More Palestinians Displaced While Junior Looks the Other Way

You have to go back quite a way to remember a day when Canada had a shred of integrity in the Israel-Palestine outrage.

Canada, make that Justin Trudeau, remains Benjamin Netanyahu's faithful bumboy. Alison at Creekside (here and here) regularly posts the results of General Assembly votes pertaining to Palestinian issues. With painfully embarrassing regularity it comes down to the world versus Israel and its shills, the United States, Canada and a small clutch of "bought and paid for" island states in the central Pacific.

So, what's the latest? The Guardian reports that Bibi is backing legislation to annex occupied Palestinian territory that is now home to between 125,000 to 150,000 Palestinians.

In comments made at a meeting of his Likud party at the large settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, Netanyahu said he would support the “Greater Jerusalem” bill. The bill, pushed by rightwing MPs, would annex 19 settlements around Jerusalem, placing them within the city’s municipal boundaries.

The legislation, drawn up by Yisrael Katz, a member of Likud and minister in Netanyahu’s coalition, is expected to be introduced in the winter session of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

Ma’ale Adumim is a settlement of roughly 40,000 people just east of Jerusalem. It is considered strategic because it lies in the centre of the West Bank, and making it part of Israel could greatly hinder Palestinian statehood aspirations.

“Ma’ale Adumim will always be part of Israel and in addition I support the Greater Jerusalem bill,” Netanyahu said during the meeting. He added that he was considering including Ma’ale Adumim within the same plan.

It was bad enough when Harper showed his anti-Palestinian amicus. He, after all, was a Born Again fuckwit. Trudeau doesn't have that excuse. In his case it boils down to politics and an utter lack of moral fortitude. That makes him a good measure worse than even Harper.

Meanwhile, at Trudeau's head office, the Trump White House, Trump's ambassador to Israel, David Friedman (hmm, I wonder if he has a dog in this fight?) has said that Israel is only annexing 2% of the Palestinian homeland, an astonishing lie, and has now shifted the narrative, referring to it as the "alleged occupation" of the Palestinian territory. He's the asshole in the picture below. No, no, not that one. The one on the left.

Demanding clarification from the US a Palestinian official said: “Our understanding is that when someone has an official position, like being an ambassador, this person does no longer speak in a personal capacity. Mr Friedman should realise that denying facts doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. He has an extensive record of attacks against the national rights of the Palestinian people, including funding illegal colonial-settlements and participating in celebrations of the Israeli occupation. We call upon the US administration to clarify their position.”

The legal status of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem – captured during the six-day war in 1967 – is recognised by the United Nations, most countries and by Israel itself in its use of institutions such as military courts to try Palestinians in the West Bank.

The US state department itself also refers unambiguously to the “occupied territories” in its own reports, including in a human rights report earlier this year.

Friedman has kept a relatively low profile since arriving in Israel earlier this year. His appointment had been met with a chorus of criticism over his suitability for such a sensitive diplomatic post given his complete lack of foreign service experience and his history of supporting far-right Israeli causes, including the hardline settlement at Beit El.

The US ambassador’s comment follows hard on the heels of recent remarks by state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, who said a recommittal by the Trump administration to the two-state solution would show “bias” to one side.

Before taking up his post Friedman also voiced opposition to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine crisis.

And that, kids, puts Liberal Canada, Like Conservative Canada before it, in league with technocratic gangsters. Well done, Justin.