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Supplement
No. 10March 28, 2020
Peoples of the World Firmly Support the
Heroic People of Palestine
and Their Right to Be
Palestinians undertake the Great March of Return,
April 2018.
• Land
Day and Nakba Coming Events
• No to Canada
Facilitating Israeli State War Crimes
Against the Palestinian People!
• False Accusations at
University of British Columbia Based on
Pernicious Definition of Anti-Semitism
• Mass Opposition to
U.S. "Deal of the Century"
• Palestinians
Reject
the "Deal of the Century" and Step Up
Resistance to Zionist Aggression
Land Day and Nakba Coming Events
Online Campaign
Nakba72 and Resistance
Sunday, March 29-Friday, May 15
Organized
by: Nakba Commemoration Initiative in Ottawa
Facebook
Organizers inform that "Due to
circumstances surrounding COVID-19, we are
transforming our physical event into a virtual
campaign.
"With your help and that of our
friends at various groups and organizations, we
will be launching an online #Nakba72 awareness
campaign from March 29, 2020 (Land Day) to May 15,
2020 (Nakba Day). This campaign will include
weekly educational, cultural, political, and
personal content to help bring awareness to the
Palestinian Nakba and celebrate the resilience and
resistance of the Palestinian people.
"Stay tuned and join us by LIKING
our page and SHARING our content, and USING
#Nakba72 during this campaign."
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!
A long-standing tactic of the Zionists to
undermine and criminalize support for the
Palestinian people is to conflate opposition to
Zionism -- the chauvinist political ideology and
its aim of genocide of the Palestinian people --
with anti-Semitism, a prejudice against people of
Jewish background.
Recently, this tactic has taken the form of an
international campaign for governments to adopt a
pernicious definition of anti-Semitism, known as
the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
(IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.
A recent case at the University of British
Columbia illustrates how the IHRA definition of
anti-Semitism is being used to block opposition to
Zionism and its genocidal project against the
Palestinian people. Activists with Independent
Jewish Voices (IJV), writing in The Talon,
a student newspaper at the University of British
Columbia, reported this February on the outcome of
accusations of anti-Semitism made against
university members in 2018.[1] They wrote:
"In 2018, six members of the UBC community were
the subjects of an investigation based on
allegations that they had engaged in antisemitic
behaviour after they declared their opposition to
holding the Geography Department's year-end party
at Hillel UBC."
In the discussion within the Geography Department,
it was decided to change the venue. As the IJV
activists point out:
"There was never any evidence that either these
comments or the Geography Students Association
decision to change venues had been motivated by
hatred of Jews, which is the standard definition
of anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, the local chapter
of the pro-Israel group known as the Centre for
Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) waded into the
matter, responding to the decision to change the
party venue by setting up a special website and
launching a letter writing campaign targeting the
UBC administration to take action against what
they alleged to be a blatant instance of
anti-Semitism at the University. It is no
coincidence that CIJA is promoting a 'new'
definition of anti-Semitism which targets
activists who criticize or organize against
Israel's treatment of the Palestinians."
Those accused were eventually vindicated after a
six-month investigation, although the IJV
activists note that "Although the 52-page report
was completed in October 2018, UBC officials have
refused to publicly acknowledge the fact that the
case was dismissed. In addition, they have not
released the investigator's findings."
The IJV activists point out that "Unfortunately,
the situation that arose at UBC is far from
unique. Internationally, pro-Israel campaigners
are lobbying national, provincial and municipal
governments as well as universities, school boards
and police departments, to adopt CIJA's 'new'
definition of anti-Semitism. Known as the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
(IHRA) definition, it includes a list of 11
examples of anti-Semitism. Seven of these relate
to Israel and/or Zionism. The campaigners hope
that the IHRA definition will focus the
conversation on instances mislabelled as
anti-Semitism in order to discourage criticism of
Israel's egregious behaviour."[2]
 The IJV
activists note that: "Regrettably, Canada's
Liberal government chose to include the IHRA
definition in its anti-racism strategy adopted
this past year. But when the IHRA definition was
brought before Vancouver's city council in July
2019, the council referred the matter to the
city's Racial and Ethno-Cultural Equity Committee,
asking the committee to make recommendations on
how to oppose all forms of racism, including
anti-Semitism. Recently, the Calgary City Council
was asked to simultaneously recognize January 27
as Holocaust Remembrance Day and adopt the IHRA
definition, but the IHRA definition was deleted
when the final version of the resolution was
passed. [...] And most recently, when the IHRA
definition was brought to the Montreal City
Council, it generated sufficient opposition that
demands were made to give the matter further
study. Instead, the motion's sponsor withdrew it
altogether."
