Israel tries to justify its continuing attack on the Palestinian Territories because of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The world was horrified at that attack.
But that does not justify attacking Palestinian civilians. Or Healthcare workers, Or press. Or Humanitarian Aid workers.
And certainly not children.
Just as Hamas killed people, Israel is now killing people. With no signs of stopping.
People.
There are no excuses.
My sister and I have similar "graduation party" photos of our kids at that age.
The difference is that our kids are still alive a few decades later.
#CeasefireNow #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #SayNoToGenocide #Palestine #Genocide #GraveyardForChildren #SouthAfrica #Israel
This miracle baby was pulled from a bombed house in #Gaza
Most of the news from Gaza is traumatic, as ambulances are attacked and hospitals, schools, homes, and places of worship are bombed, people are killed and wounded, whole families are wiped out in an instant. There isn’t much good news.
But this little miracle baby is good news.
If we leave it up to Israel to decide the fate of Palestinians, this innocent orphan’s future won’t be very bright.
Palestinians have lost enough. Its time they were free. They need the opportunity for self determination and the right of return that is their due.
Hey, I’ve got an idea: since Israel has destroyed so much of Gaza’s housing stock and real estate has been turned to rubble, its time the illegal walls and checkpoints came down, and the illegal occupiers were turned out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Its too bad Canada traded in peacekeeping for warmaking. This could have been an opportunity for real leadership. Sadly, we won’t likely get that before we have #ProportionalRepresentation.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) has provided Canadians with an easy way to support the South African invocation of the UN’s Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). If the ICJ finds merit in the South African case against Israel, the Court could impose “provisional measures,” including an end to Israel’s military operations against Gaza. We can let our government know where we Canadians stand by telling them in a letter.
CJPME has even provided the letter, which we can send as is. https://www.cjpmecontent.org/support_icj_case
Or, if you’re like me, there is more you might want to say. My version of the letter is a quite a bit longer than CJPME’s because I am really upset and want the Canadian Government that doesn’t represent me to know that. If you’re interested in reading my version for yourself, here it is:
Mr Netanyahu and his government have claimed the right of self defense against Hamas, but retaliation is not self defense. Raining death and destruction against the Palestinian people is an ongoing act of collective punishment.
Since October 7, the IDF has not only killed thousands of innocent Palestinians, it has actively killed at least three of the Israeli hostages, and likely more as a direct result of months of indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.
During the October crisis, Canada imposed the War Measures Act, it didn’t bomb Montreal into oblivion in retaliation against the FLQ.
Even if you agree with Mr Netanyahu’s opinion that Palestinians are only “human animals,” this policy has not and will not eliminate Hamas, or even bring the perpetrators to justice.
South Africa has taken the principled step of invoking the UN’s Genocide Convention, which could mean finally putting an end to Israel’s brutal war on Palestinians if the court decides to impose provisional measures. I expect Canada to support South Africa’s effort to hold perpetrators of genocide accountable before the World Court!
How can you have listened to the South African case at the ICJ and chosen to oppose it?
South Africa’s case identifies many statements of Israeli leaders expressing genocidal intent. These dehumanizing and violent beliefs are driving Israel’s actions in Gaza, including the killing of well over 20,000 Palestinians and inflicting conditions of life intended to destroy the population.
A few years ago Mr Trudeau apologized for Canada’s craven act of turning away the MS St Louis, which consigned hundreds of innocents to death. The Prime Minister said the Liberal government of the day “was unmoved by the plight of these refugees.” How can the Liberal Government of today stand unmoved by the plight of the captive population in Gaza, particularly when more than half are children? Apologies are meaningless if we knowingly repeat the mistake.
Can you summon no empathy for the children? Close your eyes and imagine that it was your child who suffered the loss of home and family, been dehydrated, malnourished, starved, exposed to the elements,buried under rubble, maimed, infected, forced to endure amputations without anesthetic, and even consigned to death in this unprecedented humanitarian disaster?
Canada’s failure to support South Africa’s case at the ICJ goes beyond demonstration of a callous disregard for human rights, it will make the government of Canada complicit in what may very well be the death of millions.
