By Dogan Akman
I read with considerable interest the three views expressed in Canada’s position on the the Arab-Israeli conflict does much harm and no good, and, if I may be so permitted, I would like to make a number of points by way of facts and comments to those expressed in the exchange..
The first point is the focus of “Canada”.
Under the Conservative government headed by Stephen Harper, the Canadian government treated Israel with respect and strongly supported its position in the conflict. While the website of the Department of External Affairs indicated Canada’s support for the two-state solution, Prime Minister Harper, refused to entertain the fake complaints, accusations and the jeremiads of the Palestinian Authority and its supporters until the P.A. stopped behaving the way it does.
Among other things, Harper terminated Canada’s annual grant of $25 million to UNWRA’s education plan on the grounds that the textbooks of the Palestinian Authorities used by UNWRA are full of hatred of Jews and Israel. On a personal level, he showed great respect for the Jewish people. The Harper government also signed Canada’s first Free Trade Agreement with Israel.
Hence, instead of speaking of Canada, we ought to speak specifically of the current Liberal government of Justin Trudeau and highlight its record on the conflict.
By way of preliminary observation, of all the parties represented in the House of Commons, the Conservative party, now in opposition, remains the only party that continues on the path taken by Harper.
Coming to the Trudeau government, it did not take long after his election for Trudeau to call the Israeli Prime Minister to advise him that there would be a shift in tone, but said Canada would continue to be a friend of Israel’s… while Foreign Minister Dion, sought to explain and justify the rationale for the shift on the grounds that while ’Israel is a friend and ally, for us to be an effective ally we need also to strengthen our relationship with other legitimate partners in the region.”
Not long after that, the government, with great fanfare re-instated the grant to UNWRA, and since then, increased the grant to $35 million on fictional grounds knowing full well the serious problems with the contents of the school books.
In March this year, EU’s Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control introduced legislation designed to ensure that all programs financed by EU money “reflect common values such as freedom, tolerance, and non-discrimination within education.”
On April 18 2018, the E.U. Parliament adopted this legislation which is intended to prevent EU aid being transferred to the Palestinian Authority for education purposes from being used to teach hate, and to insure that henceforth the P.A.’s textbooks meet the EU and UNESCO standards.
To date, Canada has yet to adopt the EU’s decision.
As to strengthening the relationship with Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, the government did it by playing a one way zero sum game. Hence:
In March 2017, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dion, presumably speaking on behalf of the government, in his own convoluted way, made it clear that Israel shares, if not bears, responsibility for the ills befalling it.
Again in March 2017, on the heels of two particularly horrifying stabbing attacks by Palestinian terrorists against two Israeli women-one slashed to death in front of her traumatised teenage daughter and the other wounded while pregnant, Dion issued Israel a heads up about its intention to issuing a more harshly worded reprimand to her.
The same year, the government showed its singular lack of a moral sense of equivalence, when the Foreign Minister publicly equated Palestinian and Israeli “violence and incitement” and called on “both sides” to return to the negotiating table.
To date, the Liberals have failed to publicly criticise, let alone reprimand or condemn the P.A. for turning terrorism into a paid profession and celebrating the Palestinian terrorist “martyrs” by naming at least one school and many civic places after them or for refusing no less than four peace offers, two of which were made by Israeli Prime Ministers or for that matter the first two Intifadas as well as the last one.
On the BDS issue, while the government voted for a BDS motion tabled by the Conservative party, again the same Foreign Minister, in effect spoke against it and in the process legitimised the movement. Nor did the government do anything to fight it.
On the BDS issue, I note that Rob Oliphant is a Minister of the United Church (“UCC”) which is the largest Protestant denomination in Canada with more than two million members. In 2012 the General Council of UCC passed a resolution boycotting settlement-produced goods. Further, in 2015 the Council passed a second resolution encouraging divestment from Israel in order “to address the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories by the State of Israel”. This resolution calls for “initiating and developing a program of education and advocacy in co-operation with our partners, related to divestment from and economic sanctions against all corporations and institutions complicit in and benefitting from the illegal occupation”. The statement also urged the members to discourage “tourism which bolsters the oppression of Palestinians”. The new decision is meant to be understood as focusing on “advocacy and encouragement”, rather than a mandatory or binding direction of the Church.
