ACTION: Oppose Canada's Invitation of War Criminal Ariel Sharon
DEMONSTRATION!War criminals not welcome here
Monday, November 14
7:00 pm
Metro Hall Square
Downtown Toronto
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon - viewed by people around the world as a war criminal - was invited to speak at the United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Toronto on Monday, November 14. Paul Martin will also be addressing the gathering.
Ariel Sharon's record of international war crimes is long and well-documented. As Minister of Defence during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Ariel Sharon was found responsible for the massacre of thousands of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp on September 16-18, 1982.
Since then, as Israeli Prime Minister, Sharon has continued to violate international law, presiding over Israel's construction of its illegal Apartheid Wall, expanding illegal Zionist settlements on Palestinian land, implementing the practices of 'home demolition' and targeted assassination of Palestinians, and refusing to recognize the overwhelming opposition of the international community to Israel's abuses of human rights.
Canadians are giving notice to our government that Sharon is not welcome here.
In addition to a legal challenge to deny Ariel Sharon entry into Canada which has been endorsed by 83 organizations across Canada, opponents of Sharon's war crimes have organized a mass demonstration to protest his invitation.
We have come together to form the Coalition Against Israel's War Crimes, a city-wide community-based coalition that represents more than twenty organizations from Toronto's Muslim, Arab and Jewish communities as well as other faith groups, trade unionists, students, peace and human rights campaigners, elected officials and concerned citizens.
For more information or to endorse, please contact us:
E-Mail: coalition_against_war_crimes@hotmail.com
Media Liaison:
Khaled Mouammar
Phone: 905-508-0562
E-Mail: benwalid@rogers.com
Rafeef Ziadeh
Phone: 416-616-4796
E-mail: rafeef@rocketmail.com
The Canadian Jewish News
Internet Edition
November 10,
2005
8 Cheshvan, 5766
Prime Minister Martin to address GA
By FRANCES KRAFT
Staff Reporter
"For the first time in 21 years, the GA is back in Toronto, and local organizers are looking forward to showing off the city to a crowd of up to 3,000 delegates.
The annual General Assembly of United Jewish Communities (UJC) brings together Jewish community leaders from all over North America, as well as Israel. This year, there are also delegates from Great Britain. The mega-meeting will be held at the Toronto Convention Centre from Nov. 13 to 15.
Debbie Kimel, who is co-chairing the GA with Peter Ekstein, said there will be two Toronto booths at the event’s “Global Jewish Marketplace,” which will be open to the public on Saturday, Nov. 12, in the evening. The marketplace will feature Israeli and North American vendors including silversmiths and art galleries, as well as representatives of different organizations. On the Saturday night, there will be entertainment by the Winnipeg-based Sarah Sommer Chai Folk Ensemble.
One of the Toronto booths will showcase a model of the planned northern site of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Jewish Toronto Tomorrow campus in Vaughan.
Kimel, who has been attending the GA for about a decade, said she’s formed “wonderful friendships” and been motivated to contribute more to her community at those meetings. She hopes new leadership will be similarly inspired by Toronto’s GA.
Chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Zeev Bielski, another GA veteran, hopes that Israeli delegates will also be inspired. In a phone interview from Ra’anana, where he served as mayor before becoming chair of the Jewish Agency executive earlier this year, he told The CJN that at his first GA some 20 years ago, he was struck by “the beauty of [the] partnership” between Israel and North American Jewish leaders.
Some of this year’s Israeli delegates represent a new phenomenon that has arisen only in the past year or two, said Bielski. It is only recently that Israelis have been able to financially support Jewish causes in Israel in a major way, he said.
“We have to learn a lot from the North American system,” he said, citing the notion of shared responsibility.
Probably the most pressing need today that is addressed with money collected through UJA campaigns – in addition to Operation Promise, a $160 million initiative announced in September and aimed at helping Jews in Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union – is education for Jewish children in Israel and all over the world, said Bielski. Many children in Israel live under the poverty line, he noted.
“Israel is still a growing country, and the government has got so much to look after that we Jewish people all over the world would have to raise more dollars to meet the needs of aliyah, absorption, Jewish education and what we call ‘youth futures.’”
The latter designation refers to a two-year-old project of the Jewish Agency that addresses the educational needs of Jewish children in Israel and in locations such as Russia and South America.
The GA kicks off officially Sunday night with an opening plenary at which Prime Minister Paul Martin is to speak. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been invited to speak the following night. Other speakers include philanthropist Charles Bronfman; Canada’s Justice Minister Irwin Cotler; David Horovitz, editor of the Jerusalem Post; historian Deborah Lipstadt; and Heather Monroe-Blum, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University. Ben Stein of Comedy Central and actress Valerie Harper, now playing Golda Meir in a touring production of Golda’s Balcony, are also on the program. Harper is scheduled to perform excerpts from the show."
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10:32 PM
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