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More than a hundred people answered the call of the
Alliance of Concerned Jews of Canada (ACJC)
to attend its first-ever conference, March 28-30 at Steelworkers Hall in Toronto.
It is a long-awaited sign of a small but important change in the Jewish
community.
Participants came from all over Canada,
including Jews, Muslims, Christians and atheists, as well as
representatives from unions, religious organizations and social justice
groups, from Halifax to Vancouver.
They agreed to organize to put pressure on Israel to end
its occupation of Palestinian territory and to form an organization that
strives to provide a counterweight to the steady stream of pro-Israel, pro-occupation
propaganda flowing from organizations like the Canadian Jewish Congress
and other members of the Israel Lobby, as well as the major media and the
Harper government.
Despite differences on a political solution for
Palestine (One State versus Two States), the conference agreed on the
urgency of educating Canadian public opinion and challenging the Harper
government’s uncritical and aggressive support for the Zionist apartheid
state.
"It is our aim to provide an alternative voice
for Jewish and non-Jewish Canadians, wherever they live, who are
inundated with information from only one side of the conflict," said
conference coordinator Diana Ralph, of Ottawa.
Journalist Naomi Klein
(author of The Shock Doctrine) delivered the
conference keynote address. She described how the government of
Israel, in celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of its founding, is
attempting to "re-brand" itself as a holiday destination. To do
this Israel must play down its repression of
Arab citizens and Palestinians and ignore the devastating effects of its
so-called Separation Wall. "They are normalizing war and
violence," Klein said, stressing the "high level of security
the Israeli Defence Force [IDF] is able
to deliver. They're saying, 'come to the beach, we'll keep you safe and
secure'."
Klein linked Israel's repression of the Palestinian
population to Washington’s "war on terror" and described how Israel
has become an international specialist in the development and manufacture
of surveillance hardware, crowd-control devices, and other high-tech
policing technologies. Security has become "Israel's main
export, more than fruits or vegetables," she emphasized.
Among the tactics the new organization will employ
are: challenging dominant views of the crisis in Israel and
Palestine in public forums, letters to editors, in demonstrations, by
founding alternative campus organizations for Jewish youth, by speaking
at synagogues about the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians and the seizure of
their property (a time known by Palestinians as the Nakba, or Disaster),
by supporting the work of Palestinian and alternative Jewish artists and
writers, and by working with unions, peace groups and equity-seeking
organizations.
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