[antiwar-van] Is it Liberalism or Normalization?

[hanna kawas]

Following is an article I wrote, which was published in Al Shorouq, a
"monthly newspaper serving the Arab-Canadian Community in British Colombia",
in its June 2003 issue.
Hanna


Is it Liberalism or Normalization?

        By Hanna Kawas



 The Al Shorouq newspaper, in its last two issues, carried a letter from
Jack Chivo (an extreme Zionist supremacist), an advertisement for an event
for the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), a full report in the second issue
about this same event and then publicized another event for the so-called
secular “Peretz Center”.  With this pretense at objectivity, Al Shorouq has
regrettably fallen into the trap of endorsing what the Zionists say, what
they do and what they promote.  In effect, Al Shorouq has simply given the
Zionists yet another platform to spout their lies against the Palestinian
and Arab people.



Mr. Jack Chivo always writes to the local Zionist paper “the Jewish Western
Bulletin” (JWB) and protests any reporting that even mildly attempts to
speak about peace, justice and equality for the Palestinians. For more info
on this right-wing extremist, do a search for his letters at:
http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/



Just a month before the Al Shorouq published his letter, Jack Chivo wrote
another letter to the JWB on February 28, 2003 attacking the Canadian writer
Deborah Campbell and her book.  He denounced her because I had some remarks
on the cover of her book, which was an objective eye-witness account of what
she saw in Israel-Palestine – by the way, some of her observations were not
very flattering to the Palestinians either.   He wrote – “there are some
laudatory remarks from Hanna Kawas, the chair of the Canada-Palestine
Support Network, known to the readers of the Bulletin as the organizer of
the anti-Israel propaganda event at Langara College a few weeks ago and
numerous other similar events.” Also - “No wonder that Mr. Kawas writes that
Ms. Campbell is ‘showing courage and morality as she unravels distortions
and manufactured images. She stands on the side of humanity.’ As a reward,
the Web site run by Mr. Kawas at CanPalNet prominently displays Ms.
Campbell's book on its home page.”



I have never seen so many inaccuracies in two paragraphs and I would like to
set the record straight:

1-     I am not the chair of Canada-Palestine Support Network.

2-     I do not run the CanPalNet Web site.

3-     I was not the “organizer of the…event at Langara College”.

4-     We do not display Ms. Campbell's book on our home page.



The following are the facts:

1-     I am the chair of the Canada Palestine Association (CPA) as stated on
the cover of the afore-mentioned book by Deborah Campbell, “This Heated
Place”.

2-     CPA has its own Web site, www.cpavancouver.ca and I will make sure to
ask our web master to display Ms. Campbell's book on our web site, since the
book irks Mr. Chivo so much.

3-     When he wrote his letter, I was not even a member of CanPalNet.

4-     It is true that as members of CPA and with other support groups, we
organized “numerous other similar events.”



For Al Shorouq to give a platform to such a racist supremacist who is full
of hate for the Palestinians is outrageous.





The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) has never cared about freedom of speech,
telling the truth or the suffering of Palestinian Christians or Moslems.
For that matter, they have never cared for the lives and well being of Jews,
unless these Jews served the Zionist project.



When we started the VOICE OF PALESTINE (VOP) on Coop Radio 102.7 FM, in
September 1987, the Zionists in Vancouver and Canada, led by the CJC, tried
to muffle this voice.  These Zionists were “outraged” that the radio station
would allow us on the air, they accused us of being anti-Jewish and
anti-Semitic and they complained to the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that Co-op Radio was “unbalanced” and
demanded that the station provide “balance” to the VOP.  They worked
tirelessly for many months, even years, to try and silence the show and the
station, just for attempting to tell the Canadian listeners the real facts
about the struggle of the Palestinian people.



On September 20, 1987, the Vancouver Province reported:

“ ‘The Voice of Palestine’ hit the airwaves on Co-operative Radio three
weeks ago attacking ‘Israeli aggression.’ And the 25,000-strong Canadian
Jewish Congress for the Pacific wants it MUFFLED. (my emphasis-hk). ‘People
in the Jewish community who listen are completely outraged,’ charged Erwin
Nest, CJC executive director. ‘ It’s not just anti-Israel and anti-Zionist,
but anti-Jewish’”.



If Co-op Radio were a regular commercial station and not a community based
cooperative, which depends on its membership for financing rather than
businesses, we are sure that the VOP would have been off the air in the
first few months.



And more recently, a leading member of the CJC slandered Palestinians and
Arabs in a public meeting at the Unitarian Church, in which the topic of
their event was how Palestinians teach their kids to “hate” Jews.



According to the report about this meeting carried in the JWB, July 5, 2002:



 “ (Michael) Elterman spurred a tirade of outrage from some members of the
audience when he said that Palestinian Arabs do not share the sanctity of
life that the Jewish religion teaches.

‘This is hate,’ yelled one man, leaving the premises as two police officers
stood by.

‘This is libelous to the Palestinians,’ shouted another.”



Accordingly, to give any legitimacy to what the CJC is doing is ludicrous.
We have been struggling in the Palestinian support movement to isolate
Israel and its supporters (in the Canadian government and media and the
Jewish community) both politically and economically. Al Shorouq, which
promotes the Arab causes, should be our instrument in this struggle and not
the reverse.



The people who support Israel should realize that they are responsible for
every atrocity, human rights violation and acts of dispossession that were
carried out against the Palestinian people.  In this context, I refused an
invitation recently from the Canadian Jewish Outlook (a progressive paper
that promotes peace, justice and equality between the two peoples) to speak
at an event because they decided to hold it at the “Peretz Center for
Secular Jewish Culture”. This center had endorsed the Zionist campaign “We
Stand With Israel, Now and Forever” which directly supported the Israeli
settlements, occupation, oppression and war crimes against the Palestinians.



When we (I am personally speaking now as a person from Christian background)
fought against South African Apartheid, we did not care that the white
minority in South Africa were “Christians”. When we opposed the war against
Iraq we did not care that one of the main forces behind this war has been
the fundamentalist “Christians” in North America. Then why should any Jew
with conscience support the war crimes committed in her/his name against the
Palestinian people? Why would anyone keep silent against such unspeakable
atrocities against a whole civilian population? Nobody would tolerate the
racist hatred of white supremacists just because they claim to be
 “Christian”, so why should anyone tolerate the racist laws in the Israeli
Apartheid system just because they claim to be “Jews”?



In giving a platform to people that support the Israeli Apartheid system in
any shape or form, Al Shorouq does not help to solidify the front against
this Apartheid. By confusing the issues and not having a clear policy on the
basic principles, Al Shorouq does not help to widen the base (especially the
Jewish base which is growing steadily) against this brutal system that is
supported by the most powerful governments on earth, including the Canadian
government.



So what is Al Shorouq trying to promote - liberalism or normalization?










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