Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Markham City Council bans criticism of Apartheid regimes

Canadian Arab Federation | May 4, 2011

Yesterday, a majority of Councilors from Markham City Council adopted a motion to censor “Israeli Apartheid Week” that is organized each year in March by students on Canadian universities.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is a week of lectures and film screenings that takes place peacefully on campuses each year and hosts prominent academics and community leaders to very high-level political and academic discussions.

IAW condemns all forms of racism and discrimination. It explicitly condemns anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, and homophobia. Many Jewish students are involved in organizing IAW.

This year, for the seventh year, IAW was held in 95 cities and more than 75 universities on six continents, including 3 cities in Israel and 4 cities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Ironically, the motion passed by Markham City Council aims to deny Canadian students and academics the rights of freedom of expression and academic freedom, rights that are enjoyed by Israeli students and academics. In addition it interferes in University affairs.

The motion creates the absurd situation where Canadian students and academics are allowed to freely criticize their own government but are banned from criticizing a foreign government.

The motion put forward by Councilor Shore is one of those several attempts currently being undertaken to censor and suppress public debate on this subject in order to shield Israel’s actions from scrutiny and criticism.

Such actions are an attack on free speech the likes of which we have not seen since the 1950s McCarthy witch hunts.

By its decision, Markham City Council ignored the comprehensive study undertaken by Toronto City staff that determined the use of the phrase “Israeli Apartheid” does not promote hatred or discrimination, and does not violate the Criminal Code or the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Markham City Council also ignored the compelling evidence introduced from the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, the Conference of Southern African Christian Churches, the Association of Civil Rights of Israel and the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, that irrefutably proves Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel are systematically discriminated against and that the situation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza is reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa.

The spectrum of diversity was well-represented by those who spoke against the motion and in support of free speech and Palestinian rights. Those presenters included Jews, Christians and Muslims of all ages and gender, and from various ethnic and racial backgrounds.

Understandably, Councilor Shore’s motion placed the other Councilors in a corner. Markham City Council had unfortunately decided recently to send a trade mission to Israel. The rejection of Councilor Shore’s motion would have implied that they condone the labeling of Israel as an Apartheid state and would have placed them in the awkward position of doing business with an apartheid regime.

Regrettably, this politically expedient decision runs counter to the Town of Markham’s stated mission to recognize and accept the diversity of its residents, to respect the differences in all peoples and their right to hold different opinions, to promote the value of human rights, and to oppose racism and discrimination.

For information, please contact:

Khaled Mouammar

CAF National President

416-879-6766

May 4, 2011 - Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular

2 Comments »

  1. The problem is not the Zionist Jews. The problem is not Illuminati Jews. The problem is not Communist Jews, lesbian Jews, transgender Jews, Torah true Jews (a meaningless distinction), or Jews for the Molesting of Young Boys.

    The problem is the Talmud.

    Throughout human history, it has been and is the heart of darkness.

    It is an excuse to murder, rob and plunder everyone and everything on Earth.

    It commands Jews to regard all Jews as divine, and anybody else as cattle.

    This is how they can kill Palestinian children without a tear, and then remove their organs so some old Israeli perverts can live a few years longer.

    This is how they can subtly hoodwink every country in the world into giving up their most valuable possessions in exchange for intoxicating illusions.

    Like

    john kaminski's avatar Comment by john kaminski | May 5, 2011 | Reply

  2. the Jews are the head of the viper and always have been. People are starting to move into that final echelon of truth about this. Jews are destroyers and always have been. There is absolutely no need to trust them, ever. If you do you are a fool and your foolishness is endangering innocent people. There are levels of truth that some of you never allow yourselves to reach the same way the lemmings never reach the first rung. The truth is these people are poison to us and to all people. The world today is a Jew cesspool of filth everywhere you look. These people can’t stop because they aren’t human. Why would Gods chosen run away from their supposed identity? The truth is their identity is not of God at all and never was. Surely you must know that Jews are involved in all the vile organizations of the world. Is this all a coincidence? No folks, it isn’t a coincidence and Jews didn’t write the New Testament to tell us what they would do or who they are, they don’t tell the truth at all. Their identity is exactly what the book says about them and if there ever was an identity that worked so perfectly together against the rest of the world it was never recorded in history, in fact the way Jews themselves work against the rest of us wasn’t even recorded in any school books. We can’t even demand our own true history to be told so it’s no wonder we have so many lemmings. I don’t see any Jews demanding the schoolbooks be changed do you? Think about it. Take a walk and ask yourself what Jew would turn on his own family in favor of you over their own families. Jews don’t belong in our society nor in our countries and never did. That is the most accurate fact of history and in none of your History books except one.

    Like

    Mel Gibstein's avatar Comment by Mel Gibstein | May 5, 2011 | Reply


Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

« Previous | Next »