The Beit Hanoun Killings, Israeli Apartheid and Canadian Policies
The Beit Hanoun Killings, Israeli Apartheid and Canadian Policies
The slaughter by Israel of innocent Palestinians, including at least 8 children, and the injury of dozens more, in Beit Hanoun in Gaza this week
adds to the tally of war crimes from the occupation. Some 2,300 Gazans have been killed over the past six years by Israel, including some 300 in the last four months. Tens of thousands have no doubt been wounded as well. It is part of the siege of Gaza that has been imposed on Israel, which has turned the strip into an open-air prison, sealed off from the rest of the world. The so-called ‘international community’ – including Canada, which the government ritualistically invokes as some sort of moral community upholding international human rights – has stood by and let the slaughter unfold. But more than this: the ‘international community’ – with Canada playing a leading role – has encouraged the siege of Gaza by imposing a crippling boycott and sanctions campaign against the Palestinian Authority. Incredibly, the Palestinian occupied peoples,
which any self-respecting ‘international community’ should be defending, is being subject to marginalization, isolation and sanction, while the Israeli occupier, in clear violation of that same ‘international community’s’ resolutions, is defended, encouraged and for whom sanctions and boycotts are actively opposed. Such hypocrisy has seldom been so audaciously on display.
According to reports from the region, the situation in Gaza has reached emergency levels. Already inadequate water, electricity, and medical supplies are further deteriorating. Hunger, poverty, and unemployment are growing. Schools and many other services are out of operation. The Israeli military continues daily bombardments and attacks. Disease and malnutrition are bound to continue spreading. Already by April 2006 according to international development agencies, almost 80 percent of Gazan households were living in poverty (compared to less than 30 percent in 2000). It is now worse.
Reports from the region using World Bank studies make sober reading: “Palestinians are currently experiencing the worst economic depression in modern history. The opprobrious imposition of international sanctions has had a devastating impact on an already severely comprised economy given its extreme dependence on external sources of finance. For example, the Palestinian Authority is highly dependent on two sources of income. The first is annual aid package from Western donors of about $1 billion per year (in 2005, according to the World Bank, donors gave
$1.3 billion in humanitarian and emergency [$500m/38%], developmental [$450m/35%] and budgetary [$350m/27%]) assistance, much of it now suspended. The second is a monthly transfer by Israel of $55 million in customs and tax revenues that it collects for the PA, a source of revenue that is absolutely critical to the Palestinian budget and totally suspended. In fact, Israel is now withholding close to half a billion dollars in Palestinian revenue that is desperately needed in Gaza.”
The reports go on: “The combined impact of restrictions, notably the almost unabated closure and the ongoing economic boycott, has resulted in unprecedented levels of unemployment that currently approach 40 percent in Gaza (compared to less than 12 percent in 1999). In fact, Palestinian workers from Gaza have not been allowed into Israel since 12 March 2006, Gaza’s primary market and all entry and exit points have been virtually sealed since June 25, 2006 when
Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza began. In the next five years, furthermore, 135,000 new jobs will be needed just to keep unemployment at 10 percent. Trade levels have been similarly affected. By early May 2006, for example, the Karni crossing, through which commercial supplies enter Gaza, had been closed for 47 percent of the year with estimated daily losses of $500,000-$600,000. Compounding this are agricultural losses amounting to an estimated $1.2 billion for both Gaza and the West Bank over the last six years.”
A statement on the Beit Hanoun slaughter in Gaza released by Peter MacKay, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, on November 8, reveals just how pathetic Canadian foreign policy has become in support of the militarist, ethnic-cleansing policies of Israel. It states that “Canada is concerned by the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and the civilian casualties resulting from the latest Israeli military operation.” As if the Israeli slaughter in Beit Hanoun was a simple military procedure gone awry, rather than part of a systematic pattern of Israeli atrocities and war crimes that Canada and the ‘international community’ ignores and implicitly sanctions in the failure to address the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The hypocrisy of the Canadian government’s stance is seen in its call, on the one hand, for the Palestinian Authority to “eliminate attacks against Israel.” And, on the other, call for Israel to “exercise the utmost caution to prevent civilian casualties.” In as much as caution would be unnecessary without the shelling, bombardment, and destruction of Palestinian territory, the statement offers a de facto approval of Israeli attacks, so long as “caution” is, or can be said to have been, exercised. And never mind that Israel has never allowed the PA to establish itself as a coherent administrative structure, and has actively disrupted every aspect of the functioning of the PA since the election of a Hamas government early in 2006.
