Gaza Genocide and Canada

some readings…

Israel intensifies air raids on Gaza, destroying 13-story housing unit:

“Israel took its military campaign to a new level over the weekend, flattening a 13-story apartment tower a day after an Egyptian call for an open-ended ceasefire to enable new truce talks.

Local residents said the high-rise housed 44 families. Medical officials said 17 people were wounded in the Israeli strike.

Israel air strikes killed at least seven Palestinians on Sunday, medical officials said.

Sunday’s air raids came after at least 60 Israeli strikes pounded Gaza on Saturday, killing 10 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and bringing down a 12-story apartment block.

…Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his ministers on Sunday that the Zionist state’s brutal military campaign against Gaza would continue “until its aims are achieved.”

…Israel’s stated end goals have changed several times since the beginning of its assault on Gaza.

Netanyahu also called on Gaza residents to leave any site where Palestinian resistance fighters were operating, saying the locations could be attacked.

“I call on the inhabitants of Gaza to vacate immediately every site from which Hamas is carrying out terrorist activity. Every one of these places is a target for us,” he said in broadcast remarks.

Netanyahu did not indicate where he expected Palestinians living in one of the most densely populated territories in the world to flee. Almost 500,000 Gaza residents have already fled their homes and taken refuge in hospitals, UN schools and mosques, which have been targeted by Israeli forces on multiple occasions.”

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Canada’s tax-deductible support for Israel’s crimes:

“When is a Canadian who leaves this country to join a foreign military force and participate in the killing of innocent civilians, including children, called a “terror tourist” and sent to jail? The answer is: only when that person joins a military force the Conservative government disagrees with.

…It’s unknown exactly how many Canadians are participating in Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza but an Israeli military spokesperson has said there were 139 Canadians in the Israeli military in 2013. The Nefesh B’Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program, an organization supporting the Israeli military, has referred to 145 Canadians in the Israeli military. That figure, however, only refers to what the organization calls Canadian “lone soldiers” — soldiers without family in Israel.

…When thirty individuals attended the 2012 launch of a Toronto support group for Parents of Lone Soldiers, it took place at the home of Perla and Ron Riesenbach. The latter is a vice-president at the University of Toronto’s Baycrest Health Sciences Centre.

…the recent killing and destruction in Gaza has prompted a flood of inquiries about joining the Israeli military.

…Part of the tab for lone soldier support services is picked up by Canadian taxpayers through tax credits for “charitable” donations.

…Billionaire Toronto couple Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman created the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers. Reisman and Schwartz provide up to $3 million per year for post-military scholarships for these non-Israeli soldiers.

…At least 25 volunteers from the Greater Toronto Area fought in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, the three-week assault in late 2008 and early 2009, which left some 1,400 Palestinians dead.

Canada’s military contribution to the conquest of Palestine predates the creation of Israel.

During the First World War, Québec City-born Lieutenant General Sir Charles MacPherson Dobell, fresh from leading the Anglo-French conquest of German West Africa, was given a command position in the 1917 Egyptian expeditionary force sent to seize Gaza from the Ottomans. Additionally, as many as four hundred Canadians (approximately half recruited specifically for the task) fought in British General Edmund Allenby’s Jewish Legion that helped conquer Palestine.

A number of Canadians, with at least tacit support from the Ottawa authorities, played a direct role in “de-Arabizing” Palestine in 1947 and 1948. Representatives from the Haganah, the primary Zionist military force behind the Nakba — the ethnic cleansing leading to Israel’s foundation — recruited three hundred experienced Canadian soldiers.

The heir to the menswear firm Tip Top Tailors, Ben Dunkelman, was Haganah’s main recruiter in Canada. He claimed that “about 1,000” Canadians “fought to establish Israel.” During the Nakba, Israel’s small air force was almost entirely foreign, with at least 53 Canadians, including 15 non-Jews, enlisted.

… it’s as if the Canadians fighting with Israel are unsatisfied with their and their ancestors’ dispossession of First Nations in North America and now want to help colonize yet another indigenous people.

…Canadians of good conscience must at least insist upon fairness and an end to an outrageous double standard.”