LOCAL EVENTS-WINNIPEG:
RALLY AGAINST THE ISRAELI ATTACKS ON GAZA:
The people of Gaza have not rung in the New Year happily, as Israeli bombs and rockets rain down on them in a display of aggression that is reminiscent of the fascist attack on Guernica (see the Picasso picture above). These attacks which have, so far, killed over 400 people indiscriminately, combatants and civilians alike, are predicated on the false assumption that terror can make the inhabitants of Gaza abandon their support of the Hamas faction/sect. This assumption is false, but it is a common assumption amongst both those in power and those who wish to attain it. While having no sympathy for either the Israeli state nor its opponents Molly feels that terrorism has to be condemned no matter what side plays with these tactics. Hence the actions of the Israeli government have to be condemned. The following is the skivvy of what will be happening in Winnipeg tomorrow to protest this present atrocity.
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RALLY TO PROTEST ISRAEL'S MASSACRES IN GAZA, PALESTINE:
Host:
Canada Palestine Support Network (Winnipeg)
Type:
Causes - Rally
Time and Place
Date:
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Time:
2:00pm - 3:30pm
Location:
Manitoba Legislature
Street:
450 Broadway
City/Town:
Winnipeg, MB
Contact Info
Phone:
2049475093
Email:
noiiwpg@mts.net
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The following is a letter to print out and send to Prime Minster Steven Harper about this issue.
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LETTER TO PRINT, SIGN AND MAIL TO PM HARPER
===================
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A2
Canada
Fax: 613-941-6900
email:
January, 2009
To the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper,
Prime Minister of Canada
I am writing to express my shock and dismay at the recent illegal Israeli attacks on the Palestinian city of Gaza. More than 400 Palestinians have been helplessly killed by Israel’s aerial bombardments. The Israeli bombers have targeted civilian buildings and installations, including police stations, a university, refugee camps and the port of Gaza City, not to mention numerous houses, residential and office buildings.
These shocking Israeli assaults follow a cruel, year-and-a-half-long siege and blockade of Gaza by Israel, conditions that have crippled the Gazan economy and brought starvation and malnourishment. The Israeli blockade has brought delivery of food, fuel, medical supplies and other necessities to a halt, even as UN storage depots in Gaza are now empty. Israel continues to bar UN and medical personnel, as well as journalists, from entering the city.
The Israeli attacks are war crimes, and are directly in contravention of international humanitarian law and principles of human rights. Yet Western governments, including Canada’s, have been silent in the face of these atrocities. This must change immediately.
Mr. Harper, on Friday, December 19, 2008, you represented Canada in the earth-turning ceremony for the foundation of the new Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. If principles of human rights are to extend to everyone, including Palestinians, and if you truly seek to champion human rights in Canada and around the world, then you and your Government must act now to prevent the further shedding of Palestinian blood.
We, as citizens of Canada who desire our country to stand for the human rights of people here and around the world, hereby call upon your Government to condemn the Israeli attacks upon Gaza and to use all of its influence at the United Nations and other international organizations to which it is signatory to force Israel to cease and desist from all further attacks against the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
We also call upon your Government to suspend its relations with Israel, including all nation-to-nation trade agreements, pacts, treaties, and so forth.
Further, we call upon your Government to declare sanctions against Israel, to divest itself from all investments in Israeli companies, and to boycott all Israeli goods and services until a lasting peace agreement acceptable to the Palestinian people is reached.
Sincerely,
Signature:
Name & Address:
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RALLY MEDIA RELEASE:
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PALESTINE SUPPORT GROUP HOLDS RALLY, DENOUNCES ATTACKS ON GAZA BY ISRAEL
Sanctions against Israel called for as death toll climbs past 400
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Saturday, January 3, 2009
WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg chapter of the Canada-Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet) will convene a rally this Saturday, January 3, 2009 beginning at 2 p.m. at the Manitoba Legislature, in protest of Israel’s latest, deadly assault on the Gaza Strip and its peoples.
Organized with the support of other social justice and peace-focused organizations — among these, Canadian Muslims for Palestine (CMP) and Peace Alliance Winnipeg (PAW) — the rally will feature a number of speakers (Palestinian and Jewish, alike) each condemning Israel’s week-long bombardment campaign, which has resulted, so far, in the deaths of over 400 Palestinians, with thousands more wounded and displaced.
“Last Saturday’s attacks represent the largest massacre in Gaza since Israel’s illegal occupation of the area in 1967,” states rally speaker and CanPalNet (Winnipeg) member Bassam Hozaima.
Adds Hozaima, himself a native of Gaza: “Gaza had been cut off from the outside world for 19 months and starved from the basic means of living and health care.”