Indeed, the isolation of the PA has been led internationally by the Harper government, Canada being the country to first withdraw funds from the new government and to isolate Hamas to give Israel the greatest freedom of operation to continue with its apartheid wall and expansion of West Bank settlements. And it was the Harper regime that became the foremost international cheerleader of Israel’s assault and carpet bombing on Lebanon this summer. As for MacKay’s suggestion that Canada “welcome[s] Israel’s decision to investigate the shelling” of Beit Hanoun, this is a typical case of asking the criminal to investigate their crime. As with the thousands of other ‘incidents’ of Israeli crimes, documented daily by the United Nations Human Rights Office working in Palestine, nothing will come of it, as the usual fare of ‘legitimate tactical errors in self-defence’ or ‘equipment malfunction’ will shortly be forthcoming.
The Canadian government’s stance looks absolutely enlightened in comparison to the increasingly racist editorial stance of the Globe and Mail with respect to Palestine. In its November 10 editorial, ‘After Beit Hanoun’, it all but makes Israel innocent of the slaughter and makes the people of Gaza, and particularly Hamas and the PA, the perpetrator of the crime. The Israeli occupier is once again the victim acting in ‘self-defence’ while the occupied Palestinians attack innocent Israeli settlements. One would never know from the Globe editors that some 2300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, thousands more injured, and millions of livelihoods destroyed by Israeli actions. The Globe and Mail’s silences and backing of state terrorism, illegal occupations and the ethnic cleansing policies of Israel is shameful. There appears to be no moral limits or international laws that Israel can breach that the Globe and Mail will not defend. Such is the nature of the ‘free press’ in Canada today.
Canada bears more than its fair share of responsibility for the tragedy and wreckage being unleashed on Palestine, and in particular Gaza. The Bullet here presents the important statement from Palestine House in Canada on Beit Hanoun, and the culpability of the Canadian government and politicians in the politics of supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and its’ apartheid policies. It is followed by the statement, drafted by Jamal Jumaa, Coordinator of the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, importantly linking the current struggle in Oaxaca Mexico with the Palestinian intifadah. It is followed by the list of events for the 4th International Week Against Israeli Apartheid, November 9 to 16, 2006, in the Toronto area. Similar events are occurring across Canada and in many parts of the world.
Palestine House
Toronto, Canada
8 November 2006
Palestine House expresses its deepest outrage at the latest killing of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, 8 November,
Israeli forces fired at least 10 artillery shells at a residential area in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. This attack killed 19 Palestinian
civilians, including 18 members of the al-‘Athamna family, and wounded 55 others. Most of the victims were sleeping in their homes while the attack took
place. This war crime occurred only one day after the Israeli military redeployed from the town following a week-long invasion. The number of Palestinians
killed during the attack on Beit Hanoun has risen to 77, mostly civilians, including 17 children and 9 women. In addition, at least 250 others have been wounded.
The killing of 19 civilians this morning is the latest in a long line of Israeli atrocities. Since the so-called Israeli redeployment from Gaza on August 20, 2005, Israeli troops have killed 695 Palestinians and wounded four thousand. The Gaza Strip is surrounded by a massive electric fence with all entry and exit controlled by the Israeli military. Palestinians in the area have literally been confined to an open-air prison as Israel imposes a policy of enforced starvation on the population. Israel’s ongoing aerial and tank bombardment has destroyed main infrastructure points including power plants (leading to rolling blackouts), bridges, ministerial buildings, farm lands and houses. Humanitarian organizations have warned of food shortages and widespread hunger. According to the World Bank, unemployment levels reached 40% in the first quarter of 2006 and over 80% of the population are living below the poverty line.
