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The Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) Is At It, Yet Again

Slanted telephone survey leads to predictable anti-Israel propaganda, in an attempt to influence Trudeau government policy

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Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) partnered with two other pro-Palestinian organizations to sponsor an EKOS poll about Israel applying sovereignty over Judea and Samaria

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I am writing about a telephone survey titled “EKOS Survey of Attitudes in Canada on Israel, the Palestinians and related topics” comprising a sample of 1009 persons (“respondents”) sponsored by the Independent Jewish Voices, Canada (IJV) together with two other organisations – Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East  (CJPME) and United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine-Israel (UNJPPI)  (“the sponsors”). Conducted by EKOS Research Associates (“EKOS”) between June 5- 10, 2020, the two- part report, published on June 17 and September 16, 2020 respectively, seeks to analyse and interpret the survey data presented in a large number of tables.

The first part of the report is titled: Out of Touch: Canada’s Foreign Policy Disconnected from Canadian, https://unjppi.org/uploads/3/4/3/8/34381416/survey-2020_israel-palestine_-_2020-06-16-final.pdf

Title of the second part is: No Double Standards: Canadians Expect Greater Impartiality vis-a-vis Israel. https://www.ijvcanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Survey-2020-Release-two-%E2%80%93-Final-1.pdf

IJV Canada claims to be a “grassroots organisation grounded in Jewish tradition’ that opposes all forms of racism and advocates for justice and peace for all in ‘Israel-Palestine’”.

To the best of my knowledge, there exists no Judaic or Jewish value or tradition that demands, requires or justifies Jews and Jewish organisations to engage in bad mouthing Israel and the Israeli government in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by turning aside from truth or right while ignoring continuously the abominable designs, goals and actions of the illegitimate government of the P.A against Israel.

 In the present context, for me, the tradition is to be faithful to one’s own people, the Jews. Alas, nowadays a lot of American and Canadian Jews are no longer faithful to their people and gang up against Israel.

The report deals with the following topics:

  1. The announcement of the Israeli government’s intention to incorporate “Palestinian territory” into Israel’s current territory.
  2. The legal power and authority of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression committed anywhere in the world and by Israeli officials.
  3. The role and position of Canada with respect to the alleged human rights violations/abuses committed by Canada’s allies and by Israel.
  4. In the context of the nature and scope of Canada’s alignment with the international community, the adequacy of the degree of support Canada provides for Palestinian Human Rights.
  5. The status of Jerusalem.
  6. The nature of Canada’s treatment of Israel.

Preliminary observations

As the expression goes, ”it takes two to tango”. In the light of the title of the survey and the nature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, referring only once to the Palestinian territory (Topic 1), Palestinian human rights (Topic 3), and to Palestinians (Topic 5) respectively simply makes no sense. Nor is it fathomable to impugn the conduct of Israel directly or by inference and criticise Canada’s treatment of Israel without asking the respondents questions concerning the conduct of Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas towards Israel and of the latter two towards Palestinians.

Due to constraint of space, I will limit myself in this installment to addressing only the authors’ treatment of Topic 1.

See also: The Inanity of Canada’s Jewish Progressives published on May 24, 2020 that responds to the public position and intervention with the government of JSpaceCanada. 

blogs.TimesofIsrael.com/Dogan Akman

The survey question in Topic 1 reads: “The government of Israel has announced its intention to formally

incorporate portions of Palestinian territory into the state of Israel in July 2020.

For years, the Government of Canada has advocated for a peaceful solution between Israel and the Palestinians, where each people have its own country and lives in peace and security with its neighbour. Of the following options, how do you believe the Government of Canada should react to Israel’s plan?

  1. Support Israel’s plan;
  2. Do nothing;
  3. Express opposition to Israel’s plan, but take no other action;
  4. Impose economic and/or diplomatic sanctions on Israel, and
  5. Don’t know/No response.

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In their discussion of the survey data, which seems to show that a majority of people responded with answers 3 and 4, the authors manipulated the results and made the following assertions:

  1. Unilateral annexation is blatantly illegal according to international law.
  2. The U.N. Charter forbids territorial conquest, and dozens of UN resolutions have repeatedly confirmed the international community’s opposition to Israel’s acquisition of territory by force.
  3. Moreover, the land slated to be annexed by Israel is considered to be reserved for a future Palestinian state, undermining the possibility of a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Annexation would therefore “be a severe body blow to the rules-based international order”, says UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk, and “would crystalize a 21st century apartheid, leaving in its wake the demise of the Palestinians right to self-determination. Legally, morally, politically, this is entirely unacceptable.”

My Analysis: In the process, the authors conveniently forgot to consider the following historical facts on the ground and in international law regarding their six topics:

  1. The P.A. does not have legal title under international law to the territory mis-named as the West Bank, sometime around or after the war of 1973 in an attempt to disassociate Israel from her legal rights to the territory.
  2. It is a historical fact, self- evident during the history of the British Mandate between 1920 and 1948 and conceded by some in the Arab world. that there has never been such a thing as an Arab “Palestinian people” and that the designation was invented and came into use sometime after the war of 1967 to promote the notion of a state for the Palestinians.
  3. The intention of Israel is not to annex the territory in question on a whim or out of the blue, but to extend Israel’s sovereignty over part of the territory reserved under international law for the establishment of a Jewish homeland which in 1948 became the State of Israel.
  4. Israel’s entitlement to the territory in question is protected under the Charter of the U.N.
  5. Israel did not acquire the territory by force: she recovered it in a defensive war as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War commenced by some Arab states including Jordan.
  6. Jordan has abandoned any and all claims of ownership to the entirety of the territory in question which it occupied illegally from the 1949 Armistice to June of 1967.

The position of Canada stated in the question is really immaterial because the said policy is not defeated by Israel’s intention.

At all events, Canada has always taken the position that the delineation of the final borders is a matter to be negotiated between Israel and the P.A, although under the government of Justin Trudeau the position seems to be the position that pending negotiations Israel should not expand her borders. 

The far-left Independent Jewish Voices were among the sponsors of an EKOS poll this summer, hoping to utilize the slanted results to influence Trudeau government policy towards Israel.

The opinion of some foreign countries that the territory in issue should be reserved for a future Palestinian state is neither here or there. To date the world powers failed to convince the P.A. to negotiate a peace treaty. As a matter of fact, to date, the P.A. dismissed out of hand or failed to respond, among others, to foolish Israeli peace proposals of 2001 and 2008 that offered the quasi-totality of the West Bank. 

By now, the incontrovertible fact of the matter is that the sole objective of both the P.A. and Hamas is to get rid of the State of Israel and take over its territory.

Insofar as Mr. Michael Lynks’s comments are concerned, his hysterical historical predictions are consistent with his pro-Palestinian and anti- Israeli posture. Worse, they are nonsense.

As a matter of fact, if he had waited a tad before making them, he would have learned that Palestinians who dare speak publicly against the P.A., and others who do not dare, welcomed the intention and expressed their pleasure to live in Israel.

Needless to say, they got promptly arrested. 

In the premises, if any statements under this topic are legally and morally entirely unacceptable those surely belong to the authors.

Doğan Akman is a retired Senior Counsel with the Department of Justice and has taught sociology-criminology and social welfare policy at university. Dogan has been published in Times of Israel, Sephardic Horizons and e-Sefarad as well as in an anthology titled “This is My New Homeland”, published in Istanbul.

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Happy reading!

Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.

We do news differently!

Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.

We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.

But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!

Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.

Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.

We thank you for your ongoing support.

Happy reading!

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