Angry in the Great White North

The complete text of the Canadian Arab Federation press release:

Canadian Arab Federation
La Fédération Canado-Arabe

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 24, 2008

Abandonment of anti-racism conference a blow to tolerance and multiculturalism in Canada

Toronto - CAF would like to add its voice to other anti-racism organizations such as the National Anti-Racism Council of Canada in decrying Canada's boycott of and refusal to support a UN anti-racism conference planned in Durban, South Africa, next year.

Canada's outright rejection of the conference sends a clear message to the Canadian public that the current government is disinterested in promoting human rights and anti-racism. The very fact that Israel was "attacked" at the previous conference indicates that the international community and human rights organizations are in agreement that the occupation of Arab lands, the mistreatment and killing of Palestinians, and the denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return is in violation of international law and will be condemned and no longer accepted.

Respected human rights advocates and Nobel Peace prize winners such as Reverend Desmond Tutu and former US President Jimmy Carter are amongst human rights defenders who have on many occasions asserted that peace cannot exist in situations of occupation, and that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories amounts to nothing less than apartheid, thereby indicating one group's legal relationship of superiority  over another. Former Special Rapporteur for United Nations Commission on Human Rights, John Dugard, has also publicly stated that Israel openly practices an apartheid regime and engages in war crimes.

"We would also like to remind Jason Kenney that he is a Minister of the Canadian government, not the racist Israeli government; still, CAF is not surprised with Minister Kenney's position given his outright contempt for the Arab and Muslim communities in Canada and his condoning of Islamophobia. This is the same man who attacked a Muslim organization for lodging a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission against Maclean's Magazine for publishing an inflammatory and bigoted article, and who slandered Canadian NGO's at an OSCE Conference in front of the international community", said Khaled Mouammar, CAF National President.

"It is ironic that the Canadian government is so outspoken about shunning the conference due to the fear of hearing criticisms against the Israeli occupation, given its own past with hate and bigotry. For over 200 years, the African people were subjugated to a life of slavery in North America, Chinese immigrants were subjected to a head tax and the First Nations were ethnically cleansed. The latter still live in absolutely appalling conditions exasperated by government indifference. The government has refused to sign an international treaty recognizing the inherent rights of indigenous people and by refusing to participate at Durban, Canada again has insulted and turned its back to the First Nations", stated Mohamed Boudjenane, CAF Executive Director.

CAF National President Khaled Mouammar is a former Liberal Party appointee to the Immigration Review Board, whose own radicalized children mourn that they wish they might have had a less politicized upbringing. 

Mouammar was embroiled in the Liberal Party  leadership campaign, when in an attempt to derail Bob Rae's campaign, Mouammar was linked to the infamous "Jew flyer":

During the Liberal Leadership contest (where delegates met to vote for the new leader of Liberal Party of Canada), a flyer circulated electronically among convention delegates denounced candidate Bob Rae for having once delivered a speech to the Jewish National Fund (JNF), charging that the JNF was complicit in "war crimes and ethnic cleansing."[15] The flyer's appearance coincided with a wide range of explicitly anti-Semitic smears against Rae.[15]

The flyer stated that "Rae's wife is a vice-president of the CJC (Canadian Jewish Congress), a lobby group which supports Israeli apartheid."[15] It was produced and disseminated to all Canadian Members of Parliament by Ron Saba, the editor of an obscure magazine, the Montreal Planet.[15]

Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, wrote in the Globe and Mail that Mouammar had "forwarded a mass e-mail to Muslim delegates" that included the flyer.[16] On the same day, the Canadian Jewish Congress condemned the flyer and its circulation by the "president of the Canadian Arab Federation."[17]

Ed Morgan, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said the purpose behind raising the fact that Rae's wife is a member of the Congress's board was "strictly to say that his wife is a Jew."[15] Mouammar countered that the CJC was making "a pitiful attempt to discredit" and denied producing or distributing the flyer to Muslim delegates at the Liberal leadership convention.[15] However, the Canadian Press noted that it had procured a copy of an email from Mouammar forwarding the flyer to others.[15]

