Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 7:19
PM
Subject: Deafening
Silence.
Canada Palestine
Association
POBox 1085
Halifax,NS, B3J 2x1
The Hon. Mr. John Manley
Minister of Foreign
affairs,
Ottawa
April, 11, 2001
Dear Mr. Manley:
Today Israeli forces invaded, in the middle
of the night while people were asleep, the Palestinian refugee camp in Khan
Younis, in the Gaza Strip, and demolished dozens of their homes and killed and
injured dozens of men, women and children, devastating their lives and meagre
possessions.
This is clearly a horrendous crime in
violation of the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention. I do not need to
remind you that these people are in these refugee camps because Israel had
driven them out of their homes, in 1948, and refused to allow them to return to
their homes, in defiance of UN resolutions and The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. To compound this crime, Israel continues to occupy
illegally, since 1967, the territory that they fled to, and refuses to withdraw
from this illegally occupied territory, in defiance of repeated Security Council
resolutions.
This crime goes on today and we hear nothing
but a deafening silence from our government. Does our government have no role or
voice to express our peoples' repugnance at these crimes? Will our government
bring pressure to bear on Israel to stop its inhumane treatment of the refugees
and comply with international law?
Yours sincerely
Ismail Zayid, MD.
President, Canada Palestine
Association