We
read with interest the Press Release you issued, on June 22, 2009, after
meeting with Mr. Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
We
note your expression affirming : "Israel's
right to defend itself and to live in peace and security.." Interestingly,
we note, there is no call on Israel
to comply with international law and terminate completely its brutal illegal
occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory, that
it continues to hold for 42 years, in defiance of international law and
repeated Security Council resolutions.
Dare
we ask if there was any mention of the right of the Palestinian people to live
in peace and security, free from illegal foreign occupation and without being
subjected to all the atrocities Israel is committing against them, under a
brutal occupation that subjects them to violations of virtually every article
of the Fourth Geneva Convention, such violations that are deemed, by
international law, as war crimes?
It
is time for our country, Canada, to stand with the claim of upholding the UN
Charter and human rights and call on Israel to terminate completely its illegal
occupation of the land of its neighbours so that
peace and security can be assured for Israelis and Palestinians and other Arab neighbours.