Canadian Duplicity and Israeli Apartheid

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If Canada were to support real, productive change, it would support rather than condemn peaceful citizen initiatives such as the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) campaign.

Instead, Canada continues to support international lawlessness abroad, and an on-going domestic policy of police-state repression, welded to a nexus of complicit agencies -- most notably mainstream media -- to stifle our freedom of dissent.

International law presents a powerful case against apartheid Israel.

In an earlier article, for example, this author noted that,

"The International Criminal Court (ICJ) ruled in 2004 that the West Bank wall was 'illegal in its entirety,' and that compensation should be paid to those affected. Additionally, the U.N General Assembly passed a resolution supporting the ICJ's call to dismantle the wall."

Not only is the wall a breach of international law, but it also represents a "land-grab". Eighty-five percent of the wall is located on the occupied West Bank. Upon completion, 46% of the West bank will be locked into ghettos. Even now, there are separate, apartheid road systems that separate Israeli from Palestinian drivers.

The territory of Gaza is accurately described as an "open-air prison". The illegal blockade of the land, air, and sea, is itself a form of collective punishment, and a violation of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.

Israel imposes a "diet" on Palestinians. A 2010 study entitled Humanitarian Minimum| Israel's Role in Creating Food And Water Insecurity in the Gaza Strip provides strong evidence that Israel's imposition of food and water insecurity on Gaza is part of its illegal military strategy of collective punishment.

According to REPORT TO UNRWA: THE GAZA HEALTH SECTOR AS OF JUNE 2014, 90% of the water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption. A June 2006 Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Power Plant contributed to a nexus of health deprivations, one symptom of which is that one-third of Gazan households are provided with running (unclean) water for 6-8 hours once every four days. Whereas an Israeli uses about 300 liters of (clean) water per person, per day, Gazans are restricted to 70 litres (contaminated) water per day. Again all of these deprivations were pre-planned.

Meanwhile, cement quotas undermine rebuilding efforts: it would take 17 years to adequately rebuild infrastructure. Despite the fact of power shortages and poor healthcare infrastructure -- 50% of Gazan hospitals were damaged in 2008/09 -- 21% of medical permits to exit through the Eretz crossing are denied.

Engineered homelessness also adds to the deprivations: In 2014 alone, 18,000 Palestinian housing units were destroyed, and 108,000 Palestinians remain homeless.

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