----- Original Message -----

Cc: Regan.G@parl.gc.ca ; savage.m@parl.gc.ca ; Mackay.P@parl.gc.ca ; McDonough.A@parl.gc.ca ; Layton.J@parl.gc.ca ; Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca

Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 6:11 PM

Subject: False praise.

Canada Palestine Association,

P.O.Box 1085

Halifax, NS, B3J 2X1

April 29, 2007

The Right Hon. Mr Stephane Dion, MP.

Leader of The Liberal Party.

Ottawa.

Dear Mr. Dion;

We are shocked to hear of your recent praise and pledge for full support for the state of Israel, in the name of the Liberal party and the Canadian people. The practices of the state of Israel against its own Arab, Muslim and Christian, citizens, as well as against the Palestinian people, in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza, are clear manifestations of racism, Apartheid methods and systemic state terrorism and war crimes.

Israel and its apologists often describe Israel as a democracy. The democracy that is ascribed to Israel is a charade best described by the noted Israeli author and journalist, Maxim Ghilan, who stated in 1982: " Israel is a democrcy for Jews only, like [Apartheid] South Africa is a democracy for Whites only." The state of Israel practices blatant legislated racism and discrimination against its own Muslim and Christian citizens. These practices have been condemned by all international human rights bodies, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem.

The catalogue of these practices is lengthy, but the late Professor Israel Shahak, a Holocaust survivor and Chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, summed it up accurately in his statement: "It is my considered opinion that the state of Israel is a racist state in the full meaning of this term. In this state, people are discriminated against, in the most permanent and legal way and in the most important areas of life, only because of their origin. This racist discrimination began in Zionism and is carried today mainly in co-operation with the institutions of the Zionist movement." (Quote taken from The Racist Nature of Zionism and of the Zionist State of Israel, an article published in Pi-Ha’aton, the weekly newspaper of the students of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Nov. 5, 1975.)

Derek Tozer, an Israeli thinker, stated: "The official policy of the government (of Israel) is unequivocal. Arabs, like the Jews in Nazi Germany, are officially ‘class B’ citizens, a fact which is recorded on their identity cards."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a Christmas visit to Jerusalem in 1989, stated: "I am a black South African and if I were to change names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa."

Shulamit Aloni, a veteran Israeli writer and former member of Knesset and cabinet minister in Israeli cabinets stated: " Nevertheless, the State of Israel practices its own, quiet violent, form of Apartheid against the native Palestinian population.......through its army, the government of Israel practices a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies." {" Indeed there is Apartheid in Israel" By Shulamit Aloni. Yediot Acharonot, Jan. 5, 2007}

The predicament of Israel’s roughly 1.2 million Arab citizens is evident, as the 2003 Israeli State Committee of Inquiry made clear: "They suffer systemic discrimination in employment, housing and education, and lack of equal access to state resources."

Israel’s new Citizenship Law, passed in 2002 by a wide margin in the Knesset, denies any Arab Israeli citizen the right to reside in Israel with his/her spouse if they marry a Palestinian. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the law as racist, and Israel-based B’Tselem Human rights group, claims that it contravenes the Israeli Basic Law.

As to terrorism, it was Israel and the Zionist groups, that preceeded its creation, that created terrorism in the Middle East against the Arabs, the British, Europeans and even Jews. Israeli catalogue of terrorism is lengthy. However, the testimony by the Late Professor Israel Shahak illustrates this accurately: "There is nothing new in the fact that Israel is a terrorist state, which, almost from its inception, has used its intelligence service (the Mossad) to assassinate people on foreign soil with any violence or terror it considers necessary for its ends."

Israeli practices are clearly in violation of virtually every article of the Fourth geneva Convention. Article One of the Convention calls on all High Contracting parties, including Canada, to take action against any state that violates any article of the Convention.

Thus, I think it behooves our political leaders, speaking for our country, which prides itself on upholdng the UN Charter and internatioal law, to take note of the historic facts and call on Israel to uphold the UN Charter and comply with international law and UN resolutions, scores of which Israel continues to defy for decades, instead of the unjustified praise that our leaders indulge in.

Yours sincerely,

Ismail Zayid, MD

President, Canada Palestine Association.