[antiwar-van] Make Your Voice Heard, Silence is Complicity

[hanna kawas]

  -----Original Message-----
  From: hanna kawas [mailto:hkawas at email.msn.com]
  Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 2:17 PM
  To: Al-Awda-Christian-Outreach at yahoogroups.com
  Cc: Al-Awda-media at yahoogroups.com; Amin; Antiwar-Van at Resist.Ca
  Subject: Make Your Voice Heard, Silence is Complicity


  Dear Friends:

  Six Vancouver organizations issued the following press release today,
which highlighted the protest letter they had sent to the Canadian Solicitor
General and the Prime Minister of Canada regarding the recent banning of the
three Palestinian organizations.
  We urge you to raise your objections to these Israeli - US - Canadian
attempts to de-legitimize the Palestinian people's struggle for liberation
and self-determination.

  Make Your Voice Heard, Silence is Complicity

  Hanna

  Press Release

  Nov. 21, 2003



  Today, six B.C. groups sent the following letter to the Honorable Wayne
Easter, Solicitor General of Canada, regarding his announcement last week
about the banning of three Palestinian organizations.  They stated:
“We…denounce this biased and politically motivated announcement, the timing
of which…was highly questionable.”  The groups were Canada Palestine
Association (www.cpavancouver.org), International Solidarity
Movement-Vancouver (www.ism-vancouver.org), No One Is Illegal-Vancouver,
Palestine Community Centre, Palestine Solidarity Group
(www.palsolidaritygrp.org) and Stopwar.ca (www.stopwar.ca).



  Dear Mr. Easter:



  The recent banning by the Canadian government of three Palestinian
organizations, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) and the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), is just the latest example
of this government’s support for Israeli aggression, occupation and
injustice against the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim peoples. It is also an
extension of the U.S. anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim policies
that have been implemented since September 11, 2001.



  We, as groups that support Palestinian rights, denounce this biased and
politically motivated announcement, the timing of which, just before a
governmental transfer of power, was highly questionable.  We believe that
such a move will most likely increase the hatred in the Middle East toward
the western world.  Western governments, led by the U.S., are already
perceived as being interested in only controlling the region and its
resources, and as callous powers that are imposing despotic dictatorships on
the people of the Middle East, dictatorships that are acting as puppets for
the West with no regard to human rights, democracy or freedom.

  The banned organizations are part of the Palestinian liberation movement,
recognized not only by the UN, but also by the majority of world public
opinion. These organizations, despite differences in tactics, are part of
the Palestinian struggle for freedom, liberation and democracy and two of
them are long-time members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).



  While 59 per cent of European public opinion considers Israel the main
country on the planet that threatens world peace, the Canadian government
rewards Israeli aggression by striking at the “enemies” of Israel. The
Canadian government is also continuing its economic support of Israel
through the Canada-Israel free trade agreement, and the financial support
and tax-deductible status the Zionist organizations enjoy and use, even
though this helps the illegal settlements.  The political support of the
Canadian government is long standing, goes back to even before the creation
of the state of Israel, and is well-documented at the UN where Canada,
alongside the U S, always protected Israel from any meaningful resolution
that would hurt it economically or politically. These policies are motivated
by the self-interest of our government’s politicians, who, in this respect,
would seem to have no regard for international law, human rights or
morality.



  Israel, since before its official inception, has recruited Canadians
(against Canadian Law, the Foreign Enlistment Act, and under the noses of
successive Canadian governments) to go and participate in the killing of
Palestinians and Arabs.  Some Canadian Zionist papers even boast about this
and give recruitment figures. Israeli death squads have assassinated people,
including Canadians, all over the world. The Israeli Mossad has used
Canadian passports and Israeli agents have posed as Canadians to recruit
Palestinian informants and collaborators.  Israel, its security agencies,
its military and the settlers are the ones who should be put on the
terrorist list, if Canadian foreign policy is indeed evenhanded.  Amnesty
International has charged Israel with “war crimes” in its recent actions in
the Rafah area of Gaza.  Where is our government’s action to respond to
these outrages?



  The Palestinians and their children are being terrorized daily, their
homes and fields are being destroyed, their leaders are being murdered
without any due process and their lands are being stolen. Israeli warplanes
and tanks are attacking Palestinian civilian areas, killing the civilian
population, including young children. Collective punishment is terrorism,
building the Apartheid Wall is terrorism. So who should be on the terrorist
list?



  The Canadian government’s banning of these organizations gives a license
to de-legitimize the Palestinian struggle and its Canadian support base.
This will lead to further persecution and fear amongst Canadian supporters
and escalate the racism, stereotyping and unwarranted arrests against many
Palestinian and Arab-Canadians.



  These Canadian government policies will endanger the strategic interests
of the Canadian people for generations to come and do a disservice to
international law and human rights.  We, as organizations concerned for
justice for the Palestinian people and for peace in the region and the whole
world, urge the Canadian government to stop going down the path of
McCarthyism at home and of supporting aggression, occupation and human
rights violations abroad.

  We also pledge our support to the just struggle of the Palestinian people
for freedom and self-determination, and pledge to expose the Canadian
government’s immoral and inhuman stand against the Palestinians to the
Canadian public.





                                                              - 30 -



  For further information, please contact Hanna Kawas at 604-522-3733 or
email hkawas at msn.com


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