The United Church of Canada on May 1 released the report of its Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy. The report will be considered by the denomination’s 41st General Council, which meets in Ottawa, August 11–18, 2012. Until that time the working group’s report is not policy of the church, and its proposals are solely recommendations.
Download the complete text of the working group’s report or download the FAQs.
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BDS, Canada, Reports | 
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Posted by psnedmonton
Fifty-four organizations from across Canada, including Palestine Solidarity Network-Edmonton, have signed onto a joint statement in response to Jason Kenney’s recent condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week 2012. The full text of the statement and its signatories is below, or you can download the pdf here.
Joint Statement on Minister Jason Kenney’s condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week
March 9, 2012As organizations and groups committed to protecting freedom of expression and public debate on Palestine/Israel, we demand that Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney immediately retract his March 7th statement “condemning Israel Apartheid Week”.
This statement is the Conservative government’s latest attempt to silence activist groups and organizations in Canada that act or speak in support of the basic human rights of the Palestinian people. While Kenney’s statement claims to value “free exchanges of ideas” and “academic dialogue,” his targeted condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week events on Canadian universities this week (and in previous years) is a blatant attempt to shut down free expression for Palestine solidarity on campus.
The Harper government’s track record clearly reveals that it does not actually value the university as “an environment in which academic discourse can take place freely”. Indeed, it has been actively involved in undermining this ideal that it claims to uphold. In 2009 the Conservative Minister of State (Science and Technology), Gary Goodyear was widely criticized by Faculty for Palestine and academics across the country for his unprecedented and dangerous acts of state political interference in the public funding of an academic conference. The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) called for the Minister’s resignation around this incident, finding it “simply unacceptable” for the Minister to engage in any act that “compromises the integrity and public purpose of universities”. The sole target of the Minister’s actions was an academic conference at York University titled Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace. His actions were so egregious that they have since been the subject of two major inquiries, one of which is written up in the newly published book titled No Debate: The Israel lobby and free speech at Canadian universities.
Free expression on Canadian campuses, including both academic discourse and political analysis, must be protected from these kinds of political interference and all attempts of censorship. Unlike the Conservative government, we encourage and invite open debate and discussion on the full spectrum of views on the Israel/Palestine conflict. As public events on university campuses, IAW talks are open to anyone who wishes to attend and is willing to participate within the standard regulations governing debate and events on university campuses.
For eight years, Israeli Apartheid Week has provided a model for free and open discussion by providing a week-long series of public lectures by academics and activists on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Currently IAW events are held on campuses in over 100 cities around the world. Many of these lectures address, in a factual manner, the nature of Israeli rule of a Palestinian population of some five million people within the borders which it controls and the effects of the exclusion of a similar number of Palestinian refugees. This system of blockade, occupation, settlement, discrimination and exclusion has been described as a form of
apartheid by a wide range of scholars, journalists, activists, politicians, UN officials and legal experts including former Minister of Government in South Africa Ronnie Kasrils and former Special Rapporteur to the UN Commission on Human Rights John Dugard. IAW events examine these conditions while also building awareness for the movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel as called for by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005.The recent welcome for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Ottawa is just the latest indicator of where the current government stands on this issue. It is a serious threat to democratic interchange that the Harper Conservatives use their position as government to try to shut down discussion and debate on their uncritical support for every action of the Israeli state, including ongoing violations of international law and the human rights of Palestinians.