“We must mobilize and act to convince the Federal government to not only denounce these acts of slaughter, but to persuade officials to engage in a comprehensive campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel — much as was done in the case of South Africa under Apartheid.”
To date, more than 170 Palestinian and Israeli civil society associations — together with hundreds of international NGOs, grassroots movements and workers’ unions (including Canadian labour unions CUPE and CUPW) — have appealed to world governments to enact BDS campaigns against Israel for its human rights abuses against Palestinians.
States Canadian Muslims for Palestine (CMP) media spokesperson and Manitoba lawyer Louay Alghoul: “We, as Canadians, are astonished from the statements released by our government, where it justifies such unprecedented action of Israel’s collective punishment to the Palestinian people and supports the government of Israel in its recent massacre in the Gaza Strip.”
Continues Alghoul, also Palestinian: “Canada continues to follow the tail of the Bush’s administration when it comes to international and foreign policies — even when the rest of the world opposes it.”
CanPalNet (Winnipeg) organizers invite all Winnipeggers to attend Saturday’s rally, which is to be held in an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, and in full support of human rights and social justice for all peoples.
For more information, or to arrange media interviews, please contact rally organizer and CanPalNet (Winnipeg) member
Krishna Lalbiharie at:
(ph.): 204.947.5093;
(email): noiiwpg@mts.net
French media:
Erin Bockstael,
Canpalnet (Winnipeg):
(ph.): 204.797.0534-30-
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ONGOING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE COVERAGE:
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Both Flashpoints & Democracy Now's featured programs today (Monday, December 29th) are on GAZA (audio, video, and/or written transcripts available -- links below):
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org
Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net
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RALLY IN WINNIPEG!
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2009
2 PM * MANITOBA LEGISLATURE
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
PROGRAM/SPEAKERS: TBA
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As of this writing, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s latest assault on the Gaza Strip and its peoples, together with lasting threats of bloodshed hanging heavily over the skies in Palestine as Israel vows further, violent actions -- including a calculated ground-force invasion.
Indeed, Israel’s December 27, 2008 attacks represent the single largest slaughter in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied the area in 1967 — this, as the numbers of dead innocents and civilians (including children) continue to mount following late December's massacre.
Israel's military operation, entitled “Cast Lead,” echoes previous Israeli raids into Gaza, which have been characterized by indiscriminate attacks on civilian population centres, mass detentions, violent house demolitions and other forms of collective punishment against the Palestinian people.
*** Please note that Saturday’s rally will additionally address the Provincial and Federal governments’ total support towards illegally occupying Israel — best exemplified by way of increased bilateral military, political and nation-to-nation economic links.
Israel's latest massacre in Gaza occurs with official Canadian complicity towards Israel's illegal siege and ongoing sanctions over the civilian population in Gaza. Over the past two years, the Gaza Strip has undergone the daily violence of a wide-ranging humanitarian catastrophe triggered by severely reduced access to energy, food, and medicines.
IN EFFECT, GAZA REMAINS THE WORLD’S LARGEST OPEN-AIR PRISON.
At this moment, we MUST reaffirm our commitment in the strongest possible terms in support of mobilizing friends and allies in other progressive social movements to respond to the call by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations for a comprehensive campaign of boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS).
As H.E. Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, President of the United Nations General Assembly, stated in a recent speech:
“More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations.”
Join us at the Manitoba Legislature as people of conscience to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza and to protest Israel's continued, malevolent Apartheid regime this Saturday, January 3, 2009.
This event organized by:
Canada-Palestine Support Network (Winnipeg)
With additional support from:
Canadian Muslims for Palestine
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
8 comments:
Good luck. Israel would not even exist if it wasn't for the United States giving it free weapons. The US government has been bought and paid for by the jewish lobby.
Accept the fact that jews are really good salesmen. This is proves the point.
But the real loser in all this IS Israel, because they will never have peace since they did not want to listen to the wisdom of Jesus who said, "He that lives by the sword, will die by the sword".
As I see it, the real solution here is drastic reform of the United Nations, specifically a greater emphasis on democracy / human rights. Something like this...
www.UnitedDemocraticNations.org
This is my own proposal. Feedback anyone?
gary
I don't know exactly how to respond to comment #1 above except to note that the very existence of ANY state is prima facie evidence of "the sword". I DON'T think the US government (the biggest "sword" in the world today) is "bought and paid for by the jewish lobby". I personally think that the USA has "national interests" in having Israel posed as a dagger to the surrounding oil rich states.
Mollymew,
I'm not sure there's ANY sense to be made of US foreign policy.
