Canada's anti-Palestine votes and insinuations at the UN continue support for Israeli apartheid
Written by: Khaled Mouammar
Bob Rae tarnished Canada’s international image by stating at the UN on November 19 that Canada and Israel are two democracies that have shared values and interests.
At the same time, Canada continued its shameful tradition at the UN in favour of Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights and breach of international law.
Canada voted against a resolution supporting the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; against a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan; and against a resolution condemning Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Canada also abstained on a resolution supporting assistance to Palestine refugees and abstained on a resolution condemning Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights.
Canada’s constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee fundamental freedoms and equal rights to all citizens regardless of their religion, ethnicity, race, political opinion or gender.
In July 2018, the Jewish majority in the Israeli Knesset passed the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People which stipulates that the State of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People; that the exercise of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People; that the State shall only encourage and promote the establishment of Jewish settlements; that the State shall be only open for Jewish immigration.
This blatantly racist piece of legislation asserts “Jewish supremacy” and officially entrenches the segregation, racism, and systemic inequality against 2 million Palestinian Arab Christians and Muslims who make up 22% of Israel’s citizens, that has been practiced since Israel was created in May 1948.
Since 1967 Israel has been occupying East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza and has during that period transferred 700 thousand Israeli Jews into 252 Jewish-only colonies and outposts in the occupied areas in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Wherever they live Jews enjoy full citizenship and national rights and are governed by Israeli domestic law. Jews are free to own land and reside pretty much anywhere they please -- including Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank -- and to travel freely. Any Jew anywhere in the world has the same right when they move to Israel. On the other hand the 5 million Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza have no such rights.
I am a Palestinian Canadian who has been denied, along with 6 million other Palestinian refugees, the inalienable right to return to my hometown Nazareth because I am a Christian.
Like most Canadians, I can never imagine or approve a similar racist law being passed by the Christian majority in parliament that grants superior rights to Christians over Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and others.
By equating Israeli values to Canadian values Bob Rae is attempting to whitewash Israel’s racism and occupation. Shamefully, Bob Rae is hiding the crimes of Israel and justifying the on-going segregation, racism, oppression and dispossession practiced by Israel against 13 million Palestinians.
Khaled Mouammar is a Christian Palestinian Canadian who was forced to flee his hometown Nazareth in 1948. He is a founding member of the Canadian Arab Federation and a former member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. He received the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Award from the Governor General of Canada in 1977.
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