To the Editor:
I was totally disgusted with the Canadian government’s response to the granting of observer status to the Palestinians at the United Nations. Canada has long been regarded as an honest and even handed peace broker but our government has totally destroyed this image and can now be regarded as being blindly pro-Israeli and possibly even a proponent of war and any gains so achieved.
If you depend on the Canadian media alone to keep you informed, you will develop a distorted view of what is happening over there. This distortion is not only due to what is being said but how it is being said and by the facts that are never reported at all. Has anyone noticed that “the occupied territories” have become the disputed territories? The UN resolution stating that territory cannot be gained through acts of war is no longer mentioned. The illegal settlements seem to be forgotten, as well. In Canada, we are told that attacks by Israel are responses to terrorist attacks, which begs the question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Could the launching of missile by an Israeli helicopter into an apartment building when they believe that a terrorist might live there be called a terrorist attack?
Most Palestinians suffer from abject poverty and have no reason to be optimistic for a better future. Red tiled roofs of illegal Israeli settlements can be seen on every high point of land throughout the West Bank, and these settlements are connected by a network of expressways. The expressways have high security fences built down each side and can only be crossed by Palestinians at Israeli controlled checkpoints, which are open only at certain hours. These highways cannot be used by Palestinians without first acquiring a permit, issued by the Israeli authorities. Such permits are usually refused. The addition of the security wall further restricted free movement of the Palestinians and encompasses large tracts of the West Bank. As a result, West Bank citizens are virtual prisoners in their homeland.
The security wall arbitrarily separates families from each other, from the nearest village, hospitals or schools. Farmers often find their fields on the opposite side of the wall from their house and cannot access them to plant or harvest their crops. If this wall was intended to protect Israelis from terrorist attacks why wasn’t it built only along the border separating Israel from the West Bank? Once the wall was built and the Israelis abandoned their illegal settlements surely peace could follow.
Under the present situation, the Palestinians have no voice, no country or civil rights that we, as Canadians, take for granted. Harper and his band think that observer status at the UN would be rewarding terrorism? They say face-to-face negotiations are the only way forward. The Israelis do not recognize Hamas and refuse to talk to them. Hamas does not recognize Israel, which removes the government of Gaza from the picture. This leaves only the Palestinian Authority to negotiate with Israel. The only possible bargaining chip they hold would be the surrender of their sticks and stones.
Clive England
Creston