While at it, the UCC also approved a policy to strengthen the, relationship with Canada’s Jewish community. Bizarre.
Needless to say, not every member attending the General Council voted for these two resolutions. And Mr. Oliphant may well be one of them. It is for him to explain his views on the matter.
Nevertheless, being a member of the caucus of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, he must be a supporter of the government’s policy to describe as “illegal” both Israel’s legal right under international law to occupy the West Bank and to establish settlements in Area “C” based on ,among other international instruments of law, the United Nations Charter , the Oslo Agreement. The Liberal government wilful and woeful ignorance of the international law on this subject is shameful.
Equally shameful is the statement of Matt deCourcey, Parliamentary Assistant to the current Minister of External Affairs of June 8 inst. in response to a question that uses the phrases “the illegal occupation” and” illegal settlements” and refers adversely to the decision of the Israel’s Supreme Court that approved the government’s plan to relocate the residents of Khan al-Ahmar a Bedouin village, to another and much more desirable location for the villagers. He stated:
….first of all Canada is a steadfast ally of Israel and friend to Palestinian people. As always, we are determined to support a process that will lead to a just, comprehensive, and durable peace in the Middle East. Our government is committed to the UN and we respect the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. For many years, under successive governments, Canada has stated that settlements constitute a serious obstacle to that comprehensive, just and lasting peace. We have a long-standing commitment toward that, and we will continue to work to build conditions that will lead to that lasting and durable peace. (Underlining mine)
After repeating, the standard claptrap about being allies, friends peace Mr. Mr. deCourcey sneaked in the sentence which I underlined which shows what really meant by the assertion that “settlements constitute a serious obstacle”. In effect, the government said:
First, we are committed to the U.N.(and its various emanations) that to date have devoted a great deal of their time and energies in their attempts to demonise, nay, lynch Israel at every opportunity they create for themselves.
Second, we respect, among others, Resolution 2334 of December 23 December 2016 and all the preceding ones that characterise the West Bank as “ illegally occupied territory” and the settlements established in “Area C” of the Oslo accord as “illegal settlements“, because both the occupation and the settlements breach all the unspecified international laws, principles, obligations, the members of the Security Council could possibly concoct, and all the other anti-Israel resolutions, based on legal fiction, the members of the Security Council could think of.
In this regard, in response to the steady stream of accusations by the UNSC and in the General Assembly about Israel’s breaches of the international law, at no time did Trudeau government ever informed the world and in particular the United Nations General Assembly that the Arabs and the P.A. are the only parties that committed violations of international law and of the United Nations’ Charter since 1947. More specifically in 1947 by defying the United Nations’ Resolution to partition the Mandate lands and to establish a Jewish and an Arab State; in 1948 when the Arab armies attacked Israel; from 1948 to 1967, when Jordan unlawfully occupied the West Bank; in 1967 when Arab countries forced Israel into a defensive war; in 1973, by attacking Israel; nor all the intifadas that followed it in violation of the Oslo accord. And the list goes on.
Again, after President Trump decided to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a mob of nations moved a UN General Assembly resolution to undo a perfectly lawful foreign policy decision of the head of a sovereign country. With a reasoning that could be best described as G-d vengeance on logic, Trudeau’s government once again abstained on the grounds that the status of Jerusalem must be decided by negotiations between Israel and the P.A. when the sole issue raised by the resolution was the legitimacy of resolution that sought to interfere with the sovereignty of the United States; another country with which Trudeau‘s government professes to be a close ally and friend.
Last and not least, Trudeau’s own performance in connection with the ongoing Gaza mini-war as he pronounced himself against Israel twice before ascertaining the facts on the ground; called and continues to call for an international investigation of the facts on the ground concerning Hamas’ unlawful attacks on Israel with a view to invade it to kill Israelis and destroy as much of the country as possible.
And in the House of Commons, whenever questioned about his performance about Gaza by the Conservative party, he chooses to reply by attacking the Conservatives instead of condemning Hamas.
And now, and after demanding for an international investigation to establish the facts, Canada, without knowing the true facts on the ground and ignoring the pronouncements abstained rather than vote against the UN General Assembly resolution which in part reads:
Deplores the use of any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly in the Gaza Strip, including the use of live ammunition against civilian protesters, including children, as well as medical personnel and journalists, and expresses its grave concern at the loss of innocent lives; United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, Nos. 970–973. A/ES-10/L.23 18-09464 3/4 3. Demands that Israel, the occupying Power, refrain from such actions and fully abide by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949.
