Mid-East resolution slammed
Ineke Medcalf said she has witnessed the heartbreaking treatment of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, firsthand.
The St. Catharines resident spent three months living there in the fall of 2014, as part of an ecumenical human rights mission organized by the World Council of Churches.
“Some of this is absolutely unbelievable, and it shocked me to see the depths of the suffering and the depths of the oppression,” Medcalf said.
Still, she returned to the area three times since, with the last trip two months ago – witnessing brutality in each visit.
She recalled being caught in a tear gas attack by Israeli forces during one visit.
“A young Palestinian man with a gas mask came and got me, and then some young people stood looking at me. The first thing they asked me was, ‘Why did you come here to get yourself killed?’” she said.
“I said their lives were worth it. We need to get their stories out.”
But clearly, Medcalf said, Niagara regional councillors had no idea what they were voting on when they approved a motion 21-2 by Fort Erie regional Coun. Sandy Annunziata on June 8, condemning the Boycott-Divestment Sanction (BDS) Israel movement, as well as the Niagara Centre NDP Riding Association for asking the Ontario NDP to support it.
Medcalf said regional council described the BDS movement as “racist and anti-Semitic.” “It is not that,” she said. “It is to address the policies of the current Israeli government, which is one of Apartheid and discrimination and dispossession of people’s land. It’s very difficult. They’re using the army to oversee an occupation.”
Medcalf, representing a group of about a dozen concerned area residents called Niagara BDS Coalition, organized protests prior to Thursday’s regional council meeting to offer information about the BDS movement, while countering the “misinformation” that inspired the Regional Council motion opposing it.
Region Chair Alan Caslin smiled and greeted a small group of protesters as he arrived at regional headquarters for an afternoon committee meeting.
“We want some debate on this thing you guys passed without even discussing it,” Medcalf told him. Caslin did not respond to her. He instead referred reporters to an e-mailed statement, saying the June 8 decision was made following delegations from “eminent Jewish organizations” including B’nai Brith Canada, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
Those delegates, the statement said, informed council of the damaging effects of the BDS movement that target the Jewish community, “and their concerns that the riding association of a Niagara MPP would support such a cause.”
Caslin’s statement said council’s vote — “resolutely in favor of Councillor Sandy Annunziata’s motion to condemn the BDS movement” — was based on information provided by those organizations.
“Tonight’s planned demonstration is in no way affiliated with, nor does it reflect the democratically determined position of Niagara Regional Council,” the statement added.
Annunziata also issued a statement in response to the protests.
“The BDS resolution put forward by the NDP Niagara Centre Provincial Riding Association has been called slanderous, outrageous, false, defamatory, shameful while spreading and inciting anti-Semitism, Jew hatred and the marginalization of the Jewish people,” he wrote.
“Anything that offensive coming out of Niagara should not be left unchallenged.”
Annunziata’s statement said the riding association exercised its democratic right to approve its motion, and said it was the “democratic right and obligation of Regional Council to condemn it.”
In addition to the “informative, powerful delegations” from leaders in the Jewish community, he said regional councillors had more than two weeks to research the issue before voting on it.
“Three weeks after the fact, to declare council was uninformed is ridiculous,” Annunziata said.
The protesters, however, remained concerned about council’s decision.
Protester Mary-Anne Kenney, a St. Catharines resident, said she was shocked when she learned about council’s decision regarding the BDS movement.
It left her wondering: “Why wasn’t that debated? Why didn’t they hear both sides?” she said.
“They didn’t know anything about it. Somebody brought up the motion and they thought they were doing the right thing, supporting Israel. They didn’t get the other side, what was going on with the Palestinians.”
Medcalf said Jewish groups in North America and in Israel have expressed support for the BDS movement, too.
Independent Jewish Voices Canada representative Judy Haiven, for instance, shared a similar perspective in a letter to the editor published in The Standard, Wednesday.
“IJV supports the right of Canadians to criticize and challenge the current laws and policies of the State of Israel, including through the BDS Movement. IJV abhors anti-Semitism. However, we do not conflate anti-Semitism with BDS — which your (regional) council did in its June 8 meeting,” Haiven wrote.
“Our view is the same as tens of thousands of other Jewish people across Canada, the U.S. and in Israel itself.”
Medcalf defended the comparison between the West Bank occupation and Apartheid — a policy of racial segregation and discrimination used in South Africa from 1948 to 1991.
“It is a very Apartheid-like system because the whole thing is to keep people separate so you can control the rhetoric,” she said.
While people living within Israeli cities like Tel Aviv might believe the West Bank is rife with terrorism, Medcalf said some Israeli people have witnessed the treatment of Palestinians at the hands of their government. Many of them, she added, “are working hard to try to change that.”
For instance, she said a group called Rabbis for Human Rights is working to bring people from around the world to the West Bank to stay with Palestinian farmers, hoping the international presence will protect the farmers from Israeli settlers.
Meanwhile, she said the suffering and oppression is continuing for Palestinians in the occupied territory.
One brutal example, she added, is the use of Palestinian refugee camps for training Israeli soldiers.
“If they want to learn how to arrest people, they just pick a refuge camp in the West Bank. I’ve learned this from Israeli soldiers who spoke out after,” she said.
Medcalf pointed out a photograph of a child on one of the signs she was holding during the protest.
The Palestinian boy in the picture was dead, killed during one of the training exercise.
“I visited the parents of this little boy,” she said, gesturing to the photograph.