I understand people who believe that Israel should defend its lands against armed attacks while they fervently assert the country has a right to a peaceful existence.
But I sympathize with innocent Palestinians whom Israel has displaced, starved, and massacred. I reject the notion that Israel can be excused when it destroys hospitals, schools, mosques, food and water supplies, and kills or injures more than 100,000 people not responsible for attacks on Israel.
LIndsay Brown reacted to a Vaughn Palmer column about the NDP’s Selina Robinson affair. As usual, I agree with Lindsay.
Lindsay went on to say:
It’s tiresome to have to go through this lazy media confection in detail. But for starters: ‘One ill-advised comment about Palestine & it cost her a cabinet post’ – are you kidding, Vaughn? This is 100% incorrect. If you don’t know that. you’re ill-informed.
Some reading for Vaughn.
Selina Robinson outrageously overreached her authority as Min of Higher Ed by forcing universities to squelch/delete any expression of solidarity with Palestinian civilians being slaughtered.
It’s widely known that Selina Robinson engaged in 4+ months of virulent anti-Palestinian & Islamophobic behaviour on Twitter – totally ill-befitting a cabinet minister – to the point NDP MLAs are rumoured to have complained to Eby. She deleted her Twitter account for a reason.
Can Vaughn and the rest of BC media just stop with the falsehood that Selina was removed from cabinet for “one phrase”? If they don’t know that that’s not true, they’re not fit for their jobs. If they do know, they’ve been lying.
“The two-facedness of it all drew a scornful response from Ezra Shanken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.” Vaughn, if you’re going to quote staunchly Zionist orgs like JFGV & CIJA, have the integrity to consult Independent Jewish Voices or Avi Lewis or similar.
Oh, I don’t even have the patience to respond paragraph by paragraph to this – forgive me – bullshit. It’s laughable. Eby mishandled all this, for sure. But not in the way this reactionary column suggests.
What is clear is that staunch Zionists like Robinson regard any criticism of Israeli actions as antisemitism. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) said this about the term in 2016:
Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.
The US State Department agreed with that, saying manifestations of antisemitism might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. But importantly, the Americans added:
Criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
We should complain about any nation that inflicts collective punishment on innocent people. Post-WW2, critics rightly condemned the British government when their armed forces committed deadly atrocities in lands such as Kenya, South Africa, India, and Malaya.
Many Americans have come to accept that dropping atomic bombs that killed residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was cruel and completely unnecessary to end the American war against Japan.
There is no doubt in my mind that Israel is offending international law when it inflicts collective punishment on civilians in Gaza. Denouncing those actions is not antisemitism.
International humanitarian law posits that no person may be punished for acts that he or she did not commit. It ensures that the collective punishment of a group of persons for a crime committed by an individual is also forbidden, whether in the case of prisoners of war or of any other individuals (GCIII Art. 87, API Art. 75.2.d, APII Art. 4.2.b). This is one of the fundamental guarantees established by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols.
Medecins Sans Frontiere- The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law
Fourteen trucks carrying desperately needed aid from the World Food Program were barreling toward the northern Gaza Strip early Tuesday morning when the Israeli military halted the convoy at a checkpoint for hours and then turned them away…
A vicious cycle is preventing almost any basic aid from reaching Gaza’s devastated north, where Israeli bombardment has reduced urban centers to rubble…
March 8 (Reuters) – The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said some employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.
The assertions are contained in a report by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reviewed by Reuters and dated February 2024 which detailed allegations of mistreatment in Israeli detention made by unidentified Palestinians, including several working for UNRWA.
Categories: International, Justice
in-sights.ca 
I appreciate reading Lindsay Browns comments, they are accurate and insightful. I will push back on the notion that Israel has a right to peace or defense, when they have been occupying and terrorizing Palestinians for generations, and now committing unspeakable atrocities. We need to move on from the lies of Israel’s existence or “rights” and take the long overdue steps of holding them accountable.
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Like DeSantis in Florida.
Israel is trying to re write history.
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As long as Israel thinks they can have this total control over the Palestinian people there will never be any peace in that part of the world. Why can they not simply say, lets live in a country where we all have a right to vote and live as human beings, if that means different parties can run for parliament so be it, have an open state of parliament. Right now the average Jewish Israeli and average Palestinian just want to live a normal life. Extreme Right wing members of each fraction are destroying life as we know it
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Looking at the above photographs it would seem that Israel wishes to remove Gaza from the face of the earth.
What is happening goes beyond counter attack or even genocide !
TB
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“we need to move on from the lies of Israel’s existence or rights and …….” What exactly does that mean. what are you trying to say.