By any historical and current definition and meaning of the terms “ally”, “steadfast” and “friend” I could find in my Oxford English Dictionary, Trudeau abysmally fails the test of being a steadfast or strong ally of Israel and its friend..
On the other hand, at every turn, he supports the P.A., almost unconditionally, rarely if ever criticizes its conduct; he is committed to the monstrous anti-Semitic UN and its emanations , and he respects the UN Security Council resolutions that wantonly vandalise international law for the benefit of the P.A. and its steadfast allies.
In the process, he has become in effect, an enemy of the Palestinians both in the West Bank and in Gaza instead of being, the friends of the Palestinian people he claims to be. And so it is that while Israel, when Hamas allowed it, was supplying and continues to supply the Gazans with their basic necessities and provides them with medical care in Israel, when the necessity arises, Trudeau chooses to talk about Gaza’s humanitarian crisis but forgets that Hamas and only Hamas created it.
I am not aware of any other international conflict where foreign policies are formulated; decisions are made; positions are taken; resolutions are debated, passed or defeated, based on such abysmal ignorance of scholarly history, international law and of the facts on the ground as that demonstrated in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The only thing one can say about Trudeau’s relationship with Israel is that his government party to a lucrative free trade agreement with Israel which was originally entered into by the Harper government, the scope of which agreement was just recently expanded.
Sohrab Ahmari, in an article titled Canada Comes to Its senses on Iran in the Commentary of June 13 inst. starts his paper with the following observation:
…On the whole, I agree with Ben Shapiro’s assessment of the Canadian prime minister ( “Justin Trudeau is what would happen if the song ‘Imagine’ took human form…”). Trudeau’s commitment to full-spectrum progressivism, combined with his vanity and moral preening, make him one of the least serious figures ever to leading a major western power.
I regretfully agree with Mr. Ahmari subject to one qualification, namely; with respect to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict ,as well as to the Islamisation of Canada, he certainly matches the seriousness of the leaders of the major western powers such as France,, the United Kingdom, Germany and others both on their own motion and as members of the EU, not to mention the heads of the lesser powers (save four of them) in their repeated bashing of Israel and in the way they are handling the Islamisation of their respective countries.
Dogan Akman was born and schooled in Istanbul, Turkey. Upon his graduation, he immigrated to Canada with his family. In Canada, he taught university in sociology-criminology and social welfare policy. After a stint as a Judge of the Provincial Court (criminal and family divisions) of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, he joined the Federal Department of Justice working first as a Crown prosecutor, and then switching to civil litigation and specialising in aboriginal law.
@ david melech:
I chose that ailment from thin air,
I don’t recall ever having seen any. Over my lifetime I’ve barely noticed rare occasional twitches,, e.g. a nose hitching spectacles further up, and have assumed that either the glasses slipped down or the nose itched.
Trudeau’s antics .seem produced by the mental effort to try to look intelligent, speak coherently, or to deflect legitimate questions which he has no clue about. He badly fails .. . When not “speaking” he sits perfectly still like an automaton, only “switched on” by questions to which he has to “respond”. A farce at anything other than a temporary ski instructor or dance teacher. Maybe he goes through vaguely remembered dance routines translated to the floor of the House of Commons…. He shows an unconcealed feeling of importance,
One day he might turn up in a blue tight outfit with a yellow “S” across the chest….
He holds one Championship Title…”The biggest fool of a PM in the whole list of Developed Nations”.
With apologies to those sufferers of Tourettes syndrome.
An interesting and truthful account of the facts. I have seen Trudeau several times at the Parliamentary Question Time. He NEVER answers a question, he seems to go into a fit of some sort. His whole face changes, his eyes pop, the grooves from his nostrils to the corners of his mouth deepen noticeably, with facial grimaces like a buffoon, waves his arms around, and just says something obscure that has no real meaning, or attacks the opposition. The article writer is quite correct on this. Perhaps Trudeau has a bad case of Tourette’s Syndrome. It resembles nothing else except the antics of that trained chimpanzee in the old Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies.
Trudeau can be seen at those times on youtube.