Skip to content

  • Home
  • Subscribe / donate
  • Events calendar
  • News
    • Local
    • National
    • Israel
    • World
    • עניין בחדשות
      A roundup of news in Canada and further afield, in Hebrew.
  • Opinion
    • From the JI
    • Op-Ed
  • Arts & Culture
    • Performing Arts
    • Music
    • Books
    • Visual Arts
    • TV & Film
  • Life
    • Celebrating the Holidays
    • Travel
    • The Daily Snooze
      Cartoons by Jacob Samuel
    • Mystery Photo
      Help the JI and JMABC fill in the gaps in our archives.
  • Community Links
    • Organizations, Etc.
    • Other News Sources & Blogs
    • Business Directory
  • FAQ
  • JI Chai Celebration
  • JI@88! video
Scribe Quarterly arrives - big box

Search

Follow @JewishIndie

Recent Posts

  • Saying goodbye to a friend
  • The importance of empathy
  • Time to vote again!
  • Light and whimsical houses
  • Dance as prayer and healing
  • Will you help or hide?
  • A tour with extra pep
  • Jazz fest celebrates 40 years
  • Enjoy concert, help campers
  • Complexities of celebration
  • Sunny Heritage day
  • Flipping through JI archives #1
  • The prevalence of birds
  • לאן ישראל הולכת
  • Galilee Dreamers offers teens hope, respite
  • Israel and its neighbours at an inflection point: Wilf
  • Or Shalom breaks ground on renovations 
  • Kind of a miracle
  • Sharing a special anniversary
  • McGill calls for participants
  • Opera based on true stories
  • Visiting the Nova Exhibition
  • Join the joyous celebration
  • Diversity as strength
  • Marcianos celebrated for years of service
  • Klezcadia set to return
  • A boundary-pushing lineup
  • Concert fêtes Peretz 80th
  • JNF Negev Event raises funds for health centre
  • Oslo not a failure: Aharoni
  • Amid the rescuers, resisters
  • Learning from one another
  • Celebration of Jewish camps
  • New archive launched
  • Helping bring JWest to life
  • Community milestones … May 2025

Archives

Tag: UNRWA

UNRWA faces deadline

Last week, the Israeli government announced that it would ban the operation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from operating in Israel, including in East Jerusalem.

For Arab citizens in East Jerusalem, this would mean an end to civic services like garbage pickup, three UNRWA-operated schools, and some health care and social services.

The laws passed by the Knesset would not preclude UNRWA from operating in Palestinian territories, but they would impede their work substantially. And they would eliminate any privileges or assistance UNRWA staff receive from the Israeli government, including easy passage across borders and through checkpoints.

UNRWA is a problematic organization. Begun in 1949, it has been criticized for perpetuating the Palestinian refugee crisis it was ostensibly created to resolve. By preventing Palestinian refugees from being resettled in host countries, UNRWA ensures that the refugees stand as living testament to the presumed injustice of Israel’s founding – the original sin in the anti-Israel narrative.

Through permissions granted by a bloc of Arab, Muslim and nonaligned states at the United Nations, UNRWA has expanded seemingly beyond the control of its larger parent body.

In the most illuminating example of UNRWA exceptionalism, the organization changed the definition of “refugee,” so it applies to Palestinians in ways it applies to no other people on earth. Palestinian refugee status is a heritable right, meaning descendants of the original refugees – now down to the third and fourth generations – are designated refugees when they may never have set foot in their ancestral homeland and may be second- or third-generation, for example, Jordanian- or Lebanese-born non-citizen residents. The objective of this strategy is clear: make the problem grow. The approximately 700,000 refugees of the 1948 war have grown exponentially, to 5.9 million people.

Operating in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, UNRWA operates more than 700 schools, teaching about 500,000 Palestinian students. UNRWA clinics provide primary health care, mental health support and referrals to specialized medical services. The agency provides food assistance, welfare and other forms of support. During times of war and other crises, UNRWA provides emergency food, shelter and medical services to affected populations. They respond to needs created by violence, displacement and natural disasters. UNRWA is responsible for the most fundamental services in the refugee camps where generations of Palestinians live, including sanitation, water supply and housing.