Israel existence was created by the U.N. so it exists and yes it has rights. Holding Israel “accountable” for what? If its the removal of settlers in the West Bank, yes that would be a good thing. Having people attack and take over some one else’s farm is simply illegal and very bad manners. Lets get real though. the situation in Gaza has worked very well for the leaders of Hamas. During all this turmoil over the decades the leaders of Hamas have acquired a lot of money, which ought to have gone to the citizens of Gaza. The top 3 Hamas leaders live in Quatar and they collectively hold 5 billion dollars. You think they’re ever going to give that up. No the war works for them, just as it works for the P.M. of Israel and his followers.
The west has never been keen to deal with violations of human rights in Gaza and the West Bank. They’re still trying to deal with the collective guilt of leaving Jews to die in concentration camps. Lets not forget how difficult G.B. made it for Jews to enter the country prior to the war and when a ship of refugees tried to land in the U.S.A. and then Canada, they were turned away. They had to go back to Europe and most died in concentration camps.
The countries around Israel have for decades wanted to eliminate their country. Egypt and Jordon signed peace treaties, the rest, not so much. This war started because Hamas invaded Israel and killed a over a thousand of Israel’s citizens. Any fool could have told you what Israel would do, especially with the current P.M. Israel could not give that a pass. However, the P.M. and his extremists have gone too far and need to back off.
Mind you, with the history of the Jews, it hasn’t been an easy existence for them. Lets not forget, they weren’t permitted to purchase or live in a home in the British Properties. Although that is no longer permitted, I understand the covenant is still on the books, as it is in other areas of the Lower Mainland. Going back a few centuries and Jews were not permitted to own land, join Guilds, be doctors, lawyers, etc. in Europe. Jews were not permitted to join golf and country clubs in Vancouver, hence the Richmond Country Club.
The P.M. of Israel continues this war because he is of the generation who was taught, “Never Again”. Our Mother being a realist used to say, “it can always happen again”.
Bombing and starving children simply is wrong. There is no excuse for it. The P.M. of Israel could have brought war to Hamas without the current methods. Some may think the P.M. of Israel is sending a message to Hamas and the general population, if you make war on us, we will destroy you. He is bringing enough pain on the people that their leaders will never try to invade Israel again. However, the people care what happens to them, but the leaders of Hamas don’t. they’re just in it for the money. The leaders of Hamas and the P.M. of Israel are cut from the same cloth.
This will not end soon. There is too much history and too much money at stake. It really is time to remove all the children and their mothers from Gaza so they don’t die.
Anti semitism has been around since Jews were round. Its not going away and we see it loud and clear when we see people being attacked in this country for being Jewish. Protests at universities Yleave me with a clear impressions their protests are against Jews, not the P.M. of Israel. There has always been anti semitism and this current war just gives people a chance to voice their hatred of the Jews. o.k. if not hatred they certainly dislike Jews and have some very weird ideas about Jews and “how they control the world, etc”. You’d be surprised how many well educated people who seem quite in tune with more modern thinking, when it comes to Jews have a lot of ugly things to say, when they think there are no Jews around. They are so dumb, they don’t take into consideration not all Jews have dark hair and are not fair in complextion. Some people who have Jewish ancestors are blue eyed blondes.
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The situation regarding Israel and its neighbours has always been complicated. I once had a long conversation with a Rabbi from an Orthodox community in Vancouver. He is a devout humanitarian whom I respect thoroughly.
His view was that most Jews and Muslims in the area want to live in peace but that radical leaders on both sides are committed to maintaining conflict and separation.
Last October, The New Yorker reported:
That suggests ordinary Palestinians are victimized by their own leaders and by those in charge of Israel.
The ultimate solution will be for two states to exist: Israel and Palestine. Israeli settlers are working to expand the territory of their nation by expelling Arab residents. PM Netanyahu supports this expansion and is committed to forcing Palestinians off their lands. Many Israeli citizens disagree with Netanyahu’s policies but the nation’s politics are so divided that moderate policies seem impossible.
Disputes over territories, security, Jerusalem, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees are major obstacles. I suspect only international pressure can move the parties toward a peaceful settlement. Yet the political influence of Israel is powerful in Western states, making those nations ineffective arbitrators.
By the way, be cautious about reports stating or implying that Hamas political leaders in exile are sitting on billions of dollars for their own personal benefit. Concerted propaganda efforts are promoting that story and it is amplified by right-wing operations like Fox News and others owned by Rupert Murdoch and, in Canada, by Postmedia.
In November, the Washington Post reported:
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