Ontario Government Bans Use of '“Israeli Apartheid"

[Purveyor]

The Ontario government recently approved a motion that the term "Israeli Apartheid" should not be used.

The motion passed with unanimous support from the Ontario Tory's, Liberals and NDP.

Speaking to the Toronto Sun Conservative MPP Peter Shurman stated that "I want to be clear about what it is I’m trying to do. I want the name changed. It’s that simple. It’s just wrong."

And why is it wrong for Shurman? What stunning and well thought out rational did Shurman use to back up his condemnation of the words "Israeli Apartheid"?

Does he dispute that there are similarities between the Bantustan system in South Africa and the territory allotments to Palestinians? Did he challenge the claim that there are two different laws that exist in Israel, one for Israelis and another for Palestinians? Why did he and the entire Legislature choose to target the the term "Israeli Apartheid"?

“My problem is the name,” he said. “Israeli Apartheid Week is not dialogue, it’s a monologue. The name is hateful, it is odious and that’s not how things should be in my Ontario. It’s a term that frankly I’m sick of hearing. Get rid of this word apartheid.”

More...

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/geordie/3252

[PDJane]

1. I see his point,

but apartheid is what is being enforced. At this point, the situation is beyond dialogue.

[Fumesucker]

2. From the comments to that article..

http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/house-proceedings/house_detail.do?Date=2010-02-25&Parl=39&Sess=1&locale=en#P609_160349

Mr. Peter Shurman: I move that in the opinion of this House, the term "Israeli Apartheid Week" is condemned as it serves to incite hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word "apartheid" in this context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid regime in South Africa.

It's interesting that South Africa during Apartheid and Israel possibly collaborated on nuclear weapons technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

In September 1979, a double flash over the Indian Ocean detected by a U.S. satellite was suspected of being a South African nuclear test, in collaboration with Israel (this event is known as the Vela Incident). No official confirmation of it being a nuclear test has been made, and expert agencies have disagreed on their assessments.

[HeresyLives]

3. They condemned the use of the term.

However they did not, in fact cannot, ban it.

Americans should also be aware that the bill's sponsor, Peter Shurman, is a Conservative.

[shergald]

4. "It’s just wrong."

One can only imagine that Shulman has never visited the Palestinian territories, and has no clear idea as to where the Israeli government is taking this thing. From the progressive announcements by Netanyahu in his first year, it is clearly evident that Apartheid is where he is going. Perhaps he agreed with Ariel Sharon, that Apartheid is good enough for the Palestinians.

And I can only imagine the background scenario that led to this prohibition. It is probably just an attempt to make points with political backers. However, I assume that no one will get arrested if he/she utters the phrase.

[damntexdem]

5. He doesn't want the truth to be correctly labeled.

He has a problem with naming a thing what it is.

[shergald]

6. Ha’aretz calls Israel an ‘apartheid state’

June 27, 2008 | 1:00 pm
Brad A. Greenberg
Jewish Journal

Last fall, the liberal Israeli daily Ha’aretz likened the situation in the occupied territories to political apartheid. But roll out the red carpet for Jimmy Carter, but today Ha’aretz took the indictment several steps further in an editorial from Publisher Amos Schocken about the Citizenship Law:

In effect, the law prevents young Israeli citizens from marrying the spouse of their choice and living with this spouse in Israel, if the spouse is a Palestinian from Judea and Samaria.

It is obvious that this has barely any effect on the right of young Israeli Jews to live in their country with the spouse of their choice, because there are hardly any marriages between Israeli Jews and Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. On the other hand, these Palestinians constitute Israeli Arabs’ natural pool for choosing a spouse. For this reason, the law severely discriminates when comparing the rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens.