So why is Israel banning this agency that is so clearly a lifeline to the Palestinian people – especially in a time of catastrophic war?

Israel has provided to the United Nations evidence that some of UNRWA’s 30,000 employees were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attacks and have collaborated with the terrorists before and after that dark day.

There are also older, systemic complaints. For decades, Israelis and others, including the European Union, have complained that the UNRWA-operated Palestinian education system is as much about inculcating antisemitism and a radical political agenda as it is inculcating the three Rs. 

As a politicized arm of the United Nations, UNRWA is both a weapon in the decades-long global campaign against Israel and an agency that provides desperately needed services to Palestinian civilians, never more than in a war that is wreaking destruction and death on the people of Gaza. 

Israel’s move looks punitive and vindictive in a moment when the world sees the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. This is a bad PR move on the part of a country with a bad PR history. But PR should be among the last concerns in situations where thousands are dying. Banning UNRWA could have disastrous consequences on some of the most vulnerable people.

The Knesset’s vote to ban the organization is set to take place in 90 days. That is not a long time, certainly, but it is a window during which UNRWA and the larger UN apparatus has an opportunity 

to demonstrate goodwill. To date, they have effectively ignored Israel’s decades-long protestations that UNRWA is, for whatever necessary social services it provides, also a provocative source of incitement that promotes dependency rather than initiative and fosters antisemitic and anti-Israel activism and even terrorism.

After years of Israeli complaints and warnings, the Knesset finally put a time-limited threat to their concerns. The UN, NGOs, commentators and much of the world are up in arms over the announcement. Instead, they could be diverting those substantial energies into cleaning up the mess at UNRWA.

Perhaps the Knesset vote is an empty threat. Or rather, it could be an empty threat, if it’s primarily intended to make the larger UN body and the world take seriously the systemic problems UNRWA has exhibited through its long and troubled history. 

If UNRWA demonstrates it is willing to take seriously the rot at the heart of its operation, we hope that Israel will not enact the ban. No one can clean up the panoramic mess in three months, but we hope that evidence of goodwill would be met with flexibility on Israel’s side.

If, in the worst case scenario, the UN does not do what it should have done long ago, Israel has an obligation – humanitarian, moral and legal – to ensure that the necessities of life are provided to the people in territories it occupies. In the absence of the UN behaving responsibly, Israel must. And Israel should absolutely be able to call upon a community of humanitarian nations to assist in that process. The world’s leaders have had a great deal to say about the well-being of Palestinian civilians in the past year. This would be a moment for them to put their money where their mouths are. 

Posted on November 8, 2024November 7, 2024Author The Editorial BoardCategories From the JITags humanitarian aid, Israel, politics, refugees, terrorism, United Nations, UNRWA, war
Go on offensive: Levy

Go on offensive: Levy

Pro-Israel activist Eylon Levy speaks with an audience member before his Oct. 30 talk at Schara Tzedeck, which was presented by StandWithUs Canada. (photo by Pat Johnson)

The terrorists who perpetrated the Oct. 7 attacks were products of schools paid for in part by the Canadian government, according to Eylon Levy, a former Israeli government spokesperson who addressed an audience at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue last week.

“The Oct. 7 terrorists all went to Canadian-funded schools,” he said. “That is outrageous. It’s disgusting. You need to hold [the Canadian government] accountable and say there are consequences.” 

Most schools in Gaza are run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is funded by UN member-states, including Canada.

Levy spoke here Oct. 30 as part of a cross-Canada tour sponsored by StandWithUs Canada, a pro-Israel educational organization focused on campuses.

Levy said Israel’s recent announcement that it was banning UNRWA from operating in Israel was the right move because the agency exists to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem, not resolve it, to keep the Israeli-Arab conflict alive, to indoctrinate Palestinian children and to provide the financial safety net terrorists need to engage in violent attacks like Oct. 7.

