From: Ismail Zayid

To: manlej@parl.gc.ca

Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 4:47 PM

Subject: Zionism and Racism

Canada Palestine Association
POBox 1085,
Halifax, NS, B3 J 2X1

The Hon. Mr. John Manley MP,

Minister of Foreign affairs,
Ottawa

March 9, 2001

Dear Mr. Manley:

I read, with surprise, in The Globe & Mail today, in an article by Stephanie Nolen, {"U.S. may boycott racism conference" March 9},a statement made by our government : "we feel our efforts in this situation would be much better served by us being there to oppose [any such resolution on racism and Zionism]".

We thought that our people, and presumably our government, are adamantly opposed to racism in any form. If that is so, why should the state of Israel, of all nations, have this unique immunity from criticism and having its practices examined and discussed? Israel's practices, built on the ideology of Zionism, manifest the vilest forms of discrimination against not only Palestinians and other Arabs under occupation, but also against its own Muslim and Christian citizens. The racist tenets of the Zionist ideology were manifest in the practices of ethnic cleansing, demolition of homes and total villages, including Imwas and Yalu and Beit Nuba [my own home town] where the infamy that is called Canada Park is built, a war crime built with Canadian tax-deductible dollars.

The practices of racism have been documented by many international human rights groups including Amnesty International, the Israeli B'tselem human rights group and The Israeli League for Civil and Human Rights. Statements by Jewish and Israeli thinkers affirm that, and I will forward to you a letter I wrote yesterday to The Globe & Mail confirming the authenticity of these practices.

Yours sincerely

Ismail Zayid, MD

President, Canada Palestine Association.