Israeli Apartheid Week has played an important role in opening up this discussion. This has been recognized by Palestinians, Jewish anti-Zionists, and South Africans including Bishop Desmond Tutu, and journalist Naomi Klein. Israeli Apartheid Week has always condemned anti-Semitism and all forms or racism including Islamophobia, and will continue to do so.Endorsing signatories:
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC) – Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories
Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver
Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet)
Canadian Arab Federation (CAF)
Canadian Boat to Gaza
Canadian Peace Alliance
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
Centre for Social Justice
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) – Toronto
Coalition of Arab Canadian Professionals and Community Associations (CAPCA)
College and University Workers United (CUWU, Montreal)
Edmonton Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (EQuAIA)
Edmonton Small Press Association (ESPA)
Educators for Peace and Justice (EPJ)
Faculty for Palestine – F4P (Toronto)
Faculty 4 Palestine (F4P Alberta)
Faculty 4 Palestine (F4P Carleton)
Greater Toronto Workers Assembly (GTWA)
Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
Independent Jewish Voices (IJV)
Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
Labour for Palestine
Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network
The Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle – Toronto
National Council of Latin American and Caribbean Women of Canada – LATIN@S
New Socialist Group
Nightslantern Suppressed News
No One Is Illegal Toronto
Not In Our Name: Jews Opposed to Zionism (NION)
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty – OCAP
OPIRG – Toronto
Palestine House Educational and Cultural Centre
Palestine Solidarity Working Group, Laurentian University, Sudbury
Palestine Solidarity Network – Edmonton
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA)
Regina Solidarity Group
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Seriously Free Speech Committee
Socialist Project
SPHR UWO – Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at Western University
SPHR Ryerson
SPHR – UBC
Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University – Carleton
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA)- Regina
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) – University of Toronto
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University
Tadamon! – Montreal
Teachers for Palestine (T4P) – Toronto
Toronto Bolivia Solidarity
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War (TCSW)
Winnipeg CAIA
Women in Solidarity with Palestine (WSP)
Leave a Comment » | Canada, Freedom of Speech, Israeli Apartheid Week | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2012
From Turtle Island to Palestine: Apartheid, Colonialism and Indigenous Self-Determination
A public lecture and discussion with Mike Krebs
Friday, March 9 (3:30 – 5:00 pm)
Education Centre South Room 128
113 Street and 87 Avenue, U of A Campus
(Click here for map)
Help us spread the word! Invite your friends to the Facebook event.
Mike Krebs is a Vancouver-based Indigenous activist, writer, and researcher of Blackfoot and European descent. He is a founding member of the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign in Vancouver and long-time organizer in the BDS movement. Mike’s research focuses on how Canada’s longstanding support for Israel’s policies of apartheid toward the Palestinian people relates to Canada’s own historic and ongoing colonization of Indigenous peoples, and the implications for doing BDS work from within a “fellow” settler society.
Leave a Comment » | Canada, Edmonton, Events, Israeli Apartheid Week | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
UPDATE FROM SAIA – MARCH 7
Thank you for your support! Together, we have once again shown that through collective action, we will overcome attempts at repression and intimidation! After having received an incredible number of emails and phone calls urging the administration not to cancel our room booking for Thursday’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) event, the University of Ottawa has re-confirmed the room reservation for our panel discussion on that day. As such, our event entitled “Legalized Apartheid and Women’s Resistance in Palestine: Principled Solidarity and the Global Struggle for Liberation,” will proceed as originally planned at 7:00pm in Hagen Hall room 302.
However, the University has imposed the presence of agents from the Protection Services as a condition for the event to take place, after evaluating a complaint by unknown persons regarding our event on March 5th (“Arab Spring, Apartheid Falls? The Egyptian Uprising and Possibilities for Palestinian Resistance”). While we will not be contesting this decision at this point, it is our belief that such a security presence is unnecessary and does not contribute to a safe and open environment for our guests and speakers. Furthermore, despite repeated demands, we have received almost no information on the details and exact nature of the aforementioned complaint, leaving us entirely in the dark as to the reasons why a previously confirmed lecture event was precipitously placed in jeopardy only two days before it was due to take place.
As such, we encourage you to continue writing to the University of Ottawa Administration to demand transparency through the release of information about the complaint, as well as information as to how it was evaluated by the administration and how the latter motivated the decisions it took in consequence. It is both unacceptable and highly suspect that the University of Ottawa has taken such arbitrary action without any due explanation.
Allan Rock – President, University of Ottawa:
president@uottawa.ca; 613-562-5809
Martin Bergeron, Coordination Agent – Conventions and Reservations Services:
mbergeron@uottawa.ca
Please include in CC:
saia.carleton@gmail.com, sphr.uofo@gmail.com
Original Call for Support:
URGENT CALL FOR SOLIDARITY: UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA TRIES TO SILENCE SOLIDARITY FOR PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS (SPHR)
Defend the Right to critical discussion around Israeli apartheid on our campuses! Call on the University of Ottawa Administration to uphold free expression and follow clear and transparent procedures.