Israel has been widely condemned for the imminent ban, which came after Israel repeatedly informed the UN that UNRWA’s staff includes known terrorists, some of whose names were provided to the UN by Israel.

“They just don’t care,” Levy said of the UN’s response that terrorists are on their payroll. “Now they claim UNRWA is irreplaceable. Well, you should have thought about that when Israel gave you the evidence that it is riddled with terrorism and you chose to deny that it was a problem.”

According to Israeli authorities, 12 UNRWA staff members actively participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, with allegations that more than 30 additional UNRWA workers were involved in activities such as facilitating hostage-taking and looting. Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has alleged that, of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza, at least 12% are affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.

In conversation with Michael Sachs, Western regional director for Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Levy said many people are inverting right and wrong when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war and they are trying to sway young people especially. 

“The world is trying to tell them that the cause of their generation, the great cause of this century, is the fight for Palestine, which means the destruction of the state of Israel,” Levy said.

Contesting these messages is tough, he said, especially when the agencies that represent the moral high-ground are on the wrong side.

Levy recalled a debate he had against broadcaster Mehdi Hasan.

“I knew he was going to come on the stage and say, ‘Well, the UN agrees with me, Oxfam agrees with me, Save the Children agrees with me, Red Cross agrees with me. How is it possible the whole world is wrong and you are right?’” Levy said. “That’s Jewish history: the courage to look around and say, ‘You’re all crazy. This isn’t right.’”

Levy noted that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement on social media mourning the death of Muhammad Abu Atawi, who was killed by the Israel Defence Forces.

Atawi was an employee of UNRWA but, according to Israel, he was also a Hamas terrorist who led the attack on the bomb shelter near the Nova music festival, in which Hersh Goldberg-Polin and others were sheltering. 

“This is a leader I’m supposed to take seriously?” Levy asked. “The Red Cross that hasn’t lifted a finger to try to save the hostages is an organization that I am meant to take seriously? The NGOs that wouldn’t even shed crocodile tears on Oct. 7, that never tried to do any sort of campaign for the hostages, they are the ones I am meant to take seriously?”

Young people and other activists in the West who insist they are anti-Zionist and not antisemitic are deluding themselves, Levy suggested.

“You are expressing a hatred and a prejudice against the same people,” he said. “The fact that they believe that they hate the same people that their grandparents hated but it’s a complete coincidence shows a tragic lack of self-awareness.”

Getting the pro-Israel message out is especially challenging on social media, said Levy, but Jews and their allies can’t give up the battle.

Social media is problematic at the best of times – even when it is not a platform controlled by the Chinese regime, as TikTok is – because it maximizes engagement by provoking outrage and amplifies the most extreme viewpoints.

“We’re not going to win the social media battle,” he said. “But we can’t afford not to fight it.”

If the only thing that people see on social media are anti-Israel messages, what conclusion will people come to? he asked.

“But what if their friend, the person they know is a good, decent person, stands up and presents a contrary view?” said Levy. “Then at least you’ve made that person think this is complicated and there’s a case to be made on the other side. So, it requires all of us to be there, to fight the fight, to be as loud and vocal and produce as much stuff as possible.”

That battle of ideas also needs to be taken offline, he said.

It is further complicated, he added, because the Israeli government has effectively given up communicating to the world.

Levy, who was born in England to Israeli parents and made aliyah as a lone soldier, was effectively conscripted to serve as an English-language spokesperson at the beginning of the war. He was fired after a social media spat with Britain’s then-foreign secretary David Cameron. Levy cofounded the Israeli Citizen Spokespersons’ Office, which tries to fill the information gap he said the Israeli government has left.

Pro-Israel voices in the West need to change tack, according to Levy. Rather than being on the defensive and explaining Israel’s actions, Canadians and others should be calling out governments and NGOs.

“Other people owe us answers,” he said. “UNRWA owes us answers. The Red Cross owes us answers. The UN owes us answers. I think we have to go on the offensive and demand those answers from other people instead of constantly trying to defend ourselves and say, ‘I can explain.’”

