Bill C-51 wants you to stop protesting in support of Palestinians
| Rabble.ca MARCH 11, 2015
One of the less
discussed questions of the Harper government's anti-terror
bill, Bill C-51, is whether Palestinian rights advocates and
advocates of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) will be
targeted by CSIS agents armed with new powers to target and
disrupt, courtesy of a judicial warrant.
Admittedly, the
legislation and its intended objects are vague, except that
what constitutes "terrorism," seems to be broadening beyond
wanton acts of violence.
So, we need to be on
guard when Public Safety minister Steven Blaney, the author
of Bill-C-51, also talks about "zero tolerance" for
promoters of the international BDS campaign against Israel.
What does that exactly
mean? We know that Harper and his Conservatives have cozied up so
close to Israeli government and policy that there appears to
be little daylight between them at the moment.
The extreme right-wing
coalition administration led by Likud leader Benjamin
Netanyahu in the Jewish state is now in the midst of a hard
fought Israeli election for March 17; and he has made no
bones about connecting to "terrorism," any form of
Palestinian resistance towards illegal Jewish settlement of
occupied Palestinian land and the economic/military
stranglehold of the Gaza Palestinian enclave.
After surprising news
reports circulated Netanyahu's willingness to offer
concessions in a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority
in Ramallah, the Israel PM has now sought to reassure
right-wing supporters within the Israeli electorate that he
is definitely opposed to a negotiated Palestinian state,
arguing it would "fall into the hands of Islamic extremism
and terror organizations supported by Iran."
How this jives with a
January 18 2015 memorandum of understanding between Canada
and Israel where both parties indicated a desire for a
"peaceful" two-state solution negotiated between Israelis
and Palestinians should be interesting to observe in the
upcoming months if Netanyahu and his Likud party sweep to
the election victory and lead a new rightist coalition.
Nonetheless, there is
a consistent theme here and in other Canadian government
statements of a hard line against BDS, which was originally
mounted by Palestinians NGOs in the occupied West Bank after
it became obviously apparent that armed struggle against
Israel was not the answer.
The Harper government
continues to echo the Israel government smear that
supporters of BDS, which now includes scientist Stephen
Hawking, South African bishop Desmond Tutu and journalist
Naomi Klein, represent the "the new anti-semitism."
Just days after the
signing of the memorandum of understanding, Blaney alluded to this claim during a bizarre
speech before the United Nations General Assembly where he
combined the murders of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and
the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris, the war against
ISIS in Iraq and "zero tolerance" approach to BDS.
"The Harper government
is shameless in its opportunism," states Tyler Levitan, a
spokesperson for Independent
Jewish Voices. "It stoops to capitalize on a tragic
situation by attacking human rights activists."
Further along, the
House of Commons on Feb. 25 unanimously condemned global
anti-semitism following the introduction of a motion by
Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, who once addressed Israel's major
annual policy in Herzliya.
But look past the
perfectly reasonable expressions of outright horror at the
violence against Jews and their communal institutions and
cemeteries, presumably in Europe, it is apparent in
implicitly in the hyperbolic language of the Feb. 25
resolution that
BDS is the intended target.
"Criticism of Israel
is not anti-semitic, and saying so is wrong. But singling
Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium -- let
alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction
-- is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is
dishonest;" the motion states.
In a Canadian
political climate of heightened hysteria about terrorism and
little sympathy for the Palestinians, should it be
surprising that not a single parliamentarian in Ottawa was
willing to tackle what this resolution was really all about.
(Also forgotten in the Cotler motion is that Palestinian
Arabs are also Semites.)
Something prescient
was expressed a little over a year
ago by
Israel-American journalist Larry Derfner that still seems
relevant today.
He said the two-state
Israel-Palestine solution -- now on its deathbed in face of
mounting Jewish settlements on the West Bank -- may need BDS
for an infusion back to life.
He represents a number
of liberal Zionists -- which Derfner identifies as -- who
are also despairing of the direction of Israel with the
continued occupation and the daily and violent racism
directed against Palestinian Arabs.
Up to now, many of
these same people have been uncomfortable with the failure
of BDS organizers to spell out one way or another on the
resolution for the Israel-Palestine conflict -- should it be
two states versus one.
But that is becoming
academic for Derfner:
"Moreover, BDS isn't an all-or-nothing tactic. If liberal Zionists don't want to boycott Israel, let them just boycott the settlements. If they want to support the economic boycott but not the cultural boycott, or the cultural boycott but not the academic boycott, that also helps. But if they don't want to boycott anything, let them come up with a better idea for transforming the status quo, or just any idea that hasn't already failed," he wrote in May 19, 2014.
Since then, it has
been apparent that the Netanyahu government is in trouble
and could lose the March 17 election to the Zionist Camp,
led by the Labor Party. But it is not clear that the latter
will differ much from its predecessor in seriously uprooting
the Jewish settlers to make way for the much discussed
Palestinian state.
At the same time, a
surge of support for the Joint List of Arab parties and
Hadash (the Jewish-Arab Communist party) will add a new
dimension to Israel politics where Palestinians have for
decades been marginalized.
BDS has not yet made a
significant dent in the Israel economy. But Israel's
supporters are sufficiently nervous about its impact that
they are trying to put it out of business.
To dub it anti-semitic
is particularly abhorrent for those whose parents or
offspring experienced the real thing up close in its
grossest and genocide-form in Europe.
Finally, there is not
direct evidence that BDS activists will receive the same
kind of intelligence scrutiny that already affects
anti-pipeline protesters and some members of the Muslim
community.
However, amidst this
toxic atmosphere in Ottawa, it is hard to rule anything out
at the moment.
Paul Weinberg is a Hamilton based
freelance writer who can be reached at paulweinberg@bell.net.
Photo: flickr/Stephen
Harper
-- Edward C. Corrigan Barrister and Solicitor Certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a Specialist in Citizenship and Immigration and Refugee Law 383 Richmond St. Suite 902 London, Ont, Canada, N6A 3C4 Tel: 519-439-4015 Fax: 519-439-7657 Toll Free: 1-800-883-6217 Web site: www.edcorrigan.ca
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