CJPME Condemns Anti-Palestinian Prejudice at the @UofT.
We are alarmed by recent actions of the U of T that amount to censorship of critical scholarship about Israel, and should be understood as anti-Palestinian racism.
“It is completely unacceptable that the University of Toronto would submit to external pressure and punish a scholar for their work on Palestine" - @mbueckertcjpme.org/pr_2020_09_23_…
“The effect of the university’s actions is to marginalize and silence Palestinian voices within academia, and to make it much harder to investigate and discuss Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights. This must be properly understood as anti-Palestinian racism" @mbueckert
The U of T's behaviour sends the message that researching human rights violations – when those violations are committed by Israel – can disqualify you from pursuing human rights work more broadly in academia. cjpme.org/pr_2020_09_23_…
The interference in this case by an external judge also exposes the role of external pro-Israel lobbying campaigns in trying to shut down scholarship and activism on Palestinian narratives. The judge in question is a former board member of the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs.
CJPME fully endorses the open letter signed by over 1,000 lawyers and academics, which calls on the @UofT to restore Dr Azarova’s employment offer and issue an apology.
Last week the ICJ concluded that Israel's occupation of Palestine is illegal and must end immediately. We wrote to @JustinTrudeau about the actions that Canada must take to align with its obligations as advised by the ICJ: 1. Canada must support efforts by the UN to end Israel’s illegal presence in the OPT; 2. Canada must impose sanctions on Israel in response to its breach of the UN Charter; 3. Canada must cancel the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and ban trade with Israeli settlements; 4. Canada must comprehensively address the issue of Israeli settlements; 5. Canada must suspend all military trade and cooperation with Israel; 6. Canada must terminate the Canada-Israel Strategic Partnership; and 7. Canada must recognize the State of Palestine.
Canada must support efforts by the UN to end Israel’s illegal presence in the OPT
In its Advisory Opinion, the ICJ mandated the General Assembly and the Security Council to “consider what further action is required to put an end to the illegal presence of Israel” in the OPT, and called on all states to cooperate with the UN to achieve this goal. Canada is therefore obliged to assist the UN in bringing an end to Israel’s unlawful presence in the OPT.
2. Canada must impose sanctions on Israel in response to its breach of the UN Charter
In its Advisory Opinion, the ICJ found that Israel’s actions “amount to annexation of large parts” of the OPT. The ICJ notes that this violates Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter of the United Nations and is “contrary to the prohibition of the use of force in international relations and its corollary principle of the non-acquisition of territory by force.”
This represents a major breach of a fundamental principle of international law. Canada has set a certain standard in its response to Russian violations of the UN Charter, and this standard must be applied to Israel.
Today CJPME and over 75 organizations are issuing an open letter calling for Ministers @melaniejoly, @HonAhmedHussen, and @MarcMillerVM to resign unless immediate and meaningful action is taken in response to the risk of genocide in Gaza. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…
Canadians expect our leaders to uphold international law. Despite @UN and @CIJ_ICJ warnings of genocide in Gaza, the Canadian government and ministers @melaniejoly, @HonAhmedHussen, and @MarcMillerVM have exacerbated the crisis. They are failing Palestinians and Canadians.
It has been 2 months since the Gaza Crisis Program has been put in place, with the objective of reunifying Palestinian Canadians with their loved ones. The program has been put with additional complications that has never been seen before.
Yesterday in Parliament, NDP foreign affairs critic @HMcPhersonMP called out the refusal of some MPs to talk about human rights in Yemen and Palestine. “Children in Palestine are being murdered, and neither of the parties will talk about that.” #cdnpoli
@HMcPhersonMP@HMcPhersonMP: “It is not okay that the Liberal Party or the Conservative Party refuses to talk about human rights in Yemen, as both of them are complicit in the selling of arms to the regime that is propping up that war.” cc: @LAATCanada
@HMcPhersonMP@LAATCanada@HMcPhersonMP: “It is not all right that neither one of them will talk about human rights in Palestine. Children in Palestine are being murdered, and neither of the parties will talk about that.”
The @UN's Commission of Inquiry has found that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, due to its permanency and Israel's actions of de facto annexation. We expect 🇨🇦 to uphold int'l law and support its findings. @BobRae48@CanadaUN@ArbeiterRichard#UNGA77
@UN@BobRae48@CanadaUN@ArbeiterRichard Under international law, states are allowed to temporarily occupy territory under certain conditions. However, this comes with legal obligations, many of which Israel has been illegally violating for years (for example, on settlements and the annexation of East Jerusalem).
@UN@BobRae48@CanadaUN@ArbeiterRichard Now, a UN report has gone further and concludes that the occupation is itself illegal, due to Israel's intent to maintain the occupation permanently and its actions to annex parts of the land. It calls for an immediate end to Israel's illegal occupation. ohchr.org/en/press-relea…
This week a group of masked settlers lynched a 70-year-old Jewish Israeli woman who was accompanying a Palestinian farmer for the olive harvest in the West Bank. They attacked her with clubs until she bled, after which they beat her in the head with rocks. 972mag.com/edition/lynchi…
This incident is part of a wave of escalating settler terrorism, with Israeli officials identifying 100 acts of settler violence against Palestinians in the last days. In some cases, soldiers openly joined the mobs in their campaigns of terror. haaretz.com/israel-news/20…
Read this harrowing account of a family's trip from Ramallah to Nablus (which has been under lockdown by the Israeli military), when mobs of settlers threw stones at their car. 972mag.com/face-to-face-w…
This critical @UN 🇺🇳 report finds that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, due to its intended permanency and Israel's actions of de facto annexation. We expect 🇨🇦 to uphold int'l law and support its findings. @BobRae48@CanadaUN@ArbeiterRichard#UNGA77