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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (25535)	5/25/2007 9:21:01 PM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81460

Editor of Pacific Free Press attacked for Anti-Zionist pennings Chris Cook , Atlantic Free Press May 25, 2007 Chris Cook is the Managing Editor of www.pacificfreepress.com, host of Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada, and former editor to www.pej.org As the bombs continue to fall over Palestine, the bodies piling higher by the hour, I'm spending my weekend (thanks to Queen Victoria, a mercifully long one) reading over 18 "offending" articles published at my former home Peace, Earth, and Justice (www.PEJ.org). I'm doing this because, Canada has Hate Speech laws, and me and PEJ have apparently fallen afoul of them. Or, so says the British Columbia branch of the B'nai Brith organization. Considering the hundreds of articles chronicling the crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli regime in Palestine, Lebanon, and elsewhere published during my time as an editor at PEJ, I can only remark at my shock B'nai Brith could only come up with 18 they find offensive. Perhaps it's a softening of vigilance, or maybe a tacit recognition: Israeli government policy is becoming increasingly difficult to defend, even among its most staunch proponents? Nevertheless, the charges are serious for the PEJ.org board members, the editors (of which yours truly is one), and the authors of the articles in question, some of the most noted authorities on the six decades-long Palestine-Israel debacle. For American readers who value and feel protected by the 1st Amendment (right to free speech), it may seem strange that a country would enshrine in law the opposite condition; but Hate Crime legislation in this country is widely supported. Canada is an ethnically, and politically diverse country, consisting of minority populations from the world over, and it was deemed fair-minded to ensure all are protected from the "tyranny of the majority." But it's a double-edged sword, making possible an abuse of the statutes, allowing an equally odious tyranny, the stifling of dissent and criticism by a dedicated minority. Such is, I believe, the case here. To understand the nature of the B'nai Brith complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, it's instructive to visit the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) website; there is explained the goals of the CJC, and their marching orders to regional branches of B'nai Brith in defending Israeli interests. The CJC's 'General Expectations of Canada,' and presumably of Canadian Jews and Christian Zionists loyal to Israel, right or wrong, are to take "constructive interventions against resolutions or motions" made in Canada that: i) blame only Israel and its policies for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ii) indict Israel's legitimate counter-terrorism measures with no reference to or condemnation of Palestinian terrorism. iii) deny or undermine Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state in the Middle East. iv) employ existentially threatening language such as referring to Israel as a "racist" or "apartheid" state and apply terms such as ["genocide"(?)], or "ethnic cleansing" to the conflict. v) are based upon inaccurate media information or Palestinian Authority propaganda. vi) predetermine the outcome of direct, bilateral negotiations in keeping with UN Resolution 242 and 338 or circumvent such a process. At the same time, Canada's delegates must support and encourage efforts at the UNCHR that: i) will ensure a comprehensive accounting of international human rights situations such that grievous international human rights issues are not ignored or soft-pedalled as a result of a politicized, anti-Israel agenda. ii) highlight the crippling impact of continuing Palestinian terrorism - which has been explicitly legitimized in the CHR resolutions - on the peace process and on attempts to establish a true human rights regime in the Middle East.