by Tanya Reinhart
Media Monitors, Wednesday July 26 2006
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Tanya Reinhart is a professor at Tel Aviv University and the author of Israel/Palestine: How to End the 1948 War and Detruire la Palestine
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Beirut is burning, hundreds of Lebanese die, hundreds of thousands lose all they ever owned and become refugees, and all the world is doing is rescuing the “foreign passport” residents of what was just two weeks ago “the Paris of the Middle East”. Lebanon must die now, because “Israel has the right to defend itself”, so goes the U.S. mantra, used to block any international attempt to impose a cease fire. (more…)

Montreal, 8 August 2006 – City councillors yesterday refused to hold one minute of silence in memory of the Al Akhrass family. The family was killed on 16 July by an Israeli missile while on holiday in Lebanon. Mr. Ali Al Akhrass was much beloved and respected in his Montreal neighbourhood of Côte des Neiges (CDN), where he worked at a pharmacy which served the local population.
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CORNWALL, Ont. (CP) – Protesters accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of toeing the American line on the Middle East conflict, as they rallied Friday outside the site of the Conservative caucus meeting.

About 80 people, mostly from Montreal, urged Harper to call for an immediate ceasefire in the region. So far, the Conservative government has supported a ceasefire only as long as certain conditions are met, such as a halt to attacks by both Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

“I’m astounded at the injustice of Harper’s position in terms of unconditionally supporting Israel when at this point in time the civilian death count is over 900,” said Jordan Topp, who has taught in Lebanon and has friends there.

“People have been killed across the country in Lebanon, and it’s not what he’s called a ‘measured’ response.”

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PLEASE CALL MAYOR TREMBLAY

On Thursday, Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay participated in a public event named the “Blue and White Rally for Peace”, called by the pro-Israeli organisation B’nai Brith. It was a pro-Israel rally which portrayed Israel as acting in self-defence and its attacks on people in Lebanon as legitimate. La Presse reported that Mayor Tremblay defended his participation in the rally by saying that it was a gathering for peace. At the same time, he refused to call for a cease-fire and or to acknowledge the disproportionality of Israel’s actions.

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Here are some MacKay “truisms”, and responses
 
Fiction: “A ceasefire and a return to status quo is a victory for Hezbollah.”
 
Fact: A ceasefire will save the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians, including those in Israel, and end the barbaric destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure in urban and rural areas. Hezbollah has agreed to a ceasefire. The U.N. and other nations including France, which have no sympathy for Hezbollah, have joined the U.N. in its call.

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Mon Jul 17, 4:47 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from “malicious terrorist acts”.

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Copy of a letter to Peter MacKay, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, by a friend and supporter of Tadamon!
The author prefers to remain anonymous.

16 July 2006

Hon. Peter MacKay
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Dear Mr. MacKay,

You and Prime Minister Harper have shamed Canada in the eyes of the world. I am referring, here, to your statements of last week on the current crisis in the Middle East. These statements were so lacking in balance, in any measure of objectivity or in basic knowledge of the region’s history that they were nothing short of embarassments, especially to Canadians who expect that elected officials and members of Cabinet will live up to fairly high standards when taking positions on the questions of the day.

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