Canadians in the main have always stood by the
heroic Palestinian people and their fight for
their right to be and to return to their homeland.
The examples at UBC and elsewhere of the failed
attempts to impose the pernicious IHRA definition
of anti-Semitism show that such chauvinism is
against what ordinary Canadians stand for.
Conversely, the federal Liberal government's
adoption of the IHRA definition highlights the
ruling circles' support for Zionism, a feature of
its support for U.S. imperialism, and that it does
not represent the stand of Canadians for peace and
justice internationally. It shows need for working
people in Canada to continue to stand with the
Palestinian people and oppose attempts at all
levels to criminalize support for their just
cause.
Notes
1. "Academic Freedom at UBC
Threatened by False Allegations of Anti-Semitism,"
Paul Tetrault and Sid Shniad, The Talon,
February 12, 2020.
2. To see the IHRA's
"Working Definition of Antisemitism" on its
website, click
here.
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
Demonstration in Ramallah rejects "Deal of the
Century," February 11, 2020.
The heroic resistance of the Palestinian people
has been stepped up since the ignominious "Deal of
the Century" announced by President Trump on
January 28, aimed at legitimizing the role of the
Zionist state over the Palestinians, depriving
them of their livelihoods and lands and, in
particular, negating their rights as a people,
including the right of return. The Palestinian
people have rejected the "Deal of the Century" in
its entirety, while the Israeli state and its
political leaders are acting as if it is a done
deal.
In the wake of Trump's announcement of the "Deal"
at the White House, the state of Israel has become
more brazen in its plans to annex the lands of the
Palestinian people.
In February 27 media reports, Israeli Defence
Minister Naftali Bennett is said to have sworn he
will "not give one inch of land" to the
Palestinians, at the same time that he announced
the advancement of plans for 1,800 new homes in
the West Bank settlements. "We are no longer in
the discourse of evacuation and a freeze but in
the mode of expansion and construction," Bennett
said. "Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is
one of the building blocks of Zionism in the State
of Israel." Within this context, acts of
terrorism are being committed by Zionist settlers,
such as raids of houses and properties owned by
Palestinians, and racist graffiti on Palestinian
homes and vehicles, including the threat, "There
will be war."
In the face of the increased Israeli aggression
and bombardment, the Palestinian people have
stepped up their resistance. A Hamas
spokesperson in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, pointed out
recently, "The brave resistance's response to the
crimes of the Zionist occupation came within the
framework of a strategy of unified understanding
among all its factions that Palestinian blood is a
red line that cannot be crossed [...] our
resistance is legitimate, as long as the
occupation and aggression continues."
On February 14, the Supreme Commission for Return
Marches and the Siege announced that it had
amended its name to "the National Authority for
the Return March and Facing the Deal." The
Commission's spokesperson confirmed "the
continuation of the popular and mass action at the
Palestinian and national levels and in all places
of presence and diaspora, and the continuation of
its various activities and its growing mass
action, as an affirmation of the unity of the
Palestinian position and outright rejection of the
'Deal of the Century.'"
"March of Return" actions are being planned for
March 30, 2020, the second anniversary of the
march's start in 2018, both in Palestine and
around the world. This year, in addition
to expressing the collective will of the
Palestinian people to affirm their right of
return, it will vigorously reject the so-called
"Deal of the Century."
It is unconscionable that the Trudeau Liberals
are silent while the Israeli state carries on acts
of terrorism, violence and aggression, and
violations of international law against the
Palestinian people. The people of Canada demand
that the Canadian government uphold the rights of
the Palestinian people, including the right of
return to their historic homeland. Canadians
denounce the brazen acts of theft, aggression and
oppression of the Palestinian people by the
Zionist state of Israel, sponsored by U.S.
imperialism and its appeasers, including Canada.
Palestinian women organize demonstration outside
of UN offices in Gaza, February 28, 2020.
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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