| Definitions of
What Threatens the Security of Canada Harper Government's Perplexing Stand on Anti-Semitism Pauline Easton |
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| It is very perplexing for Canadians
to understand what the Harper government means when it says it is combating anti-Semitism.
It is known to be the greatest defender of the state of Israel, this much is clear. But what to
make of its claim that it is the greatest defender of the Jewish people when, at the same time,
it allies with forces in Ukraine who are known to be profoundly anti-Jewish and for having
participated in the slaughter of the Jewish people in Ukraine during World War II? For his
part, Minister of Defence Jason Kenney, who proposed the resolution in the House of
Commons for a February 24 Take Note debate to condemn criticism of Israel as
anti-Semitism, declared in 2009 that one of his greatest heroes is Aloysius Stepanic, prelate of
the wartime Nazi state in Croatia which, amongst its many crimes, slaughtered the Jews living
in Croatia en masse. What to Make of All This?
In this issue TML Weekly is publishing a report on the Take Note debate held in the Parliament on February 24 and the resolution passed the next day which condemns criticism of the state of Israel as a form of anti-Semitism. Related material provides initial explanations of the difference between what the government calls the "old anti-Semitism" and the "new anti-Semitism" and argues how the adoption of the "new definition of anti-Semitism" seeks to divert attention from crimes Israel is committing in violation of its duties as an Occupying Power under international law as well as the violation of its obligations under UN resolutions which created the state of Israel in the first place. Whatever rights the international community conferred on the state of Israel when it was created in 1948, at no time did they extinguish the Palestinian Right of Return nor authorize the ongoing theft of their lands and their slaughter to build Jewish settlements. This still goes on today in the name of the high ideals of self-defence and averting another holocaust such as took place at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. The Harper government's cause is not defence of the Jewish people but defence of the Zionist project. Its aim is not the political and social equality of Jews in all countries but to take over all of Palestine and promote the emigration of Jews from their countries to take up residence in the settlements in Palestine. Now that this aim is so exposed new theories are being cooked up to justify the eradication of the Palestinian resistance and all international opposition to Zionism. Canadians are duty-bound to get to the bottom of what the government of Canada and others mean when they pass laws which will criminalize criticism of Israel as a new form of anti-Semitism. These laws and measures are being passed at a time when the crimes committed against the Palestinian people, especially those in the small enclave called the Gaza Strip, are being condemned by people all over the world. Israel is desperate to divert attention from its responsibilities as an Occupying Power and from its continuous construction of settlements on Palestinian land and all kinds of crimes it is committing to dispossess Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. These measures are also being passed at a time when the government of Canada is more and more openly aligning with known neo-Nazis in the Baltic republics, Ukraine and countries of eastern Europe and falsifying history. They present crimes committed by the Nazis as acceptable because they were committed for the alleged high ideal -- both in the past and now -- to oppose communism. It must not pass! Canadians fought in the great anti-fascist war to defeat the Hitlerites, not see them reinstated seventy years later in the name of high ideals. (TML Weekly No. 9, February 28, 2015) |