NDP issues Palestine policy
NDP issues Palestine policy
Party leader Jagmeet Singh issues 13 demands for a more human rights-oriented approach to Israel and Palestine
In response to inquiries from party supporters, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has put forward 13 specific demands to the federal government for a more human rights-oriented approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The Liberal government’s record on this issue is more than disappointing: it flies in the face of their claim to stand up for human rights and international law," Singh said in an email to supporters, where he laid out the NDP's calls to action.
There can be no peace in Israel and Palestine until Israel ends its 55-year "illegal occupation" of Palestinian territory, the email notes.
This comes the week after Israeli occupation forces raided the West Bank offices of six human rights groups, which it had labelled terrorist organizations in October 2021 based on spurious allegations of ties to the armed wing of the secular leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The NDP is calling on the federal Liberals to:
Respond to reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli human rights NGOs and the United Nations and accept their recommendations to states.
Refer the killing of al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court.
Increase pressure on the Israeli government to stop its plan to annex Palestinian territory in violation of international law.
Condemn the construction of illegal settlements, demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, and evictions from East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah.
Call on Israel to end forcible displacement of villagers in Masafer Yatta to create a military firing zone.
Increase funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which supports Palestinian refugees.
Condemn Israel’s undemocratic nation-state law.
Condemn the Israeli government’s attacks on civil society in Israel and Palestine, including the recent designation of six Palestinian human rights groups as “terrorist.”
Condemn the ongoing blockade of Gaza and increase Canadian humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.
Condemn military detention of Palestinian children, and reaffirm support for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Vote for Palestinian human rights at the United Nations.
End all trade and economic cooperation with illegal settlements in Israel-Palestine.
Suspend the bilateral trade of all arms and related materials with the State of Israel until Palestinian rights are upheld.
Sam Hersh, an Ottawa-based Jewish advocate for Palestinian human rights, said the party "has come a long way" in supporting justice for Palestine, which he attributed to "efforts from the grassroots membership."
NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson told me that on the question of Palestine, the Canadian government "continuously fails to stand up for human rights and fails to act in a way that is ethical."
"I abhor violence against civilians, regardless of whether they are Palestinian or Jewish. There's definitely been violence against civilians from both sides. But in recognizing the asymmetrical nature of this conflict, Canada has an obligation to do more," McPherson said.
She said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly refuses to explain why the Liberals reject Amnesty International's finding that Israel engages in apartheid against the Palestinians — a finding shared by Human Rights Watch, as well as Israeli human rights groups B'Tselem and Yesh Din.
McPherson, who represents the Edmonton-Strathcona riding in the House of Commons, has been one of the more forceful voices in support of Ukraine in the face of Russia's illegal invasion.
She said she finds the contrast between Canada's approach to Russia's occupation of Ukraine and Israel's occupation of Palestine stark:
I don't understand, for example, why Canada will not support an ICC investigation into the conflict in Israel and Palestine when they are supportive of an ICC investigation into the conflict in Ukraine with Russia. We've been told in the past that it's because Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, but neither is Russia nor Ukraine. The lens isn't the same. We're picking and choosing human rights.
This selective approach to human rights doesn't only apply to the situation in Palestine, McPherson added. Canada has also been relatively silent about the Saudi war on Yemen, which has killed approximately 377,000 people, 70% of whom are estimated to be children under the age of five.
Originally published in The Maple
Canadian spy smuggled teenagers into Syria to join ISIL
In 2015, Canadian intelligence asset Mohammed Al Rasheed assisted three teenage girls in travelling to Syria to join ISIL before sharing their passport details with Canadian officials in Jordan, BBC News reports.
Lawyers for Shamima Begum, one of the three girls, are fighting the removal of her citizenship, arguing she was a victim of human trafficking.
Begum, who was 15 at the time, and two other east London schoolgirls — Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-old Amira Abase — met Rasheed at a bus station in Istanbul, Turkey, where he facilitated their travel across the border into Syria.
Rasheed was arrested in Turkey a few days later. He had been helping people enter Syria to join ISIL for at least eight months prior to getting caught.
Read the full story here.
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Parents who sent their kids to a rural Saskatchewan Bible camp where campers had exorcisms performed on them without consent say camp management defended the practice as necessary “spiritual warfare”.
A/V Corner
Listen: PressProgress’s Stephen Magusiak and yours truly went on The Maple’s North Untapped podcast to talk to host Alex Cosh about the UCP leadership race and, in particular, its wacky frontrunner, Danielle Smith.
Watch: Former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz gets asked tough questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, legal defence of Donald Trump and role in getting Norman Finkelstein denied tenure at DePaul University, as well as why nobody likes him anymore, in an exclusive interview with the YouTube show the Rising.