Israel is the outgrowth of a European colonial movement sponsored by the British Empire. Born in ethnic cleansing, the country oversees a long-standing illegal occupation and siege of the Gaza Strip. The oppression faced by Palestinians is glaring, but Israel also repeatedly bombs and invades its neighbors.
Still, Canadian politicians express unmatched fidelity to a state most leading human rights groups say has long committed the crime of apartheid and the International Court of Justice suggests is now committing genocide in Gaza. Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government organized a pizza party for Canadians fighting in the Israeli military, sued to block proper labels on wines from illegal settlements and announced that should Canada win a seat on the United Nations Security Council it would act as an “asset for Israel” on the council. Trudeau describes Canada and Israel as having a “special bond”.
The exceptional relationship has an intellectual side, detailed effectively by Peter Eglin. Since crossing the country to attend Concordia University at the turn of the century I’ve repeatedly witnessed the Israel Effect. Working with the support of a leftist student union, Palestinians and Arabs activists turned the campus into North America’s leading hub of solidarity campaigning. The pushback was ferocious. In Summer 2001 the administration expelled two elected members of the student union and days after the 9/11 attacks in the US B’nai Brith organized a press conference where they asked if the student union’s feminist, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian handbook was “a blueprint for Osama bin Laden’s youth program in North America?” Combined with pressure from the university administration, media and right-wing students, the Israel lobby succeeded in getting the student union president and part of the executive to resign. (more...)
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