[tadamon-l] Canadians from Gaza call for immediate reversal of governmental silence

[Tadamon!]

* Canadians from Gaza call for immediate reversal of governmental silence
Press Release: Monday, March 12th, 2008

http://tadamon.resist.ca/index.php/post/1237

Canada's government has failed to respond to the ongoing crisis in the 
Gaza Strip.

Today, Montreal families recently visiting relatives in Gaza remain 
trapped under the Israeli bombardment, having received no assistance from 
Canadian consulate authorities in the Middle East or in Ottawa.

One Palestinian family from Montreal -- including two Canadian-born 
children -- has been stuck in Gaza since the recent escalation of Israeli 
violence against the Palestinian people.

In another case, a Palestinian from Montreal -- father of three -- escaped 
Gaza weeks ago, after Palestinians briefly breached the Egypt-Gaza border. 
A dangerous voyage from Gaza through the Egyptian desert made it 
impossible for the entire Canadian family, including small children, to 
travel from Gaza back to Canada.

Today, the Canadian children from Montreal remain in the southern Gaza 
Strip and in constant danger, due to the ongoing Israeli military assault. 
Repeated calls to Canadian authorities have resulted in no response and 
now these Palestinian-Canadians are demanding answers and will make a 
public statement to the media.

Additional cases of Palestinian-Canadians remaining trapped in the Gaza 
Strip are now documented, all of which have received no assistance or 
support from the Canadian government.

Despite the horrific violence of recent events in Gaza, a cynical 
disregard for value of life in the Middle East has once again been 
asserted by the Conservative Government in Canada, lead by a Prime 
Minister who in 2006 labeled Israeli's military bombardment of Lebanon, in 
which over one-thousand Lebanese civilians died, "a measured response".

Over one-hundred Palestinians have been killed in the past week and 
hundreds more injured -- as a result of ongoing Israeli military air 
strikes on Gaza -- igniting a storm of international condemnation towards 
the Israeli assault, which the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon 
described as a "disproportionate and excessive use of force that has 
killed and injured so many civilians, including children".

In light of the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza, Solidarity for Palestinian 
Human Rights (SPHR) and Tadamon! are issuing a series of demands to the 
Canadian government;

1: Canada must immediately activate an effective plan to offer assistance 
to Canadian citizens currently trapped in the ongoing Israeli siege of 
Gaza;

2: Canada must immediately reverse a negative decision towards a critical 
U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling "for immediate international 
action to force Israel to allow fuel, food, medicine and other essential 
items to be sent to the Gaza Strip". Canada was the only nation 
internationally to vote against the humanitarian resolution;

3: Canada must immediately reassert its recognition of Israel's ongoing 
occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem as illegal; 
according to an international legal consensus as ratified by the U.N.

* Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
Tel: 514 999 1948
sphr.national at gmail.com

* Tadamon!
Tel: 514 664 1036
tadamon[at]resist.ca

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