Canada and Israel: An anti-Arab stance?

The Harper Government is shaming and embarrassing Canadian citizens and Canada's international image, demonstrated through them losing a seat at the United Nations Security Council due to their foreign policy stances, one being in relation to Israel; reinforced recently with their support for the latest incursion on the Gaza Strip.

The Harper Government has criticised United Nations statements including the Human Rights Council for authorizing an international investigation into war crimes during Operation Protective Edge. These developments on the international level arose as a result of the understandably grave concerns over the disproportionate death toll; the majority of casualties being innocent Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children.

Notwithstanding the evident war crimes and crimes against humanity produced by this military campaign against the Palestinians, Israel targeted yet again, the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip, such as a rehabilitation centre for disabled people as well as hospitals, power plants and schools; such as the continued shelling of the UNRWA compounds.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Baird has indicated that there was "no moral equivalence" between Israel as a "democracy" and Hamas as a terrorist organisation and that Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket attacks. The Harper government is either ignorant to the facts or are deliberate in supporting impunity in regards to the countless violations of international law by Israel as demonstrated in United Nations security council resolutions, United Nations general assembly resolutions as well as International Court of Justice advisory opinions of which Israel is yet to comply or adhere to.

Setting aside Canada's failure to acknowledge Palestinian statehood via their negative vote at the General Assembly alongside Israel, the moral equivalence statement is indicative of the fact that the Harper government perceives Palestinians as subhuman, animalistic, barbaric and terrorist savages the same way Zionism and Zionist ideology does. Such logic of exceptionalism by the Harper government has been justified in the same statement by using the absence of democracy as the guise.  Both excuses of terrorism and democracy are contradictory, based on the actions of our current government with respect to the same context.

Regarding democracy, the reality is, whether we like Hamas or not, the same way whether people like the Conservative party or not, Hamas, like the Conservatives won democratic elections in 2006 that were monitored and confirmed by the Carter Foundation. In fact, Canada was the first country in the world to denounce those elections, even before the State of Israel itself cut off its portion of foreign aid to the Palestinians. 

To take it even further, the Harper government used its donor monies to the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) that support the Palestinian refugee affairs to support a counterinsurgency plan - also known as the Dayton Project - to use Canada Border Services Agency officials to train the Fatah party - also known as the Palestinian Authority - a corrupt Palestinian entity that did not win elections, to take control through these tactics. Minister Vic Toews stated at the time that "funding was being directed in accordance with Canadian values."

With respect to terrorism, the Jewish Defense League has been banned from the State of Israel, the United States and the European Union because they are a terrorist organisation and yet they have an office and operate legally on Canadian soil.

Furthermore, the Anti-Defamation League has called out the organisation's extremism and racism towards Arabs that is doing a disservice to the fight against anti-semitism. In fact, the Jewish Defense League has made alliances with groups such as the British Nationalist Party which is a white supremacist, anti-semitic organisation. The alliance is shaping and creating a new form and wave of anti-semitism that the Harper government ought to understand and be aware of - the racism against Arabs.

With that being said, Canada's support for "Operation Protective Edge" is supporting one basic premise: extreme racism towards Arabs which is the basis of Zionism and Zionist ideology. The stance that the Harper government is taking not only supports the violation of international law with impunity but also violates Canada's international human rights policy which include: gender equality, children's human rights, universal periodic review and indigenous affairs.

With that being said, there is a legal complaint being filed against the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister for their seemingly evident hateful propaganda and genocidal advocacy of the Palestinian people in violation of the criminal code of Canada.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that the Harper government has attempted to criminalise any criticism of Israel and as a result of the current government's blind and unequivocal support of the State of Israel; which has earned the status of a terrorist state; the support given by our current government to these events should mean one thing for Canadians: Thank God for democracy; as it is time to restore Canada's regressing international status by voting for change.

- Ahmad Moussa is a visiting professor at the University of Duhok, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. He is a  scholar of Indigenous and Middle Eastern issues. He is also a human rights activist with a Master of Arts in International Law and Human Rights. Moussa is currently involved in research for a Doctoral Degree in War Studies. 

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Photo credit: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (AFP)