So what did you think of my UN reform idea?
gary
Well, I had a look Gary, and it
seems to me like one more reincarnation of the "world government" idea. No doubt many well meaning people have promoted this idea over the decades of its existence, even Bertrand Russell (I've just finished reading his "History of Western Philosophy' book), but I'm afraid that it fails the "reality test" in an even more grevious way than that of the "anarchist revolution" does. It presumes, despite OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY, that the leaders of so-called "democratic states" are as well intentioned and governed by an ideological conception of the public good as the idealistic proponents of this idea. That is a grevious !!!!! fallacy. One doesn't have to cite modern history to fiund examples of "democratic imperialism" ie the USA or Israel. The idea is as old as the Athenian Republic. "Democracry" is NOT a guarantee of virtue.
I'm afraid THAT is what I think in brief. The idea of world government also has MANY other implications that I don't want to get into here.
Mollymew,
It presumes, despite OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY, that the leaders of so-called "democratic states" are as well intentioned and governed by an ideological conception of the public good as the idealistic proponents of this idea.
This is NOT what democracy assumes. It assumes that, when bad leaders make themselves evident, they can be voted out by the people, rather than kept in by power by the military. It's why Bush is not our president going forward. So you are absolutely right... "Democracry" is NOT a guarantee of virtue.
Just to be clear, I would NOT make the case that he United States is a model democracy. The point of a United Democratic Nations is not just to spread democracy, but also to help improve existing ones.
I certainly appreciate your concern of a "world government". I share that concern. In the concept I explicitly state that it would NOT have a standing army. I actually envision an organization that's weaker in many ways than the UN. It's strength would be instead in it's democratic moral authority. Even if we can't stop China from contributing to genocide in Darfur, at least we wouldn't have China dictating world policy through the security council. That's about as anti-human rights I can imagine.
gary
I don't know Gary. I just don't know. If you were to take a survey of existing governments I'm sure you would find the vast majority "claiming" to be 'democratic", including, of course, China. It's interesting that you brought up "China and Darfur". There are those- the vast majority of the world's population- who believe that the USA has had a MUCH greater role in promoting genocide over the past century than ANY other power.
The USA, by one criteria, the DIRECT influnce of the population on legislation is FAR more democratic than my own country-Canada. Using the same criteria it is FAR less democratic than the country of Switzerland. Your President, Bush, was not "voted out". You know that as well as I do. He was voted IN twice, and by the US Constitution cannot run for a third term.
It WASN'T an anarchist who described electoral politics as "elected aristocracy", but THAT is the simple truth. By the HARD criteria of DIRECT influnce of the people over public policy electoral politics fails miserably, and its failure is represented by 10s of thousands of government decisions taken by governments the world over every year.
So...I'll bow out of your idea. It is subject to the self-serving self-identification of states as "democratic". ALL of the ex-communist states, for instance, claimed that they were MORE democratic than "capitalist states". I repeat my hestitations about "world government" and my observation that so-called "democratic" states are NOT immune to brutality to those outside their borders.
IF you are willing to take the Swiss constitution as a model and (especially) IF and when you find government #2 that adheres to such an imperfect model that is ages ahead of any other THEN your idea might hold water. Until then it is an idealistic dream that depends upon a definition of "democrcay" that I certainly don't hold to, adefinition in competition with MANY others in the world today. The Swiss, by the way, haven't invaded anyone else since the formation of their confereracy.
Mollymew,
I agree with your point that the USA has contributed negatively to foreign policy, even more than you know. For a country with such great potential, we have so often let the world down. This proves that democracy in and of itself isn't enough....you also need an informed electorate. Our citizens have generally been all to complacent, more concerned with sports or movie stars than foreign policy. But this does NOT disprove the concept of democracy. Democracy is still the system with the most potential, a system where people are not disenfranchised. Dictatorships are not even a close second. So if your point is that you fundamentally distrust the concept of democracy, that's one argument and I would ask you what system you prefer instead. But I think your point is that the USA is not a model democracy and on that I certainly agree. The point of defining democracy is to evaluate and improve democracy. The point of a United Democratic Nations is not just to encourage new democracies, but to improve existing ones, including the USA.
If you're concerned about the task of defining democracy, that's also not an argument against trying. You just did so yourself when you described Switzerland as a better democracy than the USA. Here's another such effort...
http://www.demcoalition.org/pdf/CD_participation_criteria.pdf
So while I agree that nations sometimes claim to be democratic, such claims can definitely be measured. To not measure democracy puts no value on it.
If we look at the existing organization (UN) you find that France (20th in population) holds a seat in the powerful Security Council, including permanent veto authority. India (2nd most populous nation) has no such position. So if you don't like the UN and you "bow out" of the idea of a more democratic UN, what do you believe in? Don't you think global cooperation is needed on issues like Darfur, North Korea, climate change, etc? Or do you prefer an isolationist position?
gary
www.UnitedDemocraticNations.org
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