Levy dismisses calls for a ceasefire. The war needs to end in the defeat of Hamas – and it’s all over but the surrender, he argued.

“Hamas has lost,” he said. “It’s game over.”

But Hamas needs the world to help it understand that fact. 

“The problem is, when international actors step in to demand a ceasefire, as opposed to Hamas’s surrender, they tell Hamas to keep fighting,” he said. With Hamas on its knees, “It’s outrageous that some countries are trying to get it back up on its feet.”

Hezbollah has also been largely eliminated, according to Levy. 

“All of its top leadership are dead,” he said. “The infrastructure along the border has been destroyed.”

Iran, of course, remains unbowed, even in the face of the damage Israel has inflicted on its proxies.

Levy said one outcome from the current crisis is that Jewish communities have come together. In Israel, individuals instantly mobilized on Oct. 7 to do whatever they could and, in the diaspora, Jews have united as they rarely have before.

“That sense of responsibility, that sense of solidarity, being there for each other and having each other’s backs, I find incredibly inspiring,” he said. “That awakening of responsibility and self-reliance and leadership in Jewish communities around the world has been an inspiration to people in Israel.”

Jesse Primerano, executive director of StandWithUs Canada, which brought Levy to Vancouver, said his group has 106 interns and fellows on campuses across Canada this year – an increase over past years and a happy surprise for Primerano. He was afraid for the organization’s programs this year, he said, concerned that they wouldn’t be able to recruit students to stand for Israel on campuses. The opposite happened.

“Numbers skyrocketed,” he said. “The truth is that they are not scared. They are empowered. They are emboldened … and they are so brave and ready to stand up.” 

SWU has also hired more staff across Canada, including a full-time position in Vancouver funded by the Diamond Foundation.

Three students from Vancouver-area campuses who are part of the SWU Emerson Fellowship program spoke to the audience, drawing ovations. 

Format ImagePosted on November 8, 2024November 7, 2024Author Pat JohnsonCategories Israel, LocalTags antisemitism, Eylon Levy, Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Israel, Israel-Hamas war, social media, StandWithUs, terrorism, United Nations, UNRWA
MP talks to community

MP talks to community

MP Anthony Housefather was in Vancouver last week. (photo from Government of Canada)

Anthony Housefather, the Liberal MP who openly considered joining the Conservatives, made an urgent plea during a presentation in Vancouver last week for Jews and pro-Israel voters to keep a foot on both sides of the political divide.

Housefather, member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, was on the West Coast for a series of meet-and-greets with Jewish organizations and individuals. At Temple Sholom just before Shabbat on May 17, Housefather was open about the disappointments some Jewish Canadians – including himself – have felt with the current Liberal government.

“We’ve seen a government that has had an excellent record on Israel for the past eight years turn away from that excellent record that we all cherish so much,” he said before going into examples he said show his party has been a voice for Jews and Israel.

Since Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party came to power in 2015, Housefather said, Canada has had a better voting record at the United Nations than the previous Conservative government had.

“We voted against 87% of the anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, comparable only to the United States, at about 90%,” he said. “Most European countries were between zero and 10%.”

On antisemitism, Housefather said it was his party that appointed a special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism – first Irwin Cotler and now Deborah Lyons – and adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism. The federal government apologized for this country slamming the doors on Jewish refugees before and during the Holocaust, initiated Jewish Heritage Month, and made antisemitism one of four pillars of the federal antiracism strategy, he said.

“I’ve been proud of the record of my party while we have been in government on these issues,” he said.

“Since Oct. 7, I think the Jewish community across the country has felt somewhat abandoned,” he said. In January, the government was “not able to articulate that Israel was not committing genocide,” he said. The decision to restore funding to UNRWA – the UN’s Palestinian relief agency some of whose employees, evidence shows, were involved in the Oct. 7 terrorism – was a blow to many Jewish Canadians. The turning point for Housefather was the New Democratic Party motion that was widely seen as condemning Israel, including calling for an end to military trade with the country.

