Libby Davies you have my support

I don't have a lot to add to the many bloggers who've covered this story such as Judy Rebick, pogge, Dawg's Blawg, Murray Dobbin, and Creekside, but I do think it's important to add my voice to those supporting Libby Davies, who spoke the truth and was viciously attacked, not only by the Harpercons, but by Liberals and even members of her own party.

What did she say that caused such a chorus demanding her resignation? Merely this, that Israel has occupied Palestine since 1948, the year it was formed. This is a matter of historical record, but it's a historical record that some would like to bury, along with free speech.

I have my doubts about the effectiveness of the Israel lobby. Oh yes, it's very effective with politicians and the media, however among the people I know it's actually acheiving the opposite of what it intends. The paranoia level is so off the charts that it strains belief. True, there are those, such as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who do actually want the destruction of Israel, but such voices have no traction and no credibility in the minds of Canadians.

What does have growing credibility is that the treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is a human rights issue, and that Israel is becoming everything its citizens once fled.

Surely we who live in a western democracy have a right to criticize a state's policies without being accused of propagating hate. The attempt by the Israel lobby and its followers such as Stephen Harper to equate criticism of Israel with Nazi-like anti-semitism is, I fear, simply making "anti-semites" out of people who are nothing of the sort, and in so doing is cheapening the meaning of the word. And for someone like Harper to actually compare those who object to Israel's apartheid policies and continued occupation of Palestinian land to the Nazi's is Kafka-esque in the extreme.

Libby Davies dared to speak the truth. Those of us who still care about that kind of thing support her.

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Apartheid Deniers, to coin a phrase

This my friends is the ugly steel and concrete face of apartheid: the wall that divides Gaza from Israel. Its purpose is Israel's security. Its effect is Gaza's imprisonment. Along the wall are numerous gun towers; some are manned, others operate via motion detectors, opening fire on anything that moves. On the Israeli side is prosperity, on the Palestinian abject poverty.

Nothing gets in or out without Israel's permission: not food, not fuel to run the power grid, not building materials, not cloth, not toys. Unemployment is at 40%. Agriculture is at half the 2007 level. Despair is rampant.

Israel's mission abroad is to criminalize the term "Israeli apartheid", to equate it with hate speech, to deny that such apartheid exists. I wonder what you would you call a system where your home can be taken over by soldiers, or demolished by settlers with no compensation and no recourse? Where a walled highway runs through your land for Jews only? What would you call a system that subjects you to endless checkpoints, where you must present your papers or be turned back? Mandela called it apartheid. Desmond Tutu called it apartheid. They should know.

It's beyond inappropriate for Israel to be playing the victim card when it holds all the power. It is also completely inappropriate for Israel's PR machine to attempt to put a chill on free speech in countries such as this one, aided and abetted by Stephen Harper and his merry band of religious fanatics. Apartheid deniers are every bit as heinous as holocaust deniers, both seeking to deny and cover up human rights abuse. It's time we started calling them what they are.
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