed to join your struggle yet. As sad as it may be, as much as justice is on your side, you are alone here confronted with the ultimate evil.

Israel has many bombs in its arsenal. But you Palestinian brothers and sisters have a few things they do not have: Justice is [on] your side, humanity is in your streets, you have the spirit and you have the ultimate bomb, namely the demographic one.

Palestine is the land, Israel is a state; States come and go, land stays forever. Long live Palestine."


Gilad Atzmon & Nizar Al-Issa Cultures of Resistance Jul 07

homes for the taking

Newly arrived persecuted European Jews strolling in Jaffa, 1949


Newly arrived Bulgarian Jews in the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of al-Bassa, 1950


Looting 'Ayn Karim by newly arrived persecuted European Jews 1948

These old black and white photos look like they could be found in any number of old photo albums in a box or on a shelf in someone's house. Stories of family. Of new beginnings. Of immigration. And I guess in some photo albums and families that is how the stories get told.

Well, these photos, like all photos, are layered with meanings, narratives, histories and social, political and economic context. These photos are from the Palestine Remembered site, where there are 1000s of photos that show what Palestine was like before it was invaded, stolen, looted and its population ethnically cleansed and expelled, then re-populated with Jewish settlers and re-named Israel.

The infrastructure and cities and towns and homes and farms were all there. Ready for the taking. The myth that Palestine was an empty desert, is just that--a myth.

These photos illustrate Israeli historian Tom Segev's research report, based on de-classifed Israeli documents found in the Israeli Archives (some are still sealed), that details how the land, the infrastructure, the buildings, the homes, the shops, the factories, and all the possessions, furniture, tools, animals, and machinery of the dispossessed Palestinians was confiscated, cataloged and re-distributed to in-coming Jews. Of course, the army officers got the best homes, particularly eager to take the elegant homes in Jerusalem, Jaffa, in Haifa. Read the report; it's all there; who got what, how that was decided, who did the documenting, and of course, the looting. The looting that was not part of the plan, but, hey, free stuff everywhere! The once-persecuted Jewish settlers became feverish with the riches before them. Homes for the homeless, workshops for the jobless, farms for the landless, just go to your place and start your new life.


Salim El Far recounts:
This house belongs to my maternal grandfather Salim Hatoum. It is situated on the junction of Hariri and Haddad streets (if these names still exist) opposite Raji el Issa Bldg [in Haifa]. The GF is divided in two apartments where lived two families. In the 1st floor lived my uncle Joseph with his wife, his mother and unmarried brother. Uncle Ibrahim occupies the second floor with his wife and 3 children. Nowadays I was told that in every room of the 1st floor lives a family.

I read Segev's chapter last week, one night quite late, and I just couldn't process all I had read. I felt overwhelmed. After all the killing in Gaza of the Palestinians--many whose ancestral homes and streets are in these photo archives--I simply felt my heart so heavy; my head like a lead weight. I felt despondent thinking about the levels of lowness that people are capable of--people who may be your neighbours now. Someone you actually like, whose family was part of the "new settlers" to the new state of Israel. I know a woman like that here in town. I had her over for my garden party a few years back. Her family "went" to Israel in the late 40s.

I want to ask her, which house did your family walk into to? Did your mother and your grandmother ever wonder about whose home it had been and what were the terms of their leave-taking?

How could people, a people so dispossessed themselves, simply walk into homes and take over the homes and possessions of peoples who had been dispossessed by military force, just as they had been? Would they not wonder as they sat on the brocade sofa or slept in the hand-carved bed piled with soft white wool blankets, whose home is this? Would they not wonder as they walked across 100 years old extraordinarily beautiful Oriental carpets, who lived in this house? Would they not wonder as they sat outdoors on a hot summer day in the cool shade of the trees sheltering the courtyard, whose home is this? And would they not wonder as they tended to the chores of their new farm and fed the goats and the sheep, whose animals are these?

Would they not ask these questions? In night as they lay sleeping and it was quiet and dark and they felt safe?

My head was spinning and swimming with this. I wanted to post this earlier, but I am frankly, overwhelmed with the injustice done to the Palestinians and incredulous to the callousness of the Jews of Israel. I used to actually feel that Israelis had a right, too, to share the land. But frankly, the more I read and the more I learn and the more heartache I open myself up to, I wonder. I wonder how the Jews who entered Palestine and the Jews who live there now (some still the original settlers) can do what they do, continue to be part of this ugly injustice, and sleep at night. I wonder how could they not rise up and stop being part of this ugly plan that is such a disaster for everyone but their own comfortable selves? I wonder why don't they rise up and stop their government representatives from spreading the ugly lies and propaganda?

But especially I wonder how they can continue to blame the victims when their own role as perpetrators of injustices is staring them in the face as they go about their days in the homes they have stolen?

The Obama Regime and Israel

an excerpt from James Petras, Global Research:

"The Obama Regime and Israel

The Obama regime is, if anything, even more penetrated from the top to bottom and from Executive offices to Congress with Zionists in positions to influence every strategic decision having any relation to Middle East policy.