On March 5th, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2012 opened at the University of Ottawa to a packed room, as students, faculty, and community members were treated to an informative lecture entitled “Arab Spring, Apartheid Falls? The Egyptian Uprising and Possibilities for Palestinian Resistance.” It featured an Egyptian activist who played an important role in the revolution that overthrew the Egyptian dictatorship, as well as a community activist from Montreal (click here for a full schedule).
Moreover, two students from the organizing committee were harassed by unidentified individuals, who on several occasions attempted to intimidate SPHR and Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) just outside the lecture hall during the event.
On March 6th, a member of SPHR received an email from Conventions and Reservations Services at the University of Ottawa telling her that their room booking for Thursday’s Keynote IAW event is now “on hold”, that SPHR “may not continue with this event for now”, and that SPHR’s contract was being forwarded to “Protection Service for evaluation.” These heavy-handed measures are because of an unnamed “incident” that supposedly occurred at Monday’s event. When members of SPHR met with the University administration, they were not told what this “incident” was (see below for full email from U of O). The very fact that the organizers were put in a situation, where their event was threatened with cancellation, is a form of intimidation from the University of Ottawa administration.
In 2009, the Administrations at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University banned the international-used IAW poster, gaining national and international headlines. SPHR and SAIA see today’s email as another attempt to silence the voices of students who advocate for Palestinian human rights. When the IAW poster was banned in 2009, we stood up and fought back with all of your support.
***
Let us take a stand again. We need your help in two ways:
1) Please write a letter to the University of Ottawa Administration demanding that they do not cancel our room booking, and that they explain why the threat of room cancellation was initially issued (see sample letter below). The University hasn’t yet “confirmed” whether or not our talk will be cancelled – with your support, lets encourage them to take the principled position. While a staff member at Conventions and Reservations Services sent the email to SPHR, we know from our previous experiences that it is people higher up in the University hierarchy who must be held accountable for these attempts to silence our movements. As a result, please direct your email to:
president@uottawa.ca – Allan Rock – President, University of Ottawa, and;
mbgeron@uottawa.ca – Martin Bergeron, Coordination Agent – Conventions and Reservations Services
Or call:
Allan Rock – President, University of Ottawa – Telephone: 613-562-5809
Martin Bergeron, Coordination Agent – Conventions and Reservations Services
Bureau / Office : (613) 562-5800 ext: 2825 Cellulaire / Cell : (613) 796-8099
Please include in CC:
saia.carleton@gmail.com, sphr.uofo@gmail.com
Draft Email to President Rock and Martin Bergeron
Dear President Rock and Mr. Bergeron,
I recently learned that the University of Ottawa is threatening to prevent the keynote event for Israeli Apartheid Week in Ottawa from taking place, by cancelling the students’ pre-approved room booking. Hiding these silencing tactics behind the cover of bureaucracy is worrying. Israeli Apartheid Week is a week of educational and cultural events that critically engages with the policies undertaken by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people. Over the past four years in Ottawa alone, this week has brought distinguished speakers ranging from members of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), former leaders of the African National Congress (ANC), Jewish Holocaust Survivors, prominent indigenous leaders, and some of the most high-profile Palestinian scholars and activists from around the world. I also know that Israeli Apartheid Week has brought with it a great deal of backlash from University Administrations, including your own. When the University of Ottawa banned the Apartheid Week Poster in 2009, it shocked many people who were following the controversy, as it appeared that the University of Ottawa was taking a clear position in support of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, and against freedom of speech and student organizing.
I implore you not to make the same mistake again. Regardless of whether or not you agree that Israel is an Apartheid State, do not get in the way of student organizing and open discussion of this issue. Censoring the discussions that take place at your University through bureaucratic means reflects very poorly on the University of Ottawa and its leadership.