When the law was first passed in 2003, supposedly as a temporary one-year measure, it was accompanied by security reasoning - the risk of implanting terrorists in Israel via marriage. The reasoning was faulty even at that time: Every Palestinian who wishes to enter Israel must be addressed individually. It is the Shin Bet security service’s task to do this and thus carry out its mission - protecting the security of Israel’s citizens such that the country remains democratic, with equal rights for all. However, as the years go by, it becomes clear that the security argument and the term “temporary measure” are merely a deception aimed at “koshering” discriminatory legislation for demographic reasons.

The claim that there are indications of an apartheid state in Israel is widely heard in the Western world. The word apartheid is catchy and understood in many parts of the world, which makes it useful to send a message that we resent and which we claim has no connection with reality in Israel. However, we do not have to identify the characteristics of South African apartheid in the civil rights discrimination in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. The amendment to the Citizenship Law is exactly the kind of practice that leads to the use of such a term, and it is best that we not try to evade the truth: Its existence in the law books turns Israel into an apartheid state.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/thegodblog/item/haaretz_calls_israel_an_apartheid_state_20080627/

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. I think the title of this article is misleading (fault of the quoted article, not the poster).

As I understand it, the legislature has condemned the use of the term, not banned it.

[oberliner]

9. Nobody banned anything

New Democratic MPP Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale-High Park) said that while the motion, which passed with a unanimous voice vote, was "symbolic," it sent a signal that parliamentarians want to promote positive debate.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/771761--mpps-decry-linking-israel-to-apartheid

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Perhaps they should get their priorities right. I wonder if they've ever condemned OCL?

Then again, that only involved the killing of Palestinian civilians. It's not like that's a word or anything like that which of course is much more harmful than dead Palestinians. Glad to see those guys have got their priorities right. 'Promoting positive debate'? What a bunch of abject morons they are...

[oberliner]

12. New Democrat statement on the situation in the Middle East

Canada's New Democrats condemn the unacceptable escalation of violence in the Middle East causing death and injury to so many civilians in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

It is a tragedy that hundreds of civilians have again become the victims of violence in this conflict. The continuing airstrikes by Israel on civilians in the Gaza strip and the ongoing rocket attacks on Israeli civilians are serving to compound the existing civilian disaster and further harm chances for a negotiated peace.

We call on the Government of Canada to immediately call for an end to the aerial bombing of Gaza, the blockade of aid to civilians and the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel. Indeed, the government must urge both sides to agree to end the current hostilities immediately, reinstate the ceasefire and return to the peace process.

http://www.ndp.ca/press/new-democrat-statement-on-situation-in-middle-east

[Violet_Crumble]

13. That wasn't a motion. The other one was n/t

[oberliner]

14. The other was from the entire gov't

This is just from one party.

The RW Canadian government supported the Gaza invasion.

The LW party whose statement I've cited here raised the objections noted.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. Then it's not the same thing. The govt needs to get their priorities right n/t

[Scurrilous]

10. Universities worldwide mark 'Israeli Apartheid Week'

<snip>

"A filmmaker, anthropologist and economic researcher are among those headlining events marking what pro-Palestinian organizers have declared as "Israeli Apartheid Week" - and all three speakers are Israeli.

University campuses in more than 40 cities around the world are marking the week with lectures, films, multimedia events, cultural performances and demonstrations.

Since they were first launched in 2005, the events have become some of "the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar," according to its organizers.

Its aim, they state on their Web site, is to "contribute to this chorus of international opposition to Israeli apartheid and to bolster support for the boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) campaign."

Though many of the details about those events were not being promoted on the Apartheid Week Web site, it did list several events being offered by Israelis.

Among them is Shir Hever, an economic researcher at the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem, who is scheduled to give a series of lectures at the University of Amsterdam entitled "Could the Economic Policies of Israel be Considered a Form of Apartheid?"

In addition, Israeli activist and filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak is screening his 2006 documentary "Bil'in Habibti," about Israel Defense Forces violence, at Boston-area universities.

Jeff Halper, the Israel-based professor of anthropology who is co-founder and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, was scheduled to speak on "Israeli Apartheid: The Case For BDS" at Glasgow University."

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