This most recent killing confirms once again the complicity of the Canadian government in Israeli war crimes. Prime Minister Harper and Foreign Minister Peter McKay have repeatedly refused to raise any condemnation of Israel’s actions or to take any measures to prevent the continued killing of Palestinian civilians and the destruction of Palestinian livelihood. Instead, Harper and his cabinet speak of the ‘shared values’ of Israel and Canada, or the ‘measured response’ of the Israeli war machine.
The explicit support of Canadian politicians and public figures for these war crimes is not restricted to the federal level. On 28 May, 2006,
Toronto Mayor David Miller and police chief Bill Blair led the “Walk With Israel”, openly endorsing Israeli apartheid policies. At a pro-Israel
rally that occurred on 26 July – two weeks into the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon that was to kill over 1200 Lebanese – a Toronto police chaplain
directed a prayer “for the welfare of the State of Israel,” asking God “to grant [Israeli forces] salvation and crown them with victory.” At the
same rally, Ontario’s minister of citizenship and immigration added, “On behalf of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, I would like to say that
we stand with Israel.”
In a statement released only one week ago, Palestine House warned that the policies of the Harper government only encourage and facilitate Israeli war crimes. Sadly, this most recent atrocity confirms the accuracy of this statement. Despite the insistence of the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) in the Hague on 9 July 2004, that all nations have an “obligation…to ensure Israel complies with international humanitarian law.” Canada has refused to take any action in this regard. The consequence of this inaction is simply an endorsement of Israel’s ongoing war crimes. Palestine House demands an immediate end to the Canadian government support for Israel’s apartheid policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Canada should withdraw its ambassador from Tel Aviv and refuse to offer continued sanction to these crimes.
The Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Honors the Martyrs of Oaxaca.
Jamal Jumaa
Coordinator of the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Jerusalem, November 3, 2006
In this dreadful Autumn of death and destruction, the Palestinian and Mexican people are united more than ever in a common history, mourning and struggle.
In Palestine in the last 48 hours a new massacre has been perpetrated. 20 martyrs from the refugee camp of Beit Hanoun have been added to the hundreds of victims that have been killed since June, when the Occupation forces launched another ruthless offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In the same way, since June the Mexican government has started to use all the destructive force of its military against the 70,000 educational workers in Oaxaca who struggle for their rights. The same government that followed the demands of the US government to send its soldiers to invade and massacre the Iraqi people today turns these weapons against its own people in defense of imperialist interests.
We mourn the dead of Oaxaca as we mourn our own and we take courage from the determination in the struggle that this people have shown in response to the repression. They have united their voices in the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO): some 350 organizations have taken back the city and struggle to overthrow the corrupt government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.
If the government wanted to crush this movement with the invasion of the 29th October and the murder of the protesters, we now know that this goal has not been achieved and that the activists of the APPO know how to respond to the latest brutal attacks.
We know that the Mexican Intifada continues and spreads to other states of the nation.
As Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign representing some 50 popular committees that struggle day after day in the villages ghettoized by the wall and besieged by the complex mechanism of Zionist repression and expulsion, we want to let you know that you are not alone, that your struggle is our struggle.
60 years of occupation, dispossession, daily murder and eventually the attempt to transform Palestine into a giant open air prison were not enough to destroy the determination of the Palestinian people. The majority of our people has been expelled from their land and struggles for the return to their homes, the rest of us resists apartheid and a life in open-air prisons behind walls and razor wire.
The experience of these 60 years of resistance enable us to recognize our brothers in the Mexican indigenous communities who have resisted genocide for over 500 years. We salute the resistance of the people of Oaxaca against a corrupt puppet government and see in it a new point of reference for the struggle against imperialism.
We join the call of our Mexican comrades to demand:
- That Ulises Ruiz Ortiz immediately step down from his post as governor of the state of Oaxaca. His authoritarian policies are at the root of the bloodshed and the struggle. His permanent presence is the main obstacle to a political solution.
