[Indigsol] FW: Media Release: Jewish Human Rights Group to Protest Gala Fundraiser at Canadian Museum of Civilization

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---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Independent Jewish Voices <jewishvoices at gmail.com>Date: Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 9:20 AMSubject: Media Release: Jewish Human Rights Group to Protest Gala Fundraiser at Canadian Museum of CivilizationTo: 

Jewish Human Rights Group to Protest Gala at Canadian Museum of Civilization

For Immediate Release: November 24, 2008

Ottawa - Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) will protest the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada, which is holding its annual Negev Dinner at Canada's Museum of Civilization today. IJV is demanding that the Museum's CEO, Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, honour the Museum's Guiding Principles and the apology made to our aboriginal peoples and that he rescind the Museum's agreement to provide space to the JNF for its Negev Dinner.  

WHAT: Demonstration against the Jewish National Fund of Canada outside of the Museum of Civilization, on Laurier Ave.
WHEN: 5:30pm - 6:30pm
WHO: Organized by Independent Jewish Voices

"In hosting the JNF event, the Museum of Civilization is violating principles which it is charged with safeguarding on behalf of all Canadians," says Diana Ralph, coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices. "Approximately 500,000 out of almost 625,000 acres owned by the JNF were confiscated from Palestinians fleeing war in 1948, and were not purchased with contributions from Jews around the world, as the JNF commonly claims."  During 1948-53, the Israeli state transferred ownership of this land to the JNF for the sole use of Jews—as per the JNF's governing articles—without any compensation to its rightful Palestinian owners.  This confiscation violates international law and is an ongoing source of grievance inside Israel amongst its Palestinian citizens and amongst Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories and neighbouring Arab states.    

In Israel, this "redemption of land" (which in fact is the appropriation of Palestinian land and its "transfer" to Israeli Jews) is ongoing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, occupied by Israeli forces since 1967. The so-called "Canada Park", which is maintained through JNF-Canada contributions, is built on the site of three Palestinian villages captured in 1967, which were evacuated and razed to the ground. 

"Forcible transfer of civilians and extensive destruction and appropriation of property in occupied territory are war crimes amounting to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention—international legal codes adopted after World War II in recognition that maltreatment and atrocities against civilians in wartime should never happen again," says Ralph. "Canada's Museum of Civilization is part of Canadians' acknowledgement and atonement for the colonial ethnic cleansing of First Peoples.  By providing space for the JNF's Negev Dinner, the museum is aiding and abetting ethnic cleansing in Palestine and facilitating the celebration of these actions next to the exhibit of aboriginal culture in the Museum's Great Hall." 

-30-

For More Information: 

Diana Ralph, 613-314-2805

www.independentjewishvoices.ca 

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