“Unfortunately, the decision was made to amend [the motion], which made the resolution better, but it was still bad,” Housefather said. In the end, only he and two other Liberals voted against the motion. What really hurt, said Housefather, was when the NDP member who moved the motion was given a standing ovation, including by Liberal MPs.

This combination of events led Housefather to question his place in the party and to publicly acknowledge he was considering crossing the floor. He decided to stay with the Liberals, in part because the prime minister tasked him with new responsibilities to address antisemitism, but also, he said, because he realized that his voice – and those of other Jewish and pro-Israel Canadians – is needed in the governing party.

“I need to be there to make our voices heard in the party,” he said. “Once you place all your eggs in one basket and you have no allies in the other party when it comes to power, then you’re screwed.” 

Housefather has a list of actions he wants from the government and others. He is urging Criminal Code amendments to add “bubble legislation,” which would prevent protests within a certain distance from synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres, after protesters laid siege to a Jewish community building in Montreal and people inside were prevented from leaving for hours. 

Police need to be told that they must enforce the law around harassment and hate speech, and university administrations need to act to keep students safe, he said. 

Housefather pushed for parliamentary hearings on campus antisemitism, which have now begun. 

He urged Jewish Canadians to develop relationships with their elected officials, and he passionately urged them to leave their hatred aside. 

Housefather said he gets barraged by hate messages from antisemites and anti-Zionists – including death threats – but it’s the hate from Jews that really upsets him. No matter how much some voters agree with him on issues that are important to the Jewish community, he said, they nevertheless condemn him in extreme terms – “traitor,” “quisling” – for being part of the Liberal party.

“If our community wants MPs to support our community, you have to deal with them in a way that doesn’t send them hate, that doesn’t treat them like dirt.”

Above all, Housefather said, Israel and Jewish issues shouldn’t be a partisan issue. 

“We should all fight for them and we shouldn’t be trying to create wedge issues that divide the Jewish community,” he said. 

Format ImagePosted on May 24, 2024May 23, 2024Author Pat JohnsonCategories LocalTags Anthony Housefather, governance, hate, Israel-Hamas war, Liberals, Oct. 7, politics, United Nations, UNRWA
ביקור מוצלח

ביקור מוצלח

שרת החוץ של קנדה כריסטיה פרילנד ניפגשה עם נשיא המדינה ראובן ריבלין. (צילום: Mark Neiman, GPO)

שרת החוץ של קנדה כריסטיה פרילנד קיימה ביקור בישראל לפני כשבועיים, שנחשב למוצלח מבחינת שתי המדינות. מדובר בביקור ראשון של השרה פרילנד בישראל. זאת מאז נכנסה לתפקידה בחודש ינואר אשתקד (עת החליפה את סטפן דיון), בממשלה הליברלית של ראש הממשלה הנוכחי ג’סטין טרודו.

פרילנד קיימה בישראל שלוש פגישות רשמיות. היא ניפגשה עם ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו. לאחר מכן עם נשיא המדינה ראובן ריבלין. ולבסוף עם יושב ראש הכנסת יולי אדלשטיין. השרה הקנדית קיימה אף ביקור בכותל המערבי.

לאחר הביקור בישראל כמתוכנן שרת החוץ הקנדית ביקרה גם במחנה פליטים פלסטיני, וכן היא ניפגשה עם שר החוץ של הרשות הפלסטינית ריאד אלמלכי. יצוין כי הביקור הרשמי בישראל של שרת החוץ לא זכה לדיווחים נרחבים במיוחד בתקשורת המקומית. בישראל כנראה מתייחסים עדיין לקנדה כאל מדינה שולית כבעבר. ובכך מתעלמים מעליית קרנה של קנדה בעולם בעיקר נוכח העומד בראשה טרודו. עוד שוכחים בישראל את העובדה שבקנדה יש כיום את אחד הריכוזים הגדולים ביותר של יהודים בעולם.