The Jewish Telegraph Agency (January 20, 2009), the principle news agency of American Jewish-Zionist publications, provides a detailed list of the ‘pro-Israel’ Zionists in strategic Middle East positions in the Obama regime. The evidence of Zionist control is overwhelming and the consequences are deadly to any ‘balanced’ peace negotiations and extremely promising for Israel’s war ambitions in the regions:

1. Dennis Ross will be an influential adviser on Iran policy. Ross is an advocate of intensifying sanctions to undermine negotiations and force the military option.

2. Richard Holbrooke, appointed as Obama’s envoy to Afghanistan, is a prominent Zionist who served as UN envoy under Clinton. He has recently headed an ad hoc group called United Against a Nuclear Iran, which advocates military action against Iran if it does not submit to an Israeli-dictated cessation of its legal nuclear energy program.

3. George Mitchell, Obama’s envoy to the Palestine-Israel conflict, is one of the four co-chairs of the Zionist front group, Bipartisan Policy Center, which propose a step by step approach, from sanctions to embargo to naval blockade to a military strike on Iran.

4. Dan Shapiro and Puneet Talwar will collaborate on Middle East policy at the National Security Council. Shapiro, in consultation with Israel, was “key in shepherding the Syrian Accountability Act through the Senate (a measure that imposed tough sanctions on Syria). Shapiro drafted Obama’s cringing, belly crawling speech to the AIPAC conference in Washington on May 2008. Puneet Talwar will handle Persian Gulf issues – including Iran. He was a staffer of former Senator and current Vice President Joe Biden and was a close collaborator and conduit for AIPAC.

5. Eric Lynn is heading for a White House Middle East policy job. He started his career as an AIPAC intern in 1998 and continued as a staff person for Congressman Peter Deutsch, “one of the most committed pro-Israel figures in Congress.” Lynn spent a year in Israel, imbibing Zionist military culture and learning Hebrew.

6. James Steinberg and Jacob ‘Jack’ Lew have been named as Clinton’s deputies at the State Department. Steinberg has been in a ‘strong relation with the pro-Israel community’ and was a conduit for Israeli pressure on Arafat to capitulate to Israeli demands. Jack Law will direct economic stimulus overseas. He is an orthodox-Zionist, who will use American economic resources to back Israeli militarism and reward or punish its adversaries. A former head of a Citigroup investment unit, he holds between $50,000 to $100,000 in Israel State Bonds.

7. Samantha Power, once a critic of Israeli war crimes in 2002 for which the Zionist Power Configuration had her removed from the Obama campaign in March 2008. She was ‘rehabilitated’ and re-incorporated as a member of the Clinton transition team after an ‘abject apology’ to Israel.

8. Cass Sunstein, a lifetime Zion-Lib, is head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs – a key propaganda arm of the Obama regime.

9. Rand Beers was lead national security adviser to Senator Kerry during his presidential campaign of 2004 and ‘built close relations’ with the pro-Israel political apparatus. As adviser to Homeland Security, he will ‘likely be a linchpin as Israel and the US forge a closer alliance’ (Jewish Telegraph Agency January 20, 2009).

10. Lee Feinstein and Mara Rudman are Zionist veterans from the Clinton Administrations. Feinstein is a lead adviser of Secretary of State Clinton and Rudman is Senior Foreign Policy Adviser of President Obama.

11. Susan Rice, UN Ambassador appointed by Obama, signed on to a Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) paper last summer calling for greater Israeli-US coordination for an embargo and military attack on Iran. WINEP is a well-known propaganda mill for Israel’s most fanatical, bellicose and unconditional supporters. In her Senate testimony, Rice denounced the United Nation General Assembly’s criticism of Israel’s Gaza bloodbath.

At the head of Obama’s foreign policy regime, Vice Presiden Biden (“I am a Zionist”), Secretary of State Clinton (“demolish Iran”) and Secretary of Defense Gates (a holdover from the Israeli-dominated Bush Administration) have put in place the most Zionist-infested Middle East policy regime in US history. This regime is neither by background, loyalties or commitments prepared to open serious negotiations with Iran, or to ‘broker’ an end of Israeli occupation of Palestine. On the contrary, their close ties with the Zionist Power Configuration and long-term commitment to Israeli militarism and expansionist policies ensure that the Obama regime will proceed toward collaboration with the Jewish State in a military confrontation with Iran. Everyone on Obama’s team supported the Israeli carnage in Gaza and endorsed Israel’s efforts to destroy the democratically elected Hamas government and prop up the discredited and corrupt quisling clique headed by Abbas.

The Obama Presidency has achieved what many observers thought impossible: It has placed more Zionist in more strategic power positions with a greater commitment to war with Iran than even the Bush Administration. Given Obama’s appointments and his own personal subservience to Israeli leaders it is difficult to imagine the 16 major intelligence services issuing a report refuting Israel’s fabrications about Iran’s nuclear program, as happened under Bush. Even more egregious, given the Zionist stranglehold on the White House, it is unlikely that Obama would block a proposed Israeli air assault on Iran as Bush is reputed to have done."