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- 19 May 2022
- 12:09 am
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- 19 May 2022
- 12:09 am
A featured speaker at the Nakba Day rally at City Hall, the NDP Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre, Leah Gazan, repeated the unsubstantiated and inflammatory claim that an Al Jazeera journalist was “brutally murdered” by the IDF last week. (Screencap: Facebook)
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As a person committed to supporting the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, I chose to observe the Nakba Rally at Winnipeg’s City Hall. My first impression was of a large police presence, at least a dozen officers patrolling the nearby sidewalks and the rally space. It was a positive impression, later to be changed when it appeared that the police were mostly interested in people like me, of whom I identified four in attendance.
Nakba Day is the Palestinians’ take on the events of mid-May, 1948 when Israel declared its independence on the portion of Palestine offered to the Jews by the UN Partition Plan. The Palestinians declined their offer of land for a state and declared war on the one-day-old Jewish state, and were joined by five surrounding Arab nations.
About 100 people attended the Winnipeg rally, carrying dozens of large flags of “Palestine”, a nation which does not actually exist, except in the hopes of many. The flags were a large feature because the office of Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman had declined the rally organizers request to raise the Palestinian flag on a City Hall flagpole. The City of Winnipeg allows for flag raisings of foreign nations with which Canada has diplomatic relations.
Four speakers presented the usual narrative of what made May 1948 a catastrophe (Nakba in Arabic) for the Palestinians. According to this narrative, with no provocation, the Israelis forced the Palestinians at gunpoint to leave their homes, 750,000 of them. Two women described this process occurring to their relatives in Haifa, the northern port city which had then and now has a majority Arab population.
This troubled me as I know of two official Arab sources that proudly state that the Arab leaders of Haifa encouraged their people to leave. I also know the story of how Prime Minister David Ben Gurion had sent Golda Meir to Haifa to convince the Arabs to stay put. But we are each apparently entitled to our own “narrative”.
There were numerous references to the apartheid and oppression that Palestinians suffer today under the “illegal Israeli military occupation”. I had taken note earlier in the week of how a Muslim Palestinian had been appointed to Israel’s Supreme Court, quite an odd thing for an apartheid regime to do!
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NDP MP Leah Gazan spoke briefly and managed to offer up the unsubstantiated claim that Israel had “brutally murdered” an Al-Jazeera journalist this week in Jenin. That the reporter was killed in a fire-fight and that those accusing the IDF refused to have the bullet or the body examined independently, made me think that Gazan’s accusation was highly inappropriate for a Canadian MP.
In my own video reflections on the conflict and the catastrophe (see Bridges for Peace Canada YouTube channel), I have made it clear that I think the suffering of the Palestinians is almost entirely self-inflicted. Why not accept the land you are offered and get on with life? But no, the world’s only and very tiny Jewish state must be opposed, harassed, terrorized and lied about until it gives up and slips into the sea. Since this is never going to happen (I have read the end of the story in the Bible!), it seems to me that right-thinking people should not encourage the perpetuation of a false narrative.
In that vein, one of the most troubling things about the rally to me is that I know it was partly organized and supported by fellow Christians who consider it their mission to promote this harmful historical revisionism, not to mention the apartheid lie and other distorted descriptions of the current situation.
Finally, another thing that troubled me was why Winnipeg Police chose the strategy of keeping observers of the rally at a distance, even threatening me with arrest if I approached the crowd.
This was done all in good humor by the police, but after two years of experiencing the repression of my rights as a person and a Canadian citizen, I was not in the mood to be humored.
Donald James (Rev.) BA, MDiv, is National Development Director for Bridges for Peace Canada. The organization supports Israel and builds relationships with the Jewish community in Winnipeg, Canada and Israel.
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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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