[IPSM] [Fwd: Deadline for endoursers: Fri. March 3, 2006]

Sun Feb 26 23:22:45 PST 2006

individuals, organizations, everyone, please sign this.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Deadline for endoursers: Fri. March 3, 2006
Date: 	Mon, 27 Feb 2006 07:13:08 +0000
From: 	Hanna Kawas <hkawas at msn.com>
To: 	info at cpavancouver.org

Dear Friends:

Following is the most updated endorser list for our open letter to AFN.

We are calling on every friend of the Palestinian and the indigenous
peoples to send it again to their lists for more endorsers by noon on
Friday, March 3, 2006 before finally posting it on our web site and
other websites.  We will also inform the AFN of the new endorsers.

We would like to thank everyone that has participated in this process,
and all those who took the initiative and wrote their own letters.

The struggle continues,

Hanna Kawas, Canada Palestine Association

www.cpavancouver.org <http://www.cpavancouver.org/>

----------------------------------------

*CANADA PALESTINE ASSOCIATION*

*www.cpavancouver.org <http://www.cpavancouver.org/> *

   February 23, 2006

*Open letter to the **Assembly of First Nations*

We are saddened, hurt and shocked by the visit of a delegation of the
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to Israel, as well as the following
statement attributed to AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine:

"Indigenous people in Canada have much in common with the people of
Israel, including a respect of the land and their languages. This
mission is an excellent opportunity for us to share our values and our
traditional ways of life, in the hope of building greater understanding,
awareness and respect for our similarities and differences, both at home
and abroad". http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=2276

The victims of genocide at the hands of European settler colonialism
cannot and should not give cover for another form of settler colonialism
that has committed and continues to commit wholesale ethnic cleansing
and genocide against the Palestinian people and nation.  In 1948, over
four hundred villages and towns were wiped off the Palestinian and world
map and their cemeteries desecrated; two thirds of the Palestinian
people were uprooted from their historic homeland and forced to live in
reservations called refugee camps for the past fifty-eight years, most
outside of their historic land. (See “All That Remains” By Prof. Walid
Khalidi
http://palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story661.html  )

Perhaps the chiefs, elders and leaders of the Assembly of First Nations
don’t know the history of the Zionist movement.  In fact, it was coined
on the model of the European settler colonialist movement that preceded
it four hundred years earlier and committed the genocide against the
indigenous peoples.  The Zionist movement was also built on the South
Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Algeria and other
European settler colonialist models of the same era - late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.

Here is what the first Zionist Congress held in Basle, Switzerland (in
Europe) in 1897 listed as some of the aims of the movement:

  “Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a homeland in
Palestine secured by public law. The congress contemplates the following
means to the attainment of this end:

1-     The promotion on suitable lines of the *_colonization_* of
Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers. (/our emphasis/)”

And Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, wrote in his book
The Jewish State in 1896:

“We should there form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia,
*_an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism_*. (/our emphasis/)”

So doesn’t this logic sound familiar?  We are sure that it is painfully
familiar to your ancestors and to your people who face racism on a daily
basis.

We are sorry that we do not have the means to take you on similar tours
to show you what is really happening in Palestine.  Perhaps you should
ask the hundreds of international volunteers, including Canadians, who
paid their own way to go there and bear witness to the continuous
Israeli brutality against the indigenous people of Palestine (See
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/  ). We are sure your Israeli and
Zionist hosts will never take you to see the remains of the four hundred
villages that were systematically destroyed, nor will they show you the
Apartheid wall, the refugee camps, the tens of thousands of uprooted
trees nor will they tell you that over 95 per cent of the land that
Israel sits on is stolen land from the indigenous Palestinian
population.  If Chief Fontaine thinks that Israel has respect for the
land, he is either unaware or complicit in covering up the massive
Israeli injustice against the indigenous people of Palestine.

We will be frank with you. In the name of the vanquished indigenous
people, you are being used to justify and cover up not only the Israeli
atrocities and war crimes committed against the Palestinian people but
also Israeli support for racism and oppression against the peoples of
Africa, Asia, central and south America.

This should not pass. The sooner you clarify your position, the sooner
you will salvage your name and credibility.  Already messages on the
Internet are describing your collaboration with the Zionist
organizations under the title: “Friends of neocolonialism meet”.  We
hope that you will not be remembered as friends of European settler
colonialists who committed genocide against the Palestinian people and
were motivated by conquest, greed and superiority, the same evil
motivations that enslaved the Native people of the Americas.

It is an offence and a crime against our native brothers and sisters who
are still living and to those who perished in the process of
colonization, to associate with the crimes of the Israeli settler
colonialist state that is committing genocide against the native people
of Palestine.

Since the year 2000, over eight hundred Palestinian “Dudley Georges”
were murdered every year at the hands of the neo-fascist regime in Israel.

Are these the people who you “have much in common with” and that you
want to build cultural comparisons with?  Are these the people you want
to share your “values and … traditional ways of life” with?

If so, you are complicit in their war crimes and you should not do it in
the name of the First Nations Peoples.

Indigenous peoples must never be a party to genocide against the
Palestinian people nor any other oppressed people facing occupation,
genocide and theft of their land and natural resources.