Consequently, I ask that you ensure that Thursday night’s IAW Keynote Speech is able to take place and that the room booking is not revoked. Also, I would like to know why SPHR was threatened with a cancelled room booking in the first place.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
2) If you live in Ottawa: Join us on Thursday, March 8 for IAW 2012’s Keynote Panel Discussion, “Legalized Apartheid and Women’s Resistance in Palestine: Principled Solidarity and the Global Struggle for Liberation.” We will be meeting at the University of Ottawa campus, in Hagen Hall Room 302 (near Laurier Bus Station). This is the room that we have booked, and which the Administration has threatened to cancel. Nevertheless, we will not be silenced. Whether it takes place in Room 302 Hagen Hall, in the Lobby of Hagen Hall, or somewhere else on campus, this talk will go on.
It is only though your active support, participation, and solidarity that we will be able to fight back against this new attempt to silence IAW and stifle freedom of speech on our campuses. Please write a letter and join us on Thursday.
In solidarity,
SPHR Ottawa and SAIA Carleton
***
Email sent to SPHR from University of Ottawa:
Hello [SPHR member],
Following the incident that occurred during your event in Fauteux 147A on March 5th 2012, your event scheduled for March 8th in Hagen 302 from 18:00 to 23:00 is on hold therefore in “Pending“ mode. You may not continue with this event for now. Also, I urgently need you to provide the name of the speaker(s) who spoke on the 5th of March as well as the ones that are scheduled to speak on the 8th of March 2012 in Hagen 302. This information needs to be provided to me no later than today. Also, I am forwarding your contract to Protection Services for evaluation. Again, you may not proceed with your event in Hagen 302 on the 8th of March until I confirm.
Please respond to this email promptly
Martin Bergeron
Agent de coordination, Coordination agent
Service de congrès et réservations / Conventions and Reservations Service
Leave a Comment » | Canada, Events, Freedom of Speech, Israeli Apartheid Week | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
This week’s Vue Weekly features an interview with Dalit Baum, who will present at next week’s Israeli Apartheid Week on Occupy the Occupation: Corporations, Profit and the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, Thursday, March 8 (7:00 – 9:00 pm) at the Engineering, Teaching and Learning Complex (ETLC) Room E 2-002 (East of 116 Street between 91 and 92 Avenues, U of A Campus).
Who profits?
Activist Dalit Baum will discuss the financial side of Israel’s occupation
Bryan Birtles / bryan@vueweekly.com
When the call from Palestinian civil society came out in 2005 for a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against illegal Israeli settlements, a big piece of the puzzle was missing: not a lot of people knew what kind of products were being manufactured in the settlements, nor which companies were profiting by having their products utilized to facilitate the illegal occupation of Palestine.
Enter Dalit Baum, who will deliver one of the keynote speeches at this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week in Edmonton. Her work with Who Profits from the Occupation, a research initiative she co-founded in Israel, as well as her more recent work in the United States with the economic activism for Palestine program at San Francisco’s Global Exchange, provides context and information about which companies are making money through the systematic discrimination of Palestinians. This research helps inform campaigns all over the world, dealing with issues far beyond the occupation of Palestine.
“The same corporations that limit civil liberties [in Israel] are the same corporations that manufacture tear gas used on the Occupy demonstrators are the same corporations involved with the privatization of prisons [in the US],” explains Baum of the scope of her research. “It’s not just about educating people about what’s going on in Palestine, it’s way beyond that.”
These campaigns are having an effect, says Baum, and their successes are threefold. Not only has the BDS campaign built a worldwide network of activists able to put pressure onto a corporation from a number of different angles, it has also forced Israelis to take a hard look at the policies of their government, as every new boycott becomes big news inside the country. Perhaps most importantly, the BDS campaign is having an effect on the ground, in the illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
“If you look at the settlement industry and the production in settlements, it’s failing,” Baum says. “We have a series of big corporations that have announced they will pull their production from these sites because they’re afraid of litigation, because it’s illegal according to international law, because they don’t want to be involved in something viewed so unfavourably in Europe and they have business in Europe, because of all these reasons. We are building a movement that is not only relevant locally but also has some traction and effect on the ground. We didn’t have that before.”