As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, Canada has an indisputable responsibility to prevent and punish genocide wherever it occurs. I demand that Canada fully support South Africa’s case and help bring an end to the violence and death in Gaza.
If Canada wants to be seen as a “Rule of Law” country, it’s time our government began to live up to the International Treaties it has signed, and stand for International Laws, even when our friends break them.
If “never again” doesn’t apply to Palestinians, it doesn’t apply to anyone.
Regards,
https://www.cjpmecontent.org/support_icj_case
Laurel L Russwurm
One of Israel’s contentions is that all the citizens of Gaza are responsible for the actions of Hamas. But they aren’t. Hamas may seem to be the Government of Gaza, but it isn’t really. The last election was in 2006. I can tell you from personal experience that it is ridiculous to blame me for what the Canadian (or Ontario) Government(s) do, because despite voting in every election, my vote has never secured me representation in Parliament or the Legisative Assembly of Ontario.
Neither Palestine or Gaza have been allowed self determination or to have a free state. The Palestinian Territories have pretty much been occupied one way or another for 75 years. Even though Israel supposedly withdrew from Gaza, it has blockaded the Palestinian Territory for years, deciding what can go in or out. Palesrtinians getting too close to the exits get shot. Blaming Palestinians for Hamas is adding insult to injury.
I haven’t watched all of the Israeli response at the ICJ, but from what I have seen, it seems the defence revolves around the ridiculous claim that Hamas is committing genocide against Israel. Online comments tend to run to Ad Hominems against South Africa for daring to get involved. When you have to resort to Ad Hominems, you aren’t winning the argument.
In the 3 months of Israel’s retaliation for October 7th, 2023, the occupying power has been targeting civilian infrastructure, destroying water and waste treatment facilities, along with more than three quarters of the housing stock, schools,mosques and churches.
They have also been targeting civilians, as well as killing record numbers of the press, humanitarian aid and health care workers, displacing millions of civilians, rendering most hospitals inactive, and leaving the few still struggling to provide care in the midst of this humanitarian crisis without lifesaving medical supplies. Without anesthesia, many of the wounded, including perhaps a thousand children, have endured amputation without any kind of pain relief at all. More than 1% of the population has been killed, untold numbers are buried under the rubble, with many more left injured. Lack of food, fuel and shelter, infection and illness will kill many more even if the bombs stop falling. This is a genocide unfolding in real time before our eyes.
Please contact your Member of Parliament as many times as it takes.
This must stop.
Image Credit: Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, South African Legal Team at the International Court of Justice re: the Genocide Convention by @UN_News_Centre
The list of war crimes Israel perpetrates against Palestine just keeps growing.
The 17 year siege of Gaza is the longest siege in history. The Gaza Strip is home to some 2 million people (or it was before this started). The Strip is surrounded by razor wire and “no go” buffer zones where any Palestinian getting too close would be summarily shot. Nor could Gazans leave this open air prison by the heavily patrolled sea, where the Israeli naval service would use any means possible to prevent this.
There were two exits available, one totally controlled by the Israeli military, the other by the Jordan military. The exit to Jordan has been shut down. About one-third of the 1.4 million registered Palestine refugees live in the 58 UNRWA-recognised refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Egypt does not want more.
Duriing those 17 years, Israel has strictly controlled everything that goes into and comes out of Gaza. Electricity, water, fuel, medical help. They carefully keep Gazans on a subsistence diet. Humanitarian aid coming by sea (including the Canadian Boat To Gaza) have been stopped and sent back. Covid Vaccinations were given to Israelis, not Gazans.
Gazans have no human rights under Israeli military rule. Half of the Palestinian residents Gaza are children.
Each year approximately 500-700 Palestinian children (12-17) are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system, most commonly charged with throwing stones.
This 16 year siege has been marked by various uprisings from among the captives. But apparently this siege has not been brutal enough.
So now, in response to the recent Hamas terrorist attacks on Israelis, Israel is “imposing a complete siege on Gaza.”
