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israel-palestine
Both Israelis and Palestinians lay claim to Jerusalem.
While many Canadians might not realize it, there is a hunger strike going on today that is just as significant as that of Bobby Sands and the other Irish Republicans in 1981. Led by Marwan Barghouti, hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails are five weeks into a hunger strike.
Unless something galvanizes Trudeau, Trump and other Western leaders to action, we may soon observe another sad anniversary of Israel's ongoing military occupation. If so, Israelis, and especially Palestinian civilians, will continue to pay a heavy price for our indifference.
Let's face it: Canada's use of sanctions seems to be highly tainted by politics. Canada is no neutral administration, treating all misbehaving states equally. Instead, Canada is like a fickle schoolyard bully, harassing the kid who's smaller or different, and leaving his "friends" in peace.
The jury is in. According to a new survey, the vast majority of Canadians do not consider criticism of the government of Israel to be necessarily "anti-Semitic." This finding contradicts those who have been warning of a "new anti-Semitism" in Canada, where criticism of Israel is a veiled form of this despicable historic ideology.
A representative democracy is based on the principle that elected officials will advance the positions of their electors. When it comes to Israel and the Middle East, both Harper and Trudeau seem to have grievously violated this principle.
Canadians might find it disquieting to have members of parliament cry, "Shame!" when the government announces $20 million in aid for education and health. Yet this is exactly what happened when the Minister of International Development, Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced the restoration of Canadian humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees.
“The Trudeau government has finally differentiated itself from the Harper government ..."
The Palestinians and Jews of the community posed as a "human library" on Palestine. Each had a desk and a sign specifying if they were Palestinian Canadian, Palestinian Israeli, Jewish Israeli or Canadian Jew. Each had a story to tell on how the conflict affected them personally.
If the Liberals wish to maintain the stance that using the term apartheid to describe Israeli state practices amounts to a form of Jew-hatred, then they should be aware that under that logic, they are labeling a lot of unlikely people as anti-Semites.
