Dear Mr. Ignatieff. This has nothing to do with Israel Apartheid Week so lower the indignant eyebrow. It does, however, involve Israel and what's left of the Occupied Territories. It also involves your loudly proclaimed zeal for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It involves basic human decency and your chance to show you understand what that is.
From your years in England, you'll be familiar with The Guardian. Get a copy and take a read. You'll find a story about a leaked, confidential EU report that finds Israel is using covert means to effect the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem. In other words, your Igness, they're stealing the homeland of the Palestinian people (the worst kept secret of the last ten years).
In case you can't get your hands on a copy of the paper, here are a few excerpts:
A confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem.
The document says Israel has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace talks. "Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem.
"Israeli 'facts on the ground' - including new settlements, construction of the barrier, discriminatory housing policies, house demolitions, restrictive permit regime and continued closure of Palestinian institutions - increase Jewish Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, weaken the Palestinian community in the city, impede Palestinian urban development and separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," the report says.
Israel issues fewer than 200 permits a year for Palestinian homes and leaves only 12% of East Jerusalem available for Palestinian residential use. As a result many homes are built without Israeli permits. About 400 houses have been demolished since 2004 and a further 1,000 demolition orders have yet to be carried out, it said.
The EU is particularly concerned about settlements inside the Old City, where there were plans to build a Jewish settlement of 35 housing units in the Muslim quarter, as well as expansion plans for Silwan, just outside the Old City walls.
The goal, it says, is to "create territorial contiguity" between East Jerusalem settlements and the Old City and to "sever" East Jerusalem and its settlement blocks from the West Bank.
Now, esteemed Leader, have you taken a look at the West Bank itself? I mean looking beyond the show ouster of a few dozen illegal settlers. Are you aware that there are 430,000 illegal settlers now taking over the West Bank of the Occupied Territories and that their numbers are increasing by 5% a year (which is why the total shot up 40% during the Bush Era of Darkness)?
Here's a question. Do you think Israel is allowing these nearly half-million Israelis to illegally settle the West Bank if they had any, repeat, any intention of ever handing that land back to the Palestinians? Have you bothered to learn what the occupying force is doing to the West Bank Palestinians in flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions?
And here's my final question. Are you a Liberal or are you just a charlatan, a poseur pandering for votes?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/07/israel-palestine-eu-report-jerusalem
From your years in England, you'll be familiar with The Guardian. Get a copy and take a read. You'll find a story about a leaked, confidential EU report that finds Israel is using covert means to effect the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem. In other words, your Igness, they're stealing the homeland of the Palestinian people (the worst kept secret of the last ten years).
In case you can't get your hands on a copy of the paper, here are a few excerpts:
A confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem.
The document says Israel has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace talks. "Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem.
"Israeli 'facts on the ground' - including new settlements, construction of the barrier, discriminatory housing policies, house demolitions, restrictive permit regime and continued closure of Palestinian institutions - increase Jewish Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, weaken the Palestinian community in the city, impede Palestinian urban development and separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," the report says.
Israel issues fewer than 200 permits a year for Palestinian homes and leaves only 12% of East Jerusalem available for Palestinian residential use. As a result many homes are built without Israeli permits. About 400 houses have been demolished since 2004 and a further 1,000 demolition orders have yet to be carried out, it said.
The EU is particularly concerned about settlements inside the Old City, where there were plans to build a Jewish settlement of 35 housing units in the Muslim quarter, as well as expansion plans for Silwan, just outside the Old City walls.
The goal, it says, is to "create territorial contiguity" between East Jerusalem settlements and the Old City and to "sever" East Jerusalem and its settlement blocks from the West Bank.
Now, esteemed Leader, have you taken a look at the West Bank itself? I mean looking beyond the show ouster of a few dozen illegal settlers. Are you aware that there are 430,000 illegal settlers now taking over the West Bank of the Occupied Territories and that their numbers are increasing by 5% a year (which is why the total shot up 40% during the Bush Era of Darkness)?
Here's a question. Do you think Israel is allowing these nearly half-million Israelis to illegally settle the West Bank if they had any, repeat, any intention of ever handing that land back to the Palestinians? Have you bothered to learn what the occupying force is doing to the West Bank Palestinians in flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions?
And here's my final question. Are you a Liberal or are you just a charlatan, a poseur pandering for votes?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/07/israel-palestine-eu-report-jerusalem
10 comments:
Long live Canada, Israel and Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party!!!
That was certainly illuminating.
Anon;
There's a Liberal Party? Is it incognito?
Yes incognito at the head of the Polls!
PM Iggy is on the way!
More like PMS Iggy.
Sad to say, C-Nuck, you're probably right. Not an auspicious event for the LPC or Canada, but...
The leader of the Liberal Party replaces political conviction with political expediency. You won't inspire anyone with this formula.
The Liberal Party is a united group save for a handful of misfits and cranks who parade as Liberals on Liberals on Line.
Most of you cranks are probably ndp trolls or tory mischief makers.
Liberals are proud, united and strong behind Michael Ignatieff's leadership.
Interesting that such a proud and loyal Liberal is too cowardly to blog under his own name.
What attracted me to the Liberal Party in the first place was the fact that it embraced the different point of view of its members.
Accusing someone of being a Tory or Dipper just because they don't keep share the same opinions as our party's leadership is exactly the kind of attitude that has infected this party and hindered our ability to appeal to Canadian voters. If we don't stop excluding people who don't agree with every single thing the party does, we will soon be left with nothing but a bunch of yes men. As a good friend of mine would say, such people are "useless as tits on a bull".
C-Nuck, seen the latest polls?
Ouch!
Post a Comment