After mercilessly bombarding the civilians of the Gaza strip with bombs, Israel is ordering the captive Palestinians to leave…except when they do, they are attacked and often killed.
“There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed.” When you lock up millions of people in a densely occupied open air prison without food and water, there is only one possible outcome.
This isn’t a war, its an occupation. Its shooting fish in a barrel.
But Israel thinks these flagrant human rights violations are justified, because their leadership don’t see Palestinians as human beings, but as human animals.
This is SO wrong. Even without #ClimateChange, trampling Indigenous rights right after adopting UNDRIP is horrendous.
Canada needs to stop this *now*
I’m a Canadian settler. My paternal ancestors settled on Turtle island (aka North America) before Canadian Confederation.
Canadian government policies are continuing Canada’s Indigenous genocide today. It is *not* something in the past. It is something that needs to stop.
Now.
It is not going to stop so long as settlers continue being afraid to acknowledge it for what it is.
Carol Eugene Park: ‘The Time for Talk Is Over’: Survivors React to the Missing Women’s Inquiry. Systemic colonial violence creates genocide against Indigenous Peoples, says final report. he hundreds of recommendations for Canadian society and government by the National Inquiry of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls are in response to what is properly called genocide, said a First Nations lawyer at a press conference in Vancouver Monday.
The inquiry report’s use of the term genocide to describe what it called systematic race- and gender-based violence against Indigenous women, girls, trans and two-spirit people was hotly debated on social media since the report’s leak on Friday.
But Sharon McIvor, Nlaka’pamux from the Lower Nicola Indian Band and an activist, lawyer and college professor said, “It was good to acknowledge that what’s been happening for the last 200 years is genocide.”
McIvor said Canada must acknowledge its role in creating and perpetuating the colonial structures that have led to the high murder rates Indigenous women and girls have and continue to face.
“They have a huge role to play to put us where we are, and they have a role to play to get us back from where we are,” McIvor said. “I call on the government to take [the report] seriously and tomorrow make me equal to my male counterparts in law.”
The inquiry’s report, released Monday, is 1,200 pages long and contains 231 recommendations the inquiry says will end violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.
The recommendations include calls for action on human rights, policing, the justice system, corrections, health care, education, media, social work and child welfare.
“He gave us this national inquiry of MMIWG,” Williams said. “However, he approved the pipelines to go into Mother Earth, raping her and creating more places for women to go missing and be murdered along these pipelines? It is a known fact that our Indigenous women and girls go missing and are murdered along these pipelines.”
Williams said Trudeau does not represent Indigenous peoples in Canada, or the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. “We are the original nations of Turtle Island,” she said.
The introduction to the inquiry’s report reads, “The fact that this National Inquiry is happening now doesn’t mean that Indigenous peoples waited this long to speak up; it means it took this long for Canada to listen.”
But that statement falls short for Summer-Rain Bentham, manager at Battered Women’s Support Services.
“Listening is not action,” she said. “Listening does not stop men from being able to target and harm Indigenous women and girls, trans, and two-spirit with near impunity.”
Bentham said the ongoing disappearance and murder of women and girls since the inquiry’s start three years ago is evidence that Canada is ignoring the genocide against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.
Implementing the calls to justice are the first steps Canada can take to show that “Indigenous women and girls are valuable, sacred,” Bentham said.
“Our sisters and two-spirit relatives who have been missing or murdered — they paid with their lives for this movement. They gave their lives so that we would be able to fight for the safety of other Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit folks…. We have a responsibility to them.”
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, was the final speaker to respond to the National Inquiry of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
He said real change must be fought for, and Canada’s genocidal history described in the report must be acknowledged.
“It’s our responsibility to hold all governments at all levels to account, to ensure that the recommendations of this report do not gather dust on some bureaucratic shelf in Ottawa like the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples,” he said.
Phillip criticized Trudeau for what he said were his lack of concrete solutions to Canada’s genocidal history and present.
“We can’t allow Prime Minister Trudeau to prance in here and offer good intentions,” Phillip said. “We need action. Enough talk, enough consultation. The time for talk is over, now is the time for action. It’s our responsibility to ensure that happens.”
