Jewish Canadians call on Israel to respect humanitarian law
Diana Ralph, Ph.D., was invited to speak on behalf of Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians & Not In Our Name today at a Parliamentary press conference calling for Israel to respect humanitarian and international law. Her statement is below:
I represent both the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians, a pan-Canadian Jewish coalition, and Not In Our Name, an Ottawa organization of Jews.
Each Shabbat, when I go to my synagogue, I join in prayers affirming our obligations, as Jews, to “perform acts of love and kindness,” to “welcome the stranger,” and to “make peace when there is strife.” Because of the Holocaust, I, like many other Jews have vowed that I will work to assure that “never again” will any peoples, Jewish or otherwise, be subjected to human rights abuses and genocide.
Today, I join many other Jews across Canada and the world, who are revolted and ashamed by what many consider the Israeli government’s atrocities, war crimes, and violations of international law against Palestinian people.
Israel has condemned the people of Gaza, in particular, to collective punishment for the “crime” of legally electing a government of which Israel disapproves. The 1.4 million people of Gaza, 59% of whom are children, are now suffering from severe shortages of food, potable water, medicine, and sewage treatment. Almost all Gazans were self-supporting before the occupation. Now 4 out of 5 starve without food aid; aid which is almost completely blocked by the siege. Children’s growth is stunted and they are traumatized by sonic booms, aerial bombing, and targeted assassinations. Israel recently carried out a 5 day military assault on the people of Gaza, based on flimsy excuses of “security,” which killed 116 Palestinians, including many civilians and 25 children.
Now, Israel threatens even more horrors for the people of Gaza. Last week, in an act of appalling candor, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai threatened to impose what he, himself called a “shoah,” (a Holocaust) on the people of Gaza. The government has announced its plans to follow through on the 5 day military assault with a full-scale ground offensive of genocidal proportions. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is seeking legal permission to “transfer” Gazan civilians from their homes in northern Gaza to the already dangerously over-crowded south of Gaza, and Security Minister Avi Dichter is calling for Arabs to be moved from Jerusalem to the West Bank. These constitute illegal ethnic cleansing, reminiscent to the way the Nazis forced European Jews from their homes into concentration camps. The people of Gaza, who constitute half the Palestinian population already live imprisoned in a virtual concentration camp. It is particularly horrific that Israel, which claims to represent the world’s Jews, should perpetrate such crimes.
The Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians will not allow these acts to be carried out in our name. These are acts antithetical not just to international law and human rights, but to Jewish ethics.
The Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC) joins APAC in calling on the Canadian government to: 1. Condemn the latest Israel aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza, 2. Demand an immediate halt to all Israeli brutal use of military force against the Palestinians which is taking a serious humanitarian toll on civilians, 3. Lift the blockade on the Palestinian people and allow all living essentials, food, medicine and energy to enter the territories without any delay. 4. Allow an independent international tribunal to enter the Palestinian territories to investigate Israel’s war crimes in the Gaza Strip,
- And call upon the international community and Canada in particular to renew the call to the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their responsibility under Article 1 of the Convention, to ensure that it is respected under all circumstances. We affirm that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violations are considered war crimes under Article 147 of the Convention and under its first protocol.
We ask MPs and other elected representatives to join the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and international human rights groups in condemning the Israel government blockade, military assaults, and targeted assassinations.
