Yerushalayim divided

Editorial

It has been 40 years since the unification of Jerusalem – a fact widely celebrated this week by Jews in Israel and the Diaspora. May 16 was Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day. It's the anniversary of the occasion 40 years ago when Israel Defence Forces soldiers reclaimed Jerusalem during the Six Day War.

In honor of this milestone, the Jerusalem Foundation is staging year-long celebratory events at locations around the world. Israel's government last weekend announced several proposals for Jerusalem, including tax incentives, the relocation of key government offices to the city and the construction of a magistrates court.

But just as Zionists everywhere are rejoicing, their opponents have been ramping up activity protesting what they see as the "annexation" of Jerusalem in 1967. Yom Yerushalayim fell one day after Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, on which Palestinians "mourn the loss of their homeland."

In British Columbia last week, members of the Boycott Israeli Apartheid campaign staged actions outside Indigo and Chapters stores because the chain's CEO, Heather Reisman, and her husband, Gerald Schwartz, are backers of the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers. The organization provides scholarships and other financial support to soldiers in the IDF who don't have family in Israel.

"The majority shareholders of Chapters and Indigo are using profits derived from book sales to support soldiers responsible for enforcing the brutal and illegal occupation of Palestine," declared Boycott Israeli Apartheid spokes-man Eyad Nuweiri in a release. "The Israeli military has a well-documented history of human rights abuses and war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon. We will not allow our dollars to support these atrocities, and we are calling on all Canadians to do the same."

Fewer than a dozen people, from groups including the Canada-Palestine Support Network and Jews for a Just Peace, showed up to the Vancouver protest, which took place May 12 outside the Chapters store on Robson Street. Intentionally or not, the event was held on Shabbat, which meant many Jews who might have gathered to defend the state of Israel were not able to do so.

In the meantime, another Boycott spokesperson, Valerie Zink, suggested that, "Israel's persistent violations of international law and flagrant disregard for the hundreds of UN resolutions condemning its actions in Lebanon and Palestine have demonstrated the need to sever all economic, military and political ties to the apartheid state of Israel. This boycott is part of a global campaign to isolate Israel until it ends its occupation of all Arab lands, releases all Palestinian and Arab political prisoners, allows the return of Palestinian refugees according to UN resolution 194 and grants equal rights to Palestinian citizens of Israel."

That would doubtless include "political prisoners" involved in terrorist activities. And drawing parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa is nothing short of absurd. It is a convenient – and appalling – rubric equalled only by the ubiquitous comparison of every tragedy to the Holocaust. Like the Shoah, the apartheid movement was dedicated to the methodical separation of races. Does Israel prevent Arabs from riding on buses with Jews, sitting on public benches, or sharing public bathrooms?

We've said it before in this space, and we'll say it again: virtually no other country in the world is as demonized as Israel when it comes to alleged human rights violations. And despite the support of the Canadian government for Israel's right to defend itself against attack last summer, we, like every nation in the world bar one or two in South America, refuse to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Last week, on behalf of a Jerusalem-born client, Winnipeg lawyer and human rights activist David Matas made one more attempt to have Canada recognize the city's status as Israel's capital. The federal government allows Canadians born in other countries to list their city or country of birth – or both – on their passport. Those born in Jerusalem can list their city or their country – but not both.

It's unlikely Matas will be successful in his mission. Government lawyer Sharlene Telles-Langdon claimed that allowing the move could be seen by some Arab countries as taking sides in the Middle East dispute, and since the international community doesn't recognize Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, "you can't just put whatever you want on your passport."

Imagine being born in Ottawa and being told you couldn't also list "Canada."

Israel is not going to cede control of Jerusalem. It's time that governments and ad hoc organizations found a way to sensibly work around that fact. Among those already doing so is the Jerusalem Foundation, which, ironically, has among its aims the betterment of relations between and living conditions for Arabs and Jews in the city. Doesn't sound much like apartheid to us.

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