As a queer activist in addition to an anti-Apartheid activist, “pinkwashing” is something Baum has dealt with for years. Seeking to discredit the anti-Apartheid movement, opponents will call Israel “the only democracy” in the Middle East or proclaim it the only country in the region with respect for gay rights. Baum rejects these arguments as propaganda.
“Why all of a sudden do you care about gay and lesbian Palestinians when you don’t care about them any other day of the week?” she asks rhetorically. “It’s preposterous how this is used as a form of propaganda … when people hear how Israel actually treats, for example, queer Palestinian youth looking for asylum—they don’t give these people any kind of asylum.
“There’s seven million Israeli citizens and then four million Palestinians who have no civil rights but are controlled by the same government—that’s a very flawed democracy.”
Leave a Comment » | BDS, Canada, Corporations, Edmonton, Events, Independent Media | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
The University of Regina’s Students’ Union voted at its AGM on February 1 to join the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in support of Palestinian human rights. The resolution resolved that the U of R Students’ Union:
- Recognize that the right to education is a fundamental human righttp://psnedmonton.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpht that is basic to human freedom;
- Join student organizations around the globe by endorsing the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions from Palestinian civil society;
- Commit to identifying and divesting from companies that support or profit from Israeli war crimes, occupation and oppression;
- Affirm that students have a vital role in supporting struggles for social justice, and stand in solidarity with Palestinians’ struggle for self-determination and freedom.
While there is widespread support on campus for the resolution (URSU president Kent Peterson says, “There were actually no con speakers to the motion. There were a few pro speakers, and then it was voted upon. I believe it was passed unanimously and if it wasn’t unanimous, there might have been one vote against it.”), pro-Israel groups including the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs have predictably decried the democratically passed resolution and are calling for it to be repealed.
Prince Albert Conservative MP Randy Hoback rose in the House of Commons on March 1 and called on U of R President Vianne Timmons to condemn the move, charging that URSU had used “alarmist language” and taken “a simplistic and prejudicial view to an issue that deserves a far more mature and balanced approach.”
In the face of this coordinated backlash, members of the URSU need to know that their principled move is supported by Canadians who are concerned about human rights. Please take a few moments to send a note to URSU executives to congratulate them on their principled resolution and to indicate your support:
You can send emails to URSU at contactus@ursu.ca, and/or to individual members of the exec (phone calls are great too):
Kent Peterson (President)
(306) 586-8811 ext. 206 | president@ursu.ca
Paige Kezima
Vice President of External Affairs
(306) 586-8811 ext. 203 | external@ursu.ca
Haanim Nur
Vice President of Operations & Finance
(306) 586-8811 ext. 235 | finance@ursu.ca
Melissa Blackhurst
Vice President of Student Affairs
(306) 586-8811 ext. 212 | student@ursu.ca
Leave a Comment » | Action, BDS, Canada, Freedom of Speech | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
Please take a minute to take part in this one-minute action organized by the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in defense of Palestine House Educational and Cultural Centre, another progressive organization being politically defunded by Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney
Defend Palestine House: update and one-minute action
Earlier this week the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) joined the strong and growing chorus of support in defense of Palestine House Educational and Cultural Centre, the most recent target of politically motivated funding cuts ordered by the Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney.
In a widely circulated news article titled “Hitman Jason Kenney strikes again“, esteemed Toronto Star columnist and editorial page editor emeritus Haroon Siddiqui declared the almost $1 million cuts to Palestine House funding to be “the government’s latest scandal.” As noted in the article, the Mississauga-based Palestine House Executive Director Feras Saleh confirmed that they had been “audited regularly and that Ottawa had found no irregularity, either financially or with the services provided.” Despite a clear need, and a longstanding record of providing solid settlement and language instruction services to thousands of new immigrants since 1994, the federal government has nonetheless withdrawn the funding.
A Palestine House statement issued earlier this week confirmed that “Mr. Kenney did not provide any convincing explanation for his decision.” Siddiqui concurs. Indeed, Kenney’s decision is widely recognised as part of a systemic attack by the federal government on any funding related to organisations that support Palestinians or question the government’s policies on Israel/Palestine. This move by the federal government is strikingly reminiscent of an almost identical attack on the Canadian Arab Federation whose funds for similar services were cut in 2009. CAF Lawyer Barbara Jackman states in the Toronto Star article that both organisations were undertaking “a completely apolitical activity – and both were doing a good job.”