פרילנד ציינה בצער את הפגיעות ביהודים הגרים בקנדה. היא אמרה בסוגייה הקשה הזאת את הדברים הבאים: “אני מצטערת להגיד שהיהודים הם הקבוצה הפגיעה ביותר כיום בקנדה מפעילות של פשעי שנאה. בין אם מדובר בוונדליזים, גרפיטי, תעמולה של שינאה או תגובות גיזעניות ברשת”. השרה הוסיפה כי בניין הג’ואיש קומיונטי סנטר באזור הבחירה שלה בטורונטו, קיבל איומים על פצצה שכביכול הוטמנה בו בשנה שעברה.

בנושאים המדיניים אמרה פרילנד: “לגבי מה שקורה בגבול עם עזה זו תזכורת לכולנו כמה הביטחון שם שברירי, ושצריך לעבוד יחד ולחתור לשלום ביחד. אנחנו תומכים בזכות של ישראל לחיות בשלום במזרח התיכון”. לדברי שרת החוץ ישראל וקנדה ירחיבו את שיתוף הפעולה בנושא מלחמה בטרור.

פרילנד הודיעה עוד בפגישה עם ראש ממשלה כי קנדה מתעתדת להעביר כסף במזומן לרצועת עזה, כדי לתרום לשיפור המצב הכלכלי שם. בפועל מדובר על מיליוני דולרים שקנדה תעביר לרצועת עזה. פרילנד אמרה בנושא: “קנדה נענתה לבקשה בנושא של שליח האו”ם למזרח התיכון ניקולאי מלדנוב, אשר הסביר כי ברצועה יש מחסור במזומנים וזה מאוד מקשה על קיום מסחר”. נתניהו מצדו אמר כי ישראל אינה מתנגדת לכוונת קנדה לעביר מזומנים לרצועת עזה, אך ביקש להדגיש כי יש לדאוג לכך שהכסף לא יגיע לידי טרוריסטים ולא לידי אונר”א.

בפגישה עם הנשיא אמרה שרת החוץ הקנדית כי הביקור מהווה הזדמנות להעמיק את קשרי הידידות בין שתי המדינות, וכן לשוחח על האתגרים עימם מתמודדות כיום הדמוקרטיות השונות ברחבי עולם. הנשיא ריבלין אמר לשרה כי יקיים בשנה הבאה ביקור גומלין בקנדה. על כך הגיבה פרילנד: “אני שמחה ונרגשת מביקורך ואנו מצפים לקבל את פניך בברכה”.

בפגישה עם יו”ר הכנסת אמרה פרילנד: “היחסים החמים בין שתי המדינות אינם צריכים להיות מושפעים מפוליטיקה. טיב היחסים בין קנדה לישראל הוא אסטרטגי. עבדנו קשה ואנחנו שומרים על כך בהצלחה”. שרת החוץ אמרה עוד כי אוכלוסיית היהודים בקנדה היא השלישית בגודלה בעולם, והקהילה היהודית בקנדה פעילה ומשפיעה מאוד במדינה”.

קנדה וישראל החליטו בעקבות הביקור של שרת החוץ הקנדית בישראל, לקדם מספר פרוייקטים משותפים. ובהם: אישרור אמנת הסחר החופשי המעודכנת, קידום שיתוף הפעולה בטנכנולוגיה, בסחר, בחלל, בתעופה ובביטחון הסייבר. ובמקביל לשתף פעולה עם מדינות שלישיות כמו עם מדינות אחדות באפריקה.

Format ImagePosted on November 14, 2018November 8, 2018Author Roni RachmaniCategories עניין בחדשותTags Canada, Chrystia Freeland, Gaza, Israel, terrorism, trade, UNRWA, אונר"א, טרור, ישראל, כריסטיה פרילנד, סחר, קנדה, רצועת עזה
חסן דיאב שוחרר

חסן דיאב שוחרר

(צילום: justiceforhassandiab.org)

חסן דיאב שנחשד כי ביצע את הפיגוע בבית הכנסת בפריז בשנת 1980, שוחרר ממעצר בסוף השבוע. כך החליטו שני שופטים חוקרים של בית המשפט העליון בצרפת, שדחו את האשמות נגדו. דיאב חזר לקנדה והתייחד מחדש עם אשתו וילדיו. הוא ציין כי לא יתבע את ממשלת קנדה וכי הוא מבקש לחזור לימיו הקודמים.

