Mass Opposition to U.S. "Deal of the Century"
Protest in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Occupied
Palestine, February 1, 2020.
The peace- and justice-loving peoples have
stated unequivocally that the U.S. Trump
administration's "Deal of the Century," announced
January 28 in collusion with the most virulent
Zionist forces in Israel, is totally unacceptable.
Mass actions have taken place around the world to
reject this latest attack on the rights of the
Palestinian people and attempt to expropriate
their lands.
 The actions
underscored that the "Deal of the Century" is not
aimed at bringing peace to the region. The peoples
in the region lived in peace for centuries until
Britain imposed the Balfour Agreement in 1917,
which enabled the eventual establishment of a
Zionist state on Palestinian lands, breaking the
peace to this day. Furthermore, what the "Deal of
the Century" offers the Palestinians is not their
own state, but a prison.
In Canada, actions denounced the Canadian
government and the political parties in power for
refusing to stand with the just cause of the
Palestinians, legitimizing Israel's crimes against
the Palestinians and its violations of
international law, and criminalizing those in
Canada who raise their voice for justice,
labelling them anti-Semitic.
At the Toronto action, speakers highlighted the
need for a campaign in Canada to defend the right
to free speech and the right to conscience. The
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
(IHRA) is attempting to get cities and provinces
in Canada to pass legislation redefining
"anti-Semitism" to include criticism of Israel or
Zionism. The federal government has already
adopted the definition, while the cities of
Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal have voted against
it. The redefinition, Bill 168, passed second
reading at the Ontario Legislature on February 27
and has been referred to the Standing Committee on
Justice Policy. Independent Jewish Voices Canada
has started a petition urging local and provincial
governments not to adopt IHRA's definition of
anti-Semitism. It reads as follows:
"Anti-Semitism is a real problem and must be
fought in all its forms. Yet the primary goal of
those promoting the IHRA definition of
anti-Semitism is to ban or criminalize criticism
of Israel and of Zionism, and silence support for
Palestinian rights. The IHRA definition thus
represents a threat to the struggle for justice
and human rights in Israel/Palestine. The real
fight against anti-Semitism must be joined to the
struggles against racism, xenophobia and hatred of
all ethnic and religious groups the world over."
To sign the petition, click
here.
 The Trudeau
government's support for the IHRA definition of
anti-Semitism is unacceptable, as is the stand of
any political party in Canada that is pushing this
in the name of combating hatred. The example of
New York State shows how such anti-social
reactionary laws are being imposed in the name of
opposing anti-Semitism. In August 2019, New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed legislation called
the New York State Hate Crimes Domestic
Terrorism Act "to define hate-fueled murder
with the intent to cause mass casualties as an act
of domestic terrorism with penalty equivalent to
other acts of terrorism." Cuomo has argued that
such legislation at the state and federal level is
necessary to combat anti-Semitism, following an
attack on the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York
in December 2019. The people of the U.S. have no
shortage of experience with the kinds of crimes
and violations of rights that are committed at
home and abroad under the auspices of so-called
anti-terrorism laws and other exceptional
emergency laws.
The Canadian state's support for Zionism is part
of its manoeuvring for Canada to win one of the
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.
The Trudeau government's cynical support for
Zionism and, by extension, U.S. imperialist aims
in the Middle East, are unacceptable to Canadians,
who in the main oppose Israel's brutal crimes
against the Palestinians, and Canada's appeasement
of Zionism. They wish for Canada to be a genuine
force for peace, not a henchman of U.S.
imperialism and Zionist reaction against the
Palestinians and other oppressed peoples of the
world.
TML Weekly calls on everyone to step up
support for the just cause of the Palestinian
people's right to be, their right to resist and
their right to return to their historic homeland,
of which they have been unjustly dispossessed.
Demonstrations in Support of the
Palestinian People
Canada
 
 
Montreal
  
  
Toronto
 
Vancouver
Palestine
 
Gaza
Occupied Palestine
Ramallah, West Bank
West Bank
North Jordan Valley, West Bank
North of Gaza
Around the World
Istanbul, Turkey
Beirut, Lebanon
Jordan
Tel Aviv, Israel
Yemen
Tunisia
Rabat, Morocco
São Paulo, Brazil
Boston, USA
Minneapolis-St. Paul, USA
Detroit, USA
Houston, USA
Stockholm, Sweden
Yabturi, Sweden
Oslo, Norway
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vienna, Austria
Brighton, England
London, England
 
Sussex, England
 
Milan, Italy
Malta
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