Toronto forum on Mid-East Crisis
The war is over, but the crisis is not and some say there is more to come.
SPHR-Ryerson holds a forum on the "Middle East Crisis."
On Aug.30 in Toronto, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at Ryerson University held a forum on 'Middle East in Crisis.' While there was recognition that the rocket-fire had come to a stop and a ceasefire was in effect, there was also a common feeling of uncertainty that loomed throughout the discussion and speeches of the panelists.
Khaled Mouammar, the national president of the Canadian Arab Federation was one of the panelists, and he spoke not only of the recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon, but also about the context under which Arabs and Muslims find themselves in Canada.
"Arab Canadians need to be conscious of the Zionist lobby that aims to split the community into two. We should not fall into that trap. There is the attempt to distinguish between good Arabs and bad Arabs. A good Arab being he who does not challenge the status quo and a bad Arab as someone who questions the reigning theory. The Zionist lobby thinks that the bad Arabs should accept the message that is portrayed by the government," he said.
Mouammar said there is a distinct double standard in how the West is waging its "war on terror." He said this war in the name of freedom and liberty is complete "baloney." He said the reason why Hezbollah has been enlisted as a terorrist organization in some countries, including Canada, is only because Hezbollah does not follow the imperialist agenda in the Middle East.
He said Arabs and Muslims have become stigmatized in Canada and have become targets of hate crimes and systemic discrimination. But he said this was not the first time this has happened in Canada.
"We are not the first community that has been targeted by the government. The Japenese, the Chinese and other minorities have also witnessed such treatment. But that just tells us that we need to get organized and make sure these new laws, the anti-terrorism law and security certificates, do not continue to threaten our civil liberties as Canadians."
He said people need to realize that although Arabs may be the ones experiencing the crux of the pain of these new legislations at this moment, but he said, the reality is that this encroachment on the civil liberties will soon translate into an encroachment on the rights and liberties of all Canadians -not only Arabs and Muslims.
Abbie Bakan, a professor at Queen's Unveristy in Kingston and well-known Jewish activist against Zionism also spoke at the forum, where she began her discussion with the origins and history of Zionism.
She said that Israel is widely known to be a Zionist Jewish state, as well as a violent and aggressive state. She also said there is evidence to suggest that the July war between Israel and Lebanon was not something that was triggered due to the two soldiers, but instead it was something that Bush, Blair and Olmert were all ready for and were looking forward to.
She said as a Jew it is "an absolute insult" to be expected to defend and speak on behalf of a state like Israel and explained that Judaism has nothing to do with Zionism.
"Zionism is a political movement, not a religious movement. It is portrayed as a religious movement to justify its cause, but it is not religious at all," she explained.
Bakan said that Zionism has been interpreted as a solution for anti-Semitism through the achievement of a state that is exclusively Jewish.
"Israel is a colonial state and it was a colonial state from the very beginning. Modern Israeli leaders are of the same right wing lot of Zionism as the earlier ones were," she said.
But she emphasized the fact that the Jewish community needs to understand that Zionism is not in the interest of the Jewish community and that Zionism was always a minority view until the holocaust and the decline of Stalinism, which created a "well of despair."
Bakan said Israel did not win this recent war and because of this defeat Zionism has taken a big hit. She said the Israeli state is now weakened but warned that when imperialist states are weakened they are not "pretty."
"When empires fall, they leave a trail of death behind them...what we have seen is quite frightening and now there is the threat of it moving into Iran," she said.
Ghadeer Siyam, the President of SPHR at Ryerson Unversity and a Palestinian herself spoke about the current situation in Palestine and the Israeli atrocities against the Arab population.
She said education among the Palestinian population is very important but due to the security wall and checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza proper education has become something impossible for the Palestinians to attain.
She explained how teachers and students would have to go through a checkpoint everyday to get to their school because it falls on the other side of the security wall.
"Palestinian children spend more time getting to school than they do in school," Siyam said.
She explained that Israeli sentiment is that Palestinian education is more dangerous than Palestinian weapons and the security wall facilitates the Israeli government in trying to make education something hard to attain for the Palestinians.
"We need to stand up against the Israeli government's security wall. It is destroying the lives of the Palestinians."