- The immediate withdrawal of the Federal Preventive Police from the city of Oaxaca.
- The immediate end to all forms of repression, the liberation of the arrested and the detained and the return of the disappeared.
- Unconditional respect for Human Rights and the guarantee of safety for all, in particular the members of the APPO.
- The punishment of the intellectual and material authors of the murders perpetrated by the paramilitary groups of the state.
We further remind the Federal Government that it holds the responsibility for the repression and assaults on the population and organizations of Oaxaca. We join all those that ask a political solution and the respect of the demands put forward by the APPO.
4TH INTERNATIONAL WEEK AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID
November 9 to 16, 2006
As Israel bombards the northern Gaza Strip – killing 49 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more as of 5 November – barely a word of protest is
raised by the so-called “international community.” The support of the Canadian government for Israel’s war crimes shows once again that
we must raise our collective voice to demand an end to Canadian complicity in Israeli apartheid.
Israel’s ongoing assault on the people of Palestine coincides with the 4th International Week of Action against Israeli apartheid. From 9th to
16th November, demonstrations, teach-ins and other events will be held across Canada to protest Israeli apartheid and show support to the global
campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions. (See Call From Palestine: International Week of Action Against the Apartheid Wall: full text
available at: www.stopthewall.org/downloads/nov99.html.
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid calls on supporters to join and support the following activities happening throughout Ontario. For further information, please contact CAIA:
E-mail: endapartheid@riseup.net Web: www.caiaweb.org
- NOVEMBER 9th:
To make the links with Israel’s policies of house demolition and deliberate destruction of Palestinian livelihood, CAIA will be supporting the
demonstration called by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) to retake social housing for people living at and below the poverty line
(see www.ocap.ca for more information). 6pm PARC-1499 Queen Street West (corner of Dowling). Dinner will be served. - NOVEMBER 11th:
Palestine House Presents: “Solidarity with the Women of Beit Hanoun”
Speakers will discuss the current situation and what we can do to support the people of Gaza. Photographs from the renowned photo-journalist
Jon Elmer will be on display (and for sale). The event is a fundraiser for women in Beit Hanoun and part of the International Week of Action
Against Israeli Apartheid. 4pm-7pm, Palestine House, 3195 Erindale Station Road, Mississauga.
For more information, please e-mail info@palestinehouse.com or phone 905-270-3622. - NOVEMBER 12th:
The neighborhood group, Parkdale for Palestine, presents a short film on Palestine and the opening of a photographic exhibition by Jon Elmer which
will run to the 19th of November at Tinto Coffee House, 89 Roncesvalles St, Toronto. Event starts at 6pm. For more information, please e-mail
parkdaleforpalestine@gmail.com. - NOVEMBER 15th:
York University – The Palestine Solidarity Committee presents a film screening of the “Iron Wall.” 4:30pm @ York Student Centre, Graduate Student Lounge (GSA), Room 430. - NOVEMBER 19th:
Information Picket – “No Charitable Status for Racist Apartheid Education!”
Protest the $500-$25,000/head tax-deductible fundraising dinner for Haifa University which will be attended by the most prominent Canadian
supporters of Israel. Organized by Not In Our Name and endorsed by the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. 4:30 PM, Fairmont Royal York Hotel,
100 Front Street West.
NOVEMBER 16TH: STUDENT DAY OF ACTION
- York University: The Palestine Solidarity Committee will be holding a demonstration as part of the student day of action against the wall. 1pm @ Vari Hall.
- University of Toronto: Students Against Israeli Apartheid will be gathering at Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George at 1pm, and conducting a snake march to target three sites on campus with direct links to Israeli Apartheid.
- Ryerson University: Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) will be showing a film screening of “In the Spider’s Web” with guest speakers.
- University of Toronto, Mississauga: Students Against Israeli Apartheid will also be holding a film screening. Full details for these events are still to be confirmed for both campuses: please e-mail campus@caiaweb.org for updates.
