Condemn Cultural Cleansing Practices in Palestine
For more than 70 years, the Palestinian people have been subject to expulsion from their homeland, occupation, and discrimination. They are the victims of a colonial system and policies recognized worldwide by many as apartheid including recent statements by Human Rights Watch[1] and B’tselem[2] that finally asserted what Palestinians and many international organizations have declared for years that Palestinians are subject to a system of apartheid.
Recently, the armed Israeli settlers supported by the Israeli army have been carrying a systematic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The expulsion of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is nothing new, it is the continuation of an oppressive militarized political system and policies that Israel has used as a weapon to subjugate the indigenous Palestinians. There are no words that describe settler thugs’ actions and tactics against unarmed populations to drive them from their homes that existed before the state of Israel itself. It is also not surprising to witness once again the quasi-complete silence from Canadian mainstream media, political parties, and the current federal government, which perpetuates biases against Palestinians’ right to self- determination, supports Israeli’s settler colonial state by normalizing its apartheid regime and justifying its cultural cleansing practices. Such silence implicates Canada and Canadian governments in the ongoing crimes against humanities.
We at the Canadian Lebanese Academic Forum (CLAF) reject the silence of the Canadian government and call out the embedded systemic racism against Palestinians. We condemn cultural cleansing practices perpetuated by the apartheid state of Israel. We stand by human dignity and by humans who are ostracized, alienated, and oppressed. Today, we renew our support for the Palestinian people and their aspiration for liberation from oppression. It is our conviction the Palestinian liberation will also liberate the humanity of the oppressor: the same system that crushes the Palestinian people also enchains humanity in those condoning apartheid. While this is an existential fact, our duty is to stand by the oppressed in their struggle for justice. Between an oppressor and an oppressed there could be suppression and silencing but no peace.
The continuation of 70 years of Israeli oppression to the Palestinians with complacency from Western powers is a shame against humanity. The people of Sheikh Jarrah and other Palestinians should have their rights respected and be free from apartheid; we call for fellow Canadians to support their rights and be truthful to our shared believe in human rights for all.
[1] HRW asserted that Palestinians are subject to “deprivations [that] are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution” https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
[2] B’tselem, an Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, recognized “Israeli apartheid” and admitted that “a regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime”. https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid
For more than 70 years, the Palestinian people have been subject to expulsion from their homeland, occupation, and discrimination. They are the victims of a colonial system and policies recognized worldwide by many as apartheid including recent statements by Human Rights Watch[1] and B’tselem[2] that finally asserted what Palestinians and many international organizations have declared for years that Palestinians are subject to a system of apartheid.
Recently, the armed Israeli settlers supported by the Israeli army have been carrying a systematic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The expulsion of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is nothing new, it is the continuation of an oppressive militarized political system and policies that Israel has used as a weapon to subjugate the indigenous Palestinians. There are no words that describe settler thugs’ actions and tactics against unarmed populations to drive them from their homes that existed before the state of Israel itself. It is also not surprising to witness once again the quasi-complete silence from Canadian mainstream media, political parties, and the current federal government, which perpetuates biases against Palestinians’ right to self- determination, supports Israeli’s settler colonial state by normalizing its apartheid regime and justifying its cultural cleansing practices. Such silence implicates Canada and Canadian governments in the ongoing crimes against humanities.
We at the Canadian Lebanese Academic Forum (CLAF) reject the silence of the Canadian government and call out the embedded systemic racism against Palestinians. We condemn cultural cleansing practices perpetuated by the apartheid state of Israel. We stand by human dignity and by humans who are ostracized, alienated, and oppressed. Today, we renew our support for the Palestinian people and their aspiration for liberation from oppression. It is our conviction the Palestinian liberation will also liberate the humanity of the oppressor: the same system that crushes the Palestinian people also enchains humanity in those condoning apartheid. While this is an existential fact, our duty is to stand by the oppressed in their struggle for justice. Between an oppressor and an oppressed there could be suppression and silencing but no peace.
The continuation of 70 years of Israeli oppression to the Palestinians with complacency from Western powers is a shame against humanity. The people of Sheikh Jarrah and other Palestinians should have their rights respected and be free from apartheid; we call for fellow Canadians to support their rights and be truthful to our shared believe in human rights for all.
[1] HRW asserted that Palestinians are subject to “deprivations [that] are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution” https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
[2] B’tselem, an Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, recognized “Israeli apartheid” and admitted that “a regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime”. https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid
