No to Canada Facilitating Israeli State War Crimes Against the Palestinian People!
Toronto demonstration, February 1, 2020, stands
with Palestinian people rejecting the
"Deal of the Century."
The Canadian state's support for Zionism is part
of its manoeuvring for Canada to win one of
five non-permanent seats on the UN Security
Council for a two-year term beginning in 2021.
From this vantage point, Canada could better serve
U.S. imperialist interests, which includes putting
a human face on Zionist war crimes and terrorism
against the Palestinian people, and U.S.
aggression worldwide.
Canada's voting record on the matter of Israel is
shameful. It abstained on a General Assembly
resolution in December 2017 demanding the U.S.
rescind its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel. The resolution declared the
U.S. recognition of Jerusalem "null and void." The
non-binding resolution was approved by 128 of the
172 nations present on the day of the vote. In
fact, Canada regularly votes against or abstains
on the 16 recurrent resolutions on Palestinian
issues which go before the General Assembly every
year, including resolutions on Palestinian
self-determination, sovereignty over natural
resources and the illegality of Israeli
settlements.
Canada, along with other so-called western
liberal democracies, continues to condone Israeli
war crimes and terror against the Palestinian
people. On February 14, Canada sent a formal
letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC)
at the Hague, opposing its decision to proceed to
a formal trial on war crimes allegations against
the state of Israel. The decision to send the
letter was made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
at the direct request of Israeli President
Benjamin Netanyahu.
On December 20, 2019, the Chief Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda
announced that, after five years of investigation,
the ICC is "satisfied that there is a reasonable
basis to initiate an investigation into the
situation in Palestine [...] There is a reasonable
basis to believe that war crimes have been or are
being committed in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip."
 Following the ICC ruling, Israel
began an organized campaign to block such an
investigation. Canada has formally joined this
campaign to cover up Israel's war crimes. While
the February 14 letter from Global Affairs Canada
to the ICC has not been made public, in an email
to Canadian Jewish News, a spokesperson
for Global Affairs Canada, Guillaume Berube,
wrote: "Canada's long-standing position is that it
does not recognize a Palestinian state [...] In
the absence of a Palestinian state, it is Canada's
view that the (ICC) does not have jurisdiction in
this matter under international law."
Canada's letter to the ICC follows on the heels
of a personal letter sent from President
Nethanyahu to Prime Minister Trudeau in December
2019 concerning the ICC decision, which reads in
part:
"In light of our special relations and the
steadfast friendship between our countries, I urge
you to publicly condemn this erroneous decision,
to acknowledge there is not a Palestinian state,
that the court has no jurisdiction in this matter,
which involves political issues to be determined
by the parties, and to voice your deep concerns
regarding its dangerous ramifications to the court
and the region."
It is noteworthy that ICC Chief Prosecutor
Bensouda spent five years reviewing initial
evidence before concluding there is evidence of
war crimes and asking the ICC judges to decide
whether the court has jurisdiction to proceed. The
ICC examination of the "situation in Palestine"
would look back only as far as June 13, 2014 and
include allegations of war crimes during Israel's
summer 2014 Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza
Strip. That particular bombardment caused the
deaths of some 2,251 Palestinians in a matter of
fifty days, the majority of them civilians,
including 551 children. There were six Israeli
civilian casualties.
The investigation may also include the Israeli
military's brutal repression of Palestinian
protesters participating in the Great March of
Return, which began in 2018 and, according to the
ICC Prosecutor's 2019 Report on the Situation in
Palestine, "reportedly resulted in the killing of
over 200 individuals, including over 40 children,
and the wounding of thousands of others." Bensouda
also concluded "that in the context of Israel's
occupation of the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem" there are reasonable grounds to believe
"that members of the Israeli authorities have
committed war crimes [...] in relation, inter
alia, to the transfer of Israeli civilians
into the West Bank."
When Chief Prosecutor Bensouda announced her
intention to prosecute war crimes charges against
Israel, Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur
for human rights matters in the Palestinian
territory occupied by Israel since 1967,
underscored what he considered to be its
significance for the rule of law. "International
law must be the basis for seeking justice for the
victims of war crimes in this interminable
conflict, and the international community must
resolutely support the laws and the institutions
that it has created and nurtured." He said,
"Accountability has until now been largely missing
in action throughout the 52-year-old occupation
[...] In a world that proclaims its devotion to
human rights and a rules-based international
order, it is vital that the international
community defend the decision of the ICC
Prosecutor to advance her investigation and to
seek a favourable ruling from the Pre-Trial
Chamber on the issue of territorial jurisdiction."
The peace- and justice-loving Canadian people
must condemn the decision of Canada to continue to
condone Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian
people. It is unacceptable that Canada has stood
with the Zionist state of Israel for more than 70
years while it murders and commits acts of terror
against the Palestinian people to extinguish them
as a people. It will not pass! The crimes of the
Israeli state against the heroic Palestinian
people, with the open support of the
Anglo-American imperialists, are carried out in
broad daylight and Canada has once again opted for
impunity for Israeli war crimes, arguing that the
International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction.
The Canadian people say: Not In Our Name!
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 10 - March 28, 2020
Article Link:
No to Canada Facilitating Israeli State War Crimes Against the Palestinian People!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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