דיאב נחשד באחריות לפיגוע בבית הכנסת הרפורמי (ברחוב קופרניק) ברובע ה-16 של פריז, בשמחת תורה (ב-3 באוקטובר 1980), בו נהרגו עורכת הסרטים בטלוויזיה הישראלית עליזה שגריר וכן שלושה אזרחים צרפתים. בנוסף ארבעים ואחד איש נפצעו. הפיגוע שנחשב אז לגדול ביותר נגד מטרה יהודית מאז מלחמת העולם השנייה, בוצע באמצעות מטען חבלה במשקל 10 ק”ג שהונח בתוך תיק, שהוצמד לאופנוע שחנה בסמוך לבית הכנסת. המטען הופעל זמן קצר לפני תום התפילה. ב-2007 בסיוע של המודיעין הגרמני והישראלי, אותר החשוד בפיגוע חסן דיאב בקנדה (לאחר שקודם לכן התגורר במשך שנים בארה”ב). דיאב הגיע לקנדה ב-1993 לאחר שקיבל אזרחות מקומית.

שני השופטים קבעו שהראיות נגד דיאב חלשות ולכן אין מקום להעמידו למשפט. התביעה הצרפתית הגישה מייד ערעור לבית המשפט נגד ההחלטה, וצפוי שגם נציגים משפטים של קורבנות האירוע ילכו בעיקבותיה ויבקשו לקיים לדיאב משפט.

דיאב (64) הוא אזרח קנדי יליד לבנון (בירות). בקנדה הוא שימש פרופסור לסוציולוגיה באוניברסיטת אוטווה. דיאב נאבק במשך שנים בממשלה הקנדית שעצרה אותו ב-2008 בשל החשדות החמורים נגדו. לטענת הצרפתים הוא היה חבר פעיל בארגון החזית העממית לשחרור פלסטין. מאז היה נתון לפיקוח ע”י השלטונות הקנדים (צמיד אלקטרוני הוצמד לרגלו) עד שהוסגר לצרפת לפני כשלוש שנים (באוקטובר 2014). מאז שהגיע לצרפת הוא שהה בכלא שמור בפאתי פריס.

לטענת התביעה הצרפתית דרכונו של דיאב נמצא בידי חברי החזית העממית לשחרור פלסטין ששהו באיטליה, שלושה ימים אחרי הפיגוע. ממצא זה הביא למעצרו. דיאב טען להגנתו כל הזמן כי הוא חף מפשע וכי בעת הפיגוע הוא היה סטודנט באוניברסיטת בירות. הוא ציין כל העת כי שלטונות צרפת בילבלו בינו ובין מישהו אחר.

ארגון הגג של יהודי צרפת כינה את החלטת השופטים לשחררו “שערורייתית וחסרת אחריות, וכן עלבון לקורבנות הפיגוע ונבי משפחותיהם”. לדברי ראשי הארגן שחרורו של דיאב יתפרש על ידי רבים ככניעה למעשי הטרור.

לטענת ערוץ 7 דיאב אמור היה להישאר בצרפת כיוון ששוחר למעצר בית בלבד על ידי בית המשפט. דרכונו היה שמור בבית המשפט בפריז אך הוא הצליח להוציא דרכון זמני משגרירות קנדה והמריא מייד לאוטווה.

אונר”א: קנדה תמשיך לתמוך בסוכנות בניגוד לארה”ב

קנדה מתכוונת להמשיך ולתמוך כספית באונר”א (סוכנות הסעד והעבודה לפליטי פלסטין), בניגוד לארה”ב. זאת לאור החלטת הנשיא דונלד טראמפ. ארה”ב ציינה כי תקטין במחצית את התמיכה הכספית בסוכנות. בשלב ראשון ארה”