In a news release, CAF supported the content of the flyer, stating that "CAF believes that Canadians have the right to know the factual information provided."[15] Characterizing the Jewish National Fund's management of state lands in Israel on which only Jews are permitted to live as a "practice that amounts to ethnic cleansing," the statement added that "Canadians have the right to know who supports the JNF in Canada."[15]

Mouammar also wrote at the Montreal Planet website that the Canadian Jewish Congress is "an ardent supporter of Israel, lam basts (sic) anyone who dares to criticize Israel and resorts to undermining human rights and civil liberties to protect Israel's war crimes."[15]

Speaking in the Canadian Senate regarding the flyer and its distribution, Yoine Goldstein, Canadian Senator and Vice-President of the Jewish National Fund,[18] stated:

Mr. Khaled Mouammar, President of the Canadian Arab Federation, who has been invited to the Hill in the past, denied having had anything to do with the flyer, but in a news release last Thursday, the federation supported the content of the flyer and, indeed, reproduced some of it. Moreover, the Canadian Press has in hand an email from Mr. Mouammar in which he forwarded that disgusting flyer to others. His denial, therefore, is a brazen lie, just as his racism is brazenly anti-Canadian."[19]

On an immigrant advocacy website which had also posted the flyer, Mouammar wrote that the flyer had "nothing to do with Bob Rae's and his wife's religion and ethnicity but has a lot to do with their political views."[15]

In addition to targeting Bob Rae, Khaled Mouammar went after Gerard Kennedy for being too friendly to Jews:

The President of the Canadian Arab Federation has accused Liberal Party leadership hopeful Gerard Kennedy as having "chosen to ingratiate himself to the Israel lobby by supporting the racist terrorist state of Israel."

Khaled Mouammar, National President of CAF was reacting to Gerard Kennedy's statement on Lebanon where he said "I deplore the fact that extremists from Hizbollah and Hamas have once again hijacked the agenda in the Middle East."

Kennedy criticizes Hizbollah and Hamas, and so earns the enmity of Khaled Mouammar.

Only leadership candidates Michael Ignatieff (who declared Israeli actions during the 2006 war in Lebanon to be war crimes) and Stephane Dion were spared being called stooges for Israel by Mouammar.

The bottom line is that anyone who expresses support for Israel is a criminal, according to Khaled Mouammar, as he explained in a letter to the Globe and Mail in December 2006:

The Canadian Arab Federation agrees with Raja Khouri's point that the Israel lobby attempts to bully and silence critics of Israel by calling them “anti-Semites.” However, we assert that any support for Israel is support for apartheid, occupation and war crimes. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and the special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council have accused Israel of practising apartheid. Canadian Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Amnesty International have accused Israel of committing war crimes.

A former president of the CAF is Omar Alghabra, now the Liberal Party MP for Mississauga-Erindale.

It would be interesting to know if this was the policy of the CAF when Omar Alghabra was president, and if Omar Alghabra shares the current CAF president's view that Jason Kenney is a hate-mongering Islamophobe.

The Liberals are standing alone in their position that Canada ought to participate in the Durban II conference where pamphlets like this are likely to make a reappearance:

I think it is safe to say that Khaled Mouammar's opinion of this pamphlet might fall short of full condemnation.  Indeed, it might fall far short.

So Khaled Mouammar and the CAF accuse Jason Kenney of the most vile things for being the minister who announced that Canada would not appear at a conference where Nazi-sympathizers would have free rein. 

Coincidently, the Liberal Party agrees with the CAF that Canada ought to participate.

Does the Liberal Party agree with the Khaled Mouammar's characterization of Jason Kenney?  If not, why not?  I ask because if the reason is because no one ought to be subjected to such scurrilous slurs like the ones Khaled Mouammar aims at anyone who does not wholeheartedly hate Israel, then why should a Canadian delegation have to be subjected to exactly that sort of treatment at Durban II? 

Presumably a Canadian delegation that the Liberal Party would like to see at Durban II would speak out against the sort of extreme anti-Semitism that characterized Durban I.  That would earn the delegation nothing but contempt and abuse.

Maybe Omar Alghabra  can help clarify the Liberal Party position, and explain how closely it follows the position laid out by the Canadian Arab Federation and Khaled Mouammar.

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