In both cases it is mainly the clients – mostly recent immigrants – and people who provide services to them who are affected by these cuts.
Siddiqui also notes that two other organisations, Kairos and Rights and Democracy, have also been victims of these concerted Kenney/Harper attacks.
However, the Conservative government has clearly underestimated the depth of people’s commitment to justice, fairness and equality. Hundreds of signatures have accumulated in support of Palestine House in just a few days. This is a testament to the value of its services to the community, and to people’s recognition that this is a political attack.
While we continue to defend Palestine House and other organizations facing these attacks, we also need to remember that intimidation and silencing campaigns have not stopped the growth of the BDS movement in Canada. Just two weeks ago, the University of Regina Student Union (URSU) voted to join the BDS movement. They are also now entering the cross-campus campaign aimed at pressuring Canadian university administrations to divest from Israeli companies. The URSU and SAIA Regina are the newest additions to this fast growing campus divestment movement. Initiated and led by Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), the divestment movement started at Carleton University in Ottawa (2010) and quickly expanded to the University of Toronto and York University in 2011. Israeli Apartheid Week and the student divestment campaigns also have the support of Faculty 4 Palestine, a network of over 500 academics from over 40 campuses across the country. Both the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW national) and the Ontario Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) have also passed ground breaking resolutions in support of BDS. Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), one of the biggest global BDS success stories, was held on 94 campuses and cities in 2011 only seven years after it began at the University of Toronto in 2005.
As public support for Palestine House continues to build, CAIA is issuing a call for signatures: Help defend Palestine House by writing to Jason Kenney. Let him know that attacking organisations which support the rights of Palestinians undermines the values of freedom of speech and expression which form the basis of a democratic society. Demand that he restore the commitment to funding these programs. This is a one minute action that can be done in five easy steps:
STEP 1: Cut and paste into subject line: “Restore Funding to Palestine House”
STEP 2: Cut and paste into body of e-mail (modify as you wish for more impact):
Dear Minister Kenney,
I oppose your decision to cut federal funding for the successful immigration settlement program administered by Palestine House. This decision is not based on the success of the program (which your department has recognized), but on ideology. I oppose any move by the Canadian government to penalize civil society and cultural organizations in Canada based on their legitimate views and concerns on human rights issues. This represents an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of expression which form the basis of a democratic society and is contributing to the steady criminalization of Palestine solidarity initiatives in Canada. I call on you to reverse your decision and to restore immediately the federal funding for Palestine House’s immigration settlement program.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
STEP 3: Cut and paste Jason Kenney’s email addresses into the To: line of your email:
jason.kenney@parl.gc.ca
Minister@cic.gc.ca
STEP 4: Cut and paste your Federal MP’s email address into the cc: line. You can find it at here.
STEP 5: Cut and paste CAIA into “Bcc” line: endapartheid@riseup.net
Press send!
For more information on this issue go to www.palestinehouse.com or email endapartheid@riseup.net
Leave a Comment » | Action, Canada | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
Congratulations to Students Against Israeli Apartheid – Regina (SAIA) and the University of Regina Student Union for joining the global movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel!
From the Regina Solidarity Group:
Students Against Israeli Apartheid – Regina (SAIA) is pleased to announce that a motion was passed at the University of Regina Student Union AGM to support the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) as a means of pressuring Israel to comply with international and human rights law. This resolution is a huge first step towards the full divestment of the University of Regina from companies complicit with the human rights violations currently taking place in Palestine. Plans are already in motion for SAIA, together with the University of Regina Student Union (URSU) and other members of the community, to begin investigating URSU’s portfolio for companies that support or profit from Israeli war crimes, as well as collectively launching an education campaign on campus about the issue.
SAIA would like to thank everyone who came out to vote for the resolution and all those who have been supporting and organizing around this issue within the community. There will be a lot of work to do before the end of the school year – if anyone is interested in joining the group please feel free to contact us at saiauofr@gmail.com. Thanks for all the support!
