[van-announce] Tonight & Feb. 27: Speak Out Against Surrey Economic Summit and Ehud Barak

[Charlotte Kates]

*Speak Out Against the Surrey Economic Summit!*

 *Why is the Mayor of Surrey and KPU inviting WAR CRIMINALS, scoundrels,
and elitist politician to dine with the rich @ a $500/plate luncheon?*
Next week, on February 27th, Surrey is planning to host an ugly
gala<http://surrey.ca/summit>,
featuring former Prime Ministers of Australia, Greece and Israel (the known
war criminal Ehud Barak), along with millionaires (like the fracking zealot
T. Boone Pickens) and the wealthy BC business elite. Unfortunately,
Kwantlen Polytechnic University has decided to be a "proud platinum-level
sponsor" (it seems their "gold-level sponsorship" of the George Bush visit
to the Summit in 2011 wasn't good enough?)

As members of the Kwantlen community and residents of Surrey, we are not
proud, but embarrassed to be linked with this event. We have joined with
several other groups in signing onto this Open Letter to SurreyMayor and
City Councillors re: Ehud Barak's
Visit<http://www.cpavancouver.org/index.php/2014/02/18/open-letter-to-surrey-mayor-and-council-re-ehud-baraks-visit/>
.

*We invite you to a meeting to discuss our plans to speak out against this
gathering. We'll meet on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 5:30 in FIR 128 and then
again at the Sheraton Hotel in Guildford on the morning of February 27th.*

Let's expose their real biographies!

See the poster attached, and invite others. If you use facebook, here is the
event listing. <https://www.facebook.com/events/736048779753294>
This forum and demonstration is organized and endorsed by the Critical
Criminology Working Group; the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign; Samidoun
Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; and the Canada Palestine
Association & Red Sparks Union. If you would like to endorse, or find out
more information, please contact us<http://www.radicalcriminology.org/contact>
.

**


*Open letter to Mayor Dianne Watts and Council Members of the City
of Surrey* <http://www.cpavancouver.org/?p=1859>

On Dec. 17, 2013, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) reported
that the "Mayor of Surrey Leads Trade Mission to
Israel<http://www.cija.ca/cooperation/mayor-of-surrey-leads-trade-mission-to-israel/>
".

CIJA then reported on Dec. 19, 2013, under the title INNOVATION IN ACTION:
Surrey Trade Mission to Israel a "Game
Changer"<http://www.cija.ca/cooperation/innovation-in-action-surrey-trade-mission-to-israel-a-game-changer/>,
that "The City of Surrey looks forward to hosting former Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak along with the former leaders of Greece and Australia
as part of an international panel on global innovation (at) the city's
Surrey Regional Economic Summit on February 27th, 2014."

We would like to draw your attention to the following facts:

1.   To invite the Israeli war criminal Ehud Barak as a speaker to the "
Surrey Regional Economic Summit" is outrageous and beyond belief. It is
like inviting a bank thief and killer with blood on his hands to address
the banking industry. We are not using the term war criminal frivolously;
please refer to just a few documented examples of Barak's terrorism and
murderous past at the end of our open letter.

*2.   *On July 9, 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations
called <http://www.bdsmovement.net/call> for a broad and sustained Campaign
for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) *against Israel "until it
complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights".
What the City of Surrey is now doing amounts to crossing the picket lines
of the BDS Movement, a movement that represents and includes large numbers
of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and Canadians of diverse ethnic and
religious backgrounds that reside and live in Surrey. Please do not
participate in empowering Israeli war crimes, Apartheid and ethnic
cleansing in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention
<http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/385ec082b509e76c41256739003e636d/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5>
and
the International Humanitarian Law
<http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/legal-fact-sheet/humanitarian-law-factsheet.htm>;
otherwise your involvement will make the city complicit in war crimes and
crimes against humanity.*

It seems to us that the city of Surrey is following on the footsteps of the
Canadian Conservative Government which is making Canada and now Surrey part
of Israeli Occupied Territory. Complicity in Israeli war crimes is not
MORAL, and should not be perceived as a way to advance personal careers -
it will not and should never be treated as such.

We ask all the Surrey Councillors to come clean and disassociate themselves
from what the Mayor is doing to Surrey, a city full of diverse and dynamic
communities. We hope that payback time will come at the next municipal
elections for those who are complicit in violating International
Humanitarian Law and putting personal interests ahead of their
constituent's needs.

Signed by:

Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign <http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/>

Canada Palestine Association <http://www.cpavancouver.org/>, Vancouver
Canadian Boat to Gaza <http://tahrir.ca/>
Critical Criminology Working Group <http://radicalcriminology.org/> at
Kwantlen Polytechnic Univ.
Fraser Valley Peace Council
Independent Jewish Voices <http://ijvcanada.org/>, Vancouver
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network <http://samidoun.ca/>
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy <http://www.sansad.org/>
 (SANSAD)
Voice of Palestine <http://www.voiceofpalestine.ca/>


*Examples of Ehud Barak's terrorism and War Crimes:*

·         In 1973 Ehud Barak participated in the targeted assassination of
three leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization - Abu Youssef
al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan and Kamal Nasser, a Palestinian poet and PLO
spokesman. According to Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Barak> he
was part of the "covert mission Operation Spring of
Youth<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Spring_of_Youth> in
Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman".

·         *On March 11, 1978, Barak* murdered an 18 year old Palestinian
female prisoner *Dalal al-Mughrabi in cold blood. According to the British*
Guardian: "Mughrabi's body was dragged off the tarmac and shot several
times by Barak in images captured by the media."
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/16/lebanon.israelandthepalestinians1>

·         Ehud Barak was one of the Israeli commanders who led the Israeli
death squad on April 16, 1988 that killed the beloved Palestinian leader
Khalil El Wazir (Abu Jihad) in Tunis. This international terrorist attack
was carried out outside of Israel in Tunisia. David Yallop, the British
investigative journalist, in his book "To the Ends of the Earth" stated
"This, with other elements, confirmed that the killing squad were in
continuous radio contact with the Boeing flying just outside Tunisian air
space. In the plane were, among others, Major General Ehud Barak, deputy to
the Commander-in-Chief; Dan Shomron, Chief of Staff; Air Force Commander
Avihu Bin-Nun; and the Head of Military Intelligence, Amnon Shahak." Page
226

·         From December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, as the Israeli
Defence Minister, Barak led the Gaza massacre that resulted in the murder
of around 1400 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

·         On 15 September 2009, a
report<http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/09/15/UNFFMGCReport.pdf>
 of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict was
released. The report concluded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had
committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.  Following is
just one example from the 574 page report, section 1732: "*From the facts
gathered, the Mission found that the following grave breaches of the Fourth
Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: wilful killing,
torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering or serious
injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not
justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. As
grave breaches these acts give rise to individual criminal responsibility.
The Mission notes that the use of human shields also constitutes a war
crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court."*

-- 
Charlotte L. Kates     charlotte.kates at gmail.com