Are you aware that Israel has been in illegal occupation of Palestinan as well as Syrian land for 34 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council Resolutions? Are you aware that during this occupation Israel has been committing the most viscious violations of human rights, in violation of The Fourth Geneva Convention? These include imprisonment without due process of law, torture of prisoners, demolition of thousands of homes, including entire towns and villages, illegal expropriation of land and creation of illegal settlements, and the practice of a racist apartheid system against those illegally occupied. Are you aware that these Israeli practices have been vehemently and repeatedly condemned by internataional human rights organisations including Amnesty International, the UN Human Rights Commission, the International Commission of Jurists and Israeli human rights organisations , including B'Tselem and the Israeli Commission for Civil and Human Rights?

You speak of the plight of Palestinian refugees. Are you aware that these refugees were systematically uprooted from their homes by Israeli leaders through a policy of massacre and terror? Are you aware that Israel is perpetuating their suffering by denying them the right to return to their homes in defiance of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the repeatedly re-affirmed UN resolution # 194, that remains defied for over 50 years?

You speak of Palestinian textbooks and antisemitism. Have you looked at Israeli textbooks and who are the real racists? Do you know that it was the then Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir who described the Palestinians as two-legged animals and the then Israeli Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, who described them as cockroaches and Israeli Chief Rabbi and the Shas party spiritual leader,Rabbi Yosef, who described the Palestinians as snakes and called recently for the annihilation of all the Arabs with missiles and with no mercy?

You refer to the recent Palestinian Intifada. Are you aware that international law entitles all peoples, including even the Palestinian people, to resist foreign occupation of their land? Have you cared to look at the Israeli practices against mostly teenagers and children throwing stones at soldiers and settlers occupying their land and hundreds being killed with live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets? Are you aware of the Israeli extra-judicial murder and assassination using rockets and death squads, in defiance of international law? Have you seen the Apache attacks and ground to ground missiles and tanks demolishing the homes of the refugees in their refugee camps and killing civilian men, women and children?

You refer to monetary Canadian contributions. Let me bring to you attention my earlier reference to total villages, like Imwas [Emmaus], Yalu and Beit Nuba [my own home town] being systematically dynamited and bulldozed at the direct order of the then Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, Mr. Yitzhak Rabin, in June 1967. No single shot was fired in these historic villages. Today stands at the sit of the ruins of these villages the infamy that is called Canada Park, built with Canadfian tax-deductible dollars, my dollars and your dollars. You may not object to see your dollars used in an action that violates international law and all elements of humanity. The inhabitants of these villages are now refugees and the ruins of their homes and pastures are used to provide recreation centres for others. I, like many Canadians, including then members of Parliament, object to having Canada's name associated with such an atrocity. I would have hoped, as you sometimes speak of balance in Canadian policy, that you would call on our government to ask Israel to remove Canada's name from this infamy.

Mr. Day, it is time for you and other politicians to take note of facts before you speak out and allow the Palestinian people a modicum of justice. For without justice, I can assure you, there will be no peace for Arab or Jew in the Middle East.