Sincerely,
SAIA Regina
RESOLUTION TO JOIN THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN RIGHTS
February 1, 2012
WHERAS Israel is currently in defiance of over 30 UN Security Council Resolutions pertaining to its illegal military occupation of Palestine and is in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice in 2004;
WHEREAS Israel systematically obstructs Palestinian students’ right to education through military checkpoints and roadblocks, the illegal apartheid wall, and the frequent closure of cities, routinely preventing thousands of students and teachers from reaching their schools and universities;
WHEREAS on July 9, 2005, 171 Palestinian organizations called upon people of conscience around the world to implement a global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era;
WHEREAS students around the world, from York to Concordia, Carleton, UC Berkeley, McGill, the University of Toronto and New York University have been at the forefront of this global movement by campaigning for divestment of university funds from companies that support or profit from Israel’s illegal occupation and systematic denial of Palestinian human rights;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the University of Regina Student Union:
Recognize that the right to education is a fundamental human right that is basic to human freedom;
Join student organizations around the globe by endorsing the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions from Palestinian civil society;
Commit to identifying and divesting from companies that support or profit from Israeli war crimes, occupation and oppression;
Affirm that students have a vital role in supporting struggles for social justice, and stand in solidarity with Palestinians’ struggle for self-determination and freedom.
Leave a Comment » | BDS, Canada, News | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
An excellent rabble.ca post by Tadamon‘s Stefan Christoff
Why the NDP Silence on Palestine?
As pronouncements on Palestinian statehood at the UN are fiercely debated around the world, on the ground in Palestine the violent realities of Israeli military occupation and apartheid continue without reprieve.
In Canada, despite broad international support for peace with justice in Palestine, illustrated by the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, Palestine has in recent years seldom been highlighted as a foreign policy priority by the NDP. The subject, for instance, has only rarely been mentioned in the current NDP leadership race.
Today the diverse voices supporting the Palestinian struggle for freedom in Canada rarely find an echo in Ottawa’s halls of power. Palestine, however, remains a central international issue for grassroots social justice movements across Canada, a fact that NDP leadership contenders seem to be largely sidestepping, despite actively courting support from progressive activists. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Canada, Commentary/Analysis, Israeli Apartheid Week | Permalink
Posted by psnedmonton
Event: Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping: The Truth May Hurt
March 19, 2012Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping: The Truth May Hurt
Book Launch with author and activist Yves Engler
Wednesday, April 4 (7:00 pm)
Telus Building Room 134
Corner of 111 Street & 87 Avenue, U of A Campus
(Click here for map)
Help us spread the word! Invite your friend to the Facebook event.
Written in the form of a submission to an imagined “Truth and Reconciliation” commission about Canada’s foreign policy past, Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping: The Truth May Hurt will change how you think about this country’s most famous statesman. Rather than an ‘honest broker’ or ‘peacekeeper’ Pearson was an ardent cold warrior who backed colonialism and apartheid in Africa, Zionism, coups in Guatemala, Iran and Brazil, and the US invasion of the Dominican Republic. A beneficiary of US intervention in Canadian political affairs, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate provided important support to the US in Vietnam and pushed to send troops to the American-led war in Korea. Pearson helped construct the post-World War II US empire. This book challenges one of the most important (and useful) Canadian foreign policy myths.
“Canada’s Nobel Peace Prize winner and eminent statesman, Lester Pearson was a major criminal, really extreme. He didn’t have the power to be like an American president, but if he’d had it, he would have been the same. He tried.”
- Noam Chomsky, from the book’s foreword
Yves Engler has been dubbed “one of the most Important voices on the Canadian Left today” (Briarpatch), “in the mould of I. F. Stone” (Globe and Mail), “ever-insightful” (rabble.ca) and a “Leftist gadfly” (Ottawa Citizen). His six books have been praised by Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, William Blum, Rick Salutin and many others.
Presented by Palestine Solidarity Network-Edmonton and the Council of Canadians.
This is a free event (donations accepted), everyone welcome.
Copies of Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping: The Truth May Hurt will be available for purchase.
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