Queens Park Motion seeks to exonerate Israel and censure Canadians

Posted May 22, 2009

http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost/2009/week21/Friday/052133.htm





Mr. Shurman's motion is to be debated in the Ontario Provincial Parliament on Monday, May 25. - Motion would seek to curb public debate

Toronto - On May 11, Thornhill, MPP, Peter Shurman, filed a motion in the Ontario legislature condemning the use of the term "Israeli Apartheid Week". Motion #93 will come to a vote on Monday, May 25.

The motion reads: "In the opinion of this House the term Israel Apartheid Week is condemned as it serves to incite hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word 'apartheid' in this context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid regime in South Africa."

Coincidentally, this month the South African Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) issued a report (link below) which directly contradicts Shurman's assertion. The report, entitled: "Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid: A re-assessment of Israel's practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law," states, "this study concludes that Israel has introduced a system of apartheid in the OPT [occupied Palestinian territory]." The detailed legal analysis was assembled by South African legal experts in conjunction with Israeli and other international lawyers.

"The question of whether or not Israel is an apartheid state should be a matter open to public debate," said Canadians for Justice and Peace (CJPME) director, Thomas Woodley. "Apartheid-era South Africans such as lawyer John Dugard and Archbishop Desmond Tutu say that not only do Israeli policies amount to apartheid, they are worse."

Israel's violations of international law and human rights have been thoroughly documented by reputable international organizations such as the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations. Israeli policies have turned the Palestinian territories into population enclaves surrounded by Israeli military bases, Jewish settlements, Israeli-only roads and checkpoints, similar to the Bantustan and pass system of apartheid South Africa. The closure and checkpoint system in the Palestinian territories was introduced in the early 90s (before the first suicide attacks) and severely restricts the movement of Palestinians. Renowned South African lawyer, John Dugard, has said these laws "resemble, but in severity go far beyond, apartheid's pass system."

CJPME believes that in a free society, citizens should be able to discuss any issue, and to make their own mind. People also have a right to organize events such as Israeli Apartheid Week that are critical of Israel or any other nation-state. CJPME asserts that it is not the job of MPPs to censure terms or events because they choose to disagree with them. Says Woodley, "To call Israel 'a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights,' can only be considered a wilful distortion of the truth, and an attempt to exonerate Israel without allowing discussion to take place in the court of public opinion."