Ethnic cleansing is happening in Palestine — as it happened in Canada

 

We should worry about the parallels between the two countries

The longstanding crisis in Palestine and Israel gained worldwide attention on October 7, and has since been protested globally. While we, as Canadians, may feel a geographic disconnect from Palestine, I see the Israeli state’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to be similar to that of Indigenous peoples in Canada’s history.

Indigenous peoples in Canada existed before the first European invasion in 1497. Over time, the Christian and European languages arrived and displaced and permanently altered the Indigenous ways of life and cultural traditions. 

In contrast, over centuries, all three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Islam, and Christianity — have declared spiritual connections to regions in the Middle East which encompasses modern-day Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and southern portions of Lebanon and Syria. Many historians have detailed Palestine’s varying religious demographics with the rise and fall of different kingdoms from 1300 BCE to today. 

After World War I, the UK stepped into Palestine with the 1917 Balfour Declaration and took control of the region from the then-presiding Ottoman Empire. The declaration established Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people and allowed their immigration into the region. Although the UK promised independence from the Ottomans for the Arabs in that area, the declaration meant Palestine would be under British rule.  (more...)

Ethnic cleansing is happening in Palestine — as it happened in Canada