Canada's - Stephen Harper's Headache: Netanyahu the Great!

Harper's Headache: Netanyahu the Great!   By: Rana Abdulla

 

In 2003, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu visited Canada.  On this visit, he met the wrath of thousands of Concordia University students who found his presence unacceptable on their campus, a place of learning.  Netanyahu was met at that time with anger and bitterness, and perhaps uneasiness in the more benign and apolitical.

 

Seven years later, once again Israeli's Prime Minister, Netanyahu,  arrived in Canada last week to speak in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, again to the consternation of many Canadians.  Canada's Conservative government whitewashes Israel's human rights violation.  Many Canadians believe Israel's human rights record to be at odds with the democratic values of Canada.  

 

It must have been Prime Minister Stephen Harper's worst nightmare to be standing side-by-side with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu when the story of the humanitarian flotilla emerged.  Not only was the flotilla prevented from docking in Gaza, where it was to provide supplies and relief to Palestinians suffering there under Israeli economic and military sanctions, but the convoy of aid ships was attacked by the Israeli navy in international waters, just 65 km off the Palestinian coastal enclave.  19 were killed, more than 50 were injured. Details of what happened remain sketchy after Israel imposed a news blackout, preventing aid workers on board the ships from contacting the outside world.  Netanyahu used the blackout to control the airwaves, concocting a story that justified the use of force.
 

A story was spread in which the humanitarian aid workers and activists were aggressors against Israel.  Passengers on the ship included Mairead Maguire, a former Nobel Peace Laureate, Anne Wright, a retired US Congresswoman, Hedy Epstein, an 85 year-old Holocaust survivor, Parliamentarians from Germany and Ireland, two former diplomats from the United States, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, plus authors, journalists, activists, businesspersons and clergy.

 

The Israeli use of a state-controlled media, issuing one-sided propaganda and unverified opinion as journalism, is a crime in itself, notwithstanding the unconscionable use of force against aid workers dedicated to a humanitarian cause.

 

Cutting short his visit Monday, Netanyahu could not leave before fabricating the story that Israel had no choice but to storm the flotilla.  As a Canadian, I would ask Prime Minister Harper on what grounds he stands uncritical behind such a story, and alongside the highest representative of a state that continues to implement apartheid policies, a leader who does not seem to grasp the principles of our own media, providing as it does a forum for intelligent and spirited discussion among differing sides.   How do you perceive Israel as a victim, Mr. Harper, beyond its own occupations and sanctions imposed upon the Palestinian people, beyond the imposition of state control over its media, all actions perpetrated by Netanyahu?  Might this be a legitimate perspective, of the State of Israel as the architect of the state of ignorance and injustice suffered by its people?  

 

Canada now faces the Supreme Court's challenge that to criticize Israel is a form of anti-Semitism and would therefore be hate-mongering.  Meanwhile, video footage and live reports of black-clad Israeli commandos descending from helicopters and firing at unarmed passengers positioned in a humanitarian flotilla of ships moving in International Waters is not part of the leading story.  The flotilla was openly attacked, in spite of having briefed Cypriote police and customs regulators as to their mandate and the contents of their cargo. 

 

In the past, the primary necessity for the flotilla has been held to insufficient scrutiny in the media, that Gaza has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, the people there unable to access medical equipment, construction materials, tents, food and building supplies.  How did Israel justify this blockade, how did Israel explain the deplorable conditions of the Palestinians of Gaza with its own propaganda and hate-mongering? 

 

The Free Gaza Movement has kept its message simple, grounded in the data and knowledge of human rights, in order to promote to public attention the horrendous humanitarian situation in Gaza. The movement has held fast against one of the world's best-trained militaries and well-connected governments because they know the facts about Gaza and cannot turn from the truth.

 

What will be done to help the collectively punished 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza?  How is it that they have the courage to challenge the Israeli government on the siege of Gaza, challenging also the Egyptian, European Union and United States' unlawful sieges.   This position is one of great courage since every U.S. presidential administration since the formation of the State of Israeli, a country which has persistently oppressed the Palestinians since being artificially created 62 years ago, has given carte blanche to Israel in whatever actions it wishes to undertake, even if the actions are in violation of an international code of law.

 

Israel is a country that shows no respect for international law.  It has invaded and stolen land from its neighbours.  It mobilizes tanks and aircrafts against unarmed civilians.  It ghettoizes people and not treat them as equals.  It is a country that, in attacking civilian transport in international waters, openly violates UN resolutions, though it is not suspended from membership.

 

Gaza is no longer a land of farms and commerce.  It is a place of devastated livelihoods, entrenched in a poverty rate of more than 70%.   The Israeli siege of Gaza has gone on for more than two years, despite public and international condemnation.

 

The UN Goldstone Commission considered the siege of Gaza to be a possible "war crime".  The attack on the flotilla, conveying international humanitarian aid to Gaza, will make defending Israel's siege of Gaza ever more challenging for its allies.

 

The Israeli government, on behalf of its people, can perpetrate violence only to the extent that it is permitted to do so by the 'international community,' the people of the US, Canada, Great Britain and the European Union, who express no concern and wage no protest that their own government would be unwilling to defend.

Who will discipline Israel, then, such as by eliminating aid to them, as we do to other countries that violate international law and morality?

 

Does Israel need medical and building supplies?  Are they short on food and so feel that they have no other choice than to act as pirates, stealing supplies much needed by the Israeli people? Pirates violate international law every day to add to their wealth or to sustain some other enterprise.

 

But these are not pirates who operate ad hoc, within their own mandates and laws.  Israel is a card-carrying member of the United Nations, an annual recipient of $13+ billion in aid from the United States, and it makes decisions that violate the most basic of human rights that they themselves were denied for thousands of years.

The formerly oppressed are now oppressors, and they hold this card over everyone's heads, either to justify or to indict those given the choice to take the wrong path with them, cajoling, dragging, or lobbying them to the extreme. Meanwhile, the US taxpayer subsidizes Israeli military might, foregoing health care, public education, and other social programs that would improve life in their communities.

 

As an educated Palestinian-Canadian woman, I have come to understand that what the media refers to as an "international community" is a loaded term, consists of Israel and its allies, namely the United States and its allies.  Humanitarian resolutions concerning every other country in the world are given weight, while those concerning Israel are blocked from western consciousness.  When this community concerns itself with Israeli and Palestinian relations, the discussion becomes nonsensical with no appropriate actions.

 

The Israelis have dealt themselves a severe diplomatic blow by sheer incompetence and the dogged resolve to deny the Palestinian state its right to exist.

To represent us, we have voted in a government of people, rather than a government for the people.  They are scared to speak to the truth, which would dissatisfy a group of Canadian Jews who continue to defend Israel and its mandates.  Humanity is not black or white.  It is not exclusively American, Israeli, Palestinian, nor any who protect their own identity by exercising control over that of others.  Nelson Mandela's statesmanship practices are easily learned and equally easy in their application.  Finding a common ground for settlement with the oppressed Palestinians, and letting the responsible elements sort out the intransigence of Hamas, is the only possible way to promote peace in Israel.

 

Is an atrocity an atrocity, merely by definition?  What is obscuring our humanity that makes us deaf to the cries of the people of Gaza, including its innocent children, trapped in their open-air prison for more than two years?

 

Today, while you enjoy your family meal and taste its exquisite flavours, living in the security and comfort of home, think about how you would feel if you were Gazan, missing relatives and a way of life you once called your own.   Ask yourself, how it is that the so-called free world is blind, deaf and dumb towards anti-human atrocities, time and time again?

Rana Abdulla – Winnipeg MB