(For further info, contact Hanna Kawas at info at cpavancouver.org
<mailto:info at cpavancouver.org>   )

*_Endorsed by the following groups:_*

    1. Al-Huda Muslim Society
    2. International Solidarity Movement (ISM)-Montreal
    3. International Solidarity Movement (ISM)-Vancouver
       www.ism-vancouver.org <http://www.ism-vancouver.org/>
    4. Islamic Foundation of Toronto, Scarborough,
       www.islamicfoundation.ca <http://www.islamicfoundation.ca/>
    5. Muslim Canadian Congress
    6. Niagara Coalition for Peace
    7. Niagara Palestinian Association
    8. November 16 Coalition (Hamilton, Ontario)
    9. Palestine Community Centre www.palestinecommunitycentre.com
       <http://www.palestinecommunitycentre.com/>
   10. Palestine House, Toronto www.palestinehouse.com
       <http://www.palestinehouse.com/>
   11. Palestine Solidarity Group www.palsolidaritygrp.org
       <http://www.palsolidaritygrp.org/>
   12. Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) www.pajumontreal.org
       <http://www.pajumontreal.org/>
   13. Palestinian Centre for Rappochement between People (www.pcr.ps
       <http://www.pcr.ps/> )
   14. Salaam Vancouver
   15. Simon Fraser University Palestinian Human Rights Committee (PHRC)
   16. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-Montreal
   17. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - McMaster University
       (Hamilton, ON)
   18. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, Concordia (SPHR)
   19. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, UBC
   20. Toronto's Robin Hood Collective
   21. Women in Black – Los Angeles

*_Endorsed by the following alternative media outlets:_*

    1. Al-Shorouq Arabic Newspaper, BC
    2. Bulland Awaaz - Vancouver CO-OP Radio
    3. DISCUSSION, Vancouver Co-Op Radio
    4. Goin' Coastal, your Indigenous Revolutionary Radio Program 101.7
       fm (CHLY)
    5. Information: Montreal – Palestine www.imopa.ca
       <http://www.imopa.ca/>
    6. Voice of Palestine, Vancouver www.voiceofpalestine.ca
       <http://www.voiceofpalestine.ca/>
    7. Wake Up with Co-op!, Vancouver Coop Radio

*_Endorsed by the following individuals (groups listed for
identification only):_*

    1. Ali Mallah, Equity Vice president, CUPE Toronto District Council
    2. Ali Yassir and B. Bechnak, Montreal
    3. Allan Brison, New Haven, CT
    4. Amir M. Maasoumi, Président of "Centre de ressources sur la
       non-violence" (Resources centre for non-violence)
    5. Anis BALAFREJ,Association de solidarité Maroc Palestine, Rabat,
       Morocco
    6. Bobby Arbess, Jews for a Just Peace-Victoria
    7. Bruce Katz, Co-President Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) Montreal
    8. Charles Boylan, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (Vancouver South)
    9. Chiinuuks (Ruth) Ogilvie, Member "Goin' Coastal, your Indigenous
       Revolutionary Radio Program, 101.7 fm CHLY"
   10. Dave Brophy, Friends of Grassy Narrows, Winnipeg
   11. Diana Ralph, Toronto, (Jewish member of the Campaign to Stop
       Secret Trials in Canada)
   12. Donna Petersen, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (Vancouver Kingsway)
   13. Dorinda Guadalupe Moreno, hitec aztec communications, friends of
       dqu : elders of 4 colors 4 directions
   14. Dr. Abe Mouaket, P. Eng., Toronto.
   15. Elizabeth Block, Toronto
   16. Family of Reem Abu-Sbaih, Ayman and Yousef Helo, NYC
   17. Freda Guttman, International Solidarity Movement-Montreal
   18. FreeXero www.FREEXERO.com <http://www.freexero.com/>
   19. Gale Courey Toensing, Falls Village, CT
   20. George N. Rishmawi - Palestinian Centre for Rappochement between
       People (www.pcr.ps <http://www.pcr.ps/> )
   21. Greta Berlin, Los Angeles, Volunteer, International Solidarity
       Movement
   22. Hanny Hassan, London, ON
   23. Helen Michell, spokesperson for the Bear Clan families of Maxan Lake
   24. Ismail Ibrahim Nawwab, Saudi Arabia
   25. Jayce Salloum, Filmmaker, Vancouver
   26. Jeanne Svhiyeyi Aga Chadwick
   27. John and Betty Beeching, Vancouver
   28. John Pranger, Vancouver, BC
   29. Johnny Roberts, St. Catharines, Ontario
   30. Judith Weisman
   31. Justine McCabe, International Committee, Green Party of the US
   32. Karin Brothers, Toronto, Ont.
   33. Khaled Mouammar, former CAF president, Toronto
   34. Lamis Jamal Deek, Native of Palestine, Daughter of exilees,
       Attorney with Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition
   35. Lawrence Boxall, Jews for a Just Peace – Vancouver
   36. Lawrence ytzhak braithwaite, author, victoria, british columbia
   37. Macdonald Stainsby, Vancouver
   38. Marc Azar, Montréal, Québec
   39. Marty and Martha Roth, Jews for a Just Peace, Vancouver
   40. Mary Hughes-Thompson, International Solidarity Movement
   41. Meria, Producer/Host, "THE MERIA HELLER SHOW "
   42. Mira Khazzam, Montreal, Quebec
   43. Mohamed Kamel, Freelance writer, Montreal
   44. Mohammed Abu Assi, Montreal
   45. Mohammed Shokr, Muslim Unity Group
   46. Nathan Stuckey
   47. Nick Treanor, St.Catharines, Ontario
   48. Nicolas A. Sayegh, Montreal
   49. Nizar Sakhnini, Mississauga, Ontario
   50. Noah Lepawsky. ISM Volunteer, Vancouver
   51. Peter Eglin, Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University
   52. Rezeq Faraj, co-president of PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
   53. Robert Bibeau, PAJU
   54. Ron Benner, London, Ontario
   55. Samia A. Halaby, born in Jerusalem and living in exile in New York
   56. Sandra Joy Jones, Wilmington, De.
   57. Shawn Smith, Ottawa
   58. Sid Shniad, Vancouver, British Columbia
   59. Splitting the Sky, Indigenous activist
   60. Yahya Abdul Raham, Montreal Muslim News

-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.