By Courtney Skye June 4
Courtney Skye is Mohawk, Turtle Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is a research fellow at Yellowhead Institute, a First Nations-led policy think tank at the Faculty of Arts, Ryerson University.
This week, family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people, survivors of violence, community activists and Indigenous leaders gathered in Ottawa for the release of “Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.” They were there to acknowledge the inquiry’s work in a collective ceremony to honor the lives of those who have experienced violence. It was an demonstration of the love that exists within Indigenous communities for Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people — and a recognition of the overwhelming levels of violence they have had to endure for generations.
The report, released Monday, finds that “persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence.” The inquiry concluded that Canada has committed a genocide against the Indigenous peoples within its colonial borders, and is continuing to maintain systems and structures that result in Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people experiencing a disproportionate amount of violence.
Even with a two-year mandate, the inquiry was unable to determine a definitive number of Indigenous people who are missing or have been murdered. But Indigenous women were reported to be at least six times more likely to be victims of homicide than non-Indigenous women.
The new report, which consists of more than 1,200 pages, contains hundreds of calls for justice that methodically address the interrelated ways Canadian and Indigenous structures, programs and services must change to promote the substantive equality of Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people. These calls include establishing a “National Indigenous and Human Rights Ombudsperson” and a “National Indigenous Human Rights Tribunal,” developing and implementing a national action plan, and providing long-term funding for educational programs and violence prevention campaigns.
The report affirms what Indigenous people have long understood — that the violence they experience is a product of settler colonialism. The continuation of the Canadian settler state requires the destabilization of Indigenous communities — and a part of this stabilization has involved rampant gender-based violence to uphold the legitimacy of the settler state’s rule over land and water.
While settler colonialism impacts Indigenous peoples of all genders, it makes women, girls and Two-Spirit people especially vulnerable to violence. In 1924, the Canadian state imposed a government structure within First Nations communities, removing their traditional leadership. And since 1876, Canada has enforced the Indian Act, which at times forced “Indian” women out of leadership positions and removed their legal status if they chose to go to university or marry a non-Indigenous person, or if their fathers chose to enfranchise them. The sex-based discrimination in the Indian Act is identified as one of the root causes of violence toward First Nations women in the report.
Over time, advancements in the rights of Indigenous peoples have resulted in Supreme Court challenges and findings of discrimination from international bodies. However, Canada has maintained a state definition of “Status Indians,” defining membership in communities from outside the norms and traditions of those people, and has yet to fully eliminate how these structures perpetuate sex-based discrimination.
The national inquiry report outlines in great detail how the nature of settler colonialism in Canada has evolved into an insidious and distinctly Canadian social reality that ignores reports of brutal murders and missing persons, even as these numbers reached alarming levels.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets a minimum standard for the recognition of their collective rights and sees improvement in the lives of Indigenous peoples as contingent upon their ability to exercise self-determination. Now, the inquiry’s report makes clear that responding to the calls for justice and undertaking actions to end violence require restoring Indigenous jurisdiction in ways that prioritize the safety of Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people.
For too long, our communities have feared that shedding light on violence would undermine Indigenous leadership. Communities have viewed crises as something that must remain hidden in order for Indigenous structures to be restored, and enduring the violence we experience has been seen as the cost of nation-building.
The inquiry has established that violence in Indigenous communities and the ongoing refusal to recognize Indigenous-led ways of governance reinforce one another, to the benefit of the settler state. Immediate action on the calls for justice is needed in order to protect Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people. We must be able to not only express our aspirations openly but also confront our challenges and seek our own solutions to the issues we face, including gender-based violence. As Indigenous communities continue to assert their sovereignty, the role of the paternalistic settler state must be limited and clearly defined.
The release of the final report marks a pivotal moment in the recognition and advancement of the individual and collective rights of Indigenous people. As Indigenous people continue to overcome the violence and trauma instilled in their communities by a settler state, the inquiry insists “the exclusion of Indigenous women, girls, 2SLGBTQQIA people, Elders, and children from the exercise of Indigenous self-determination must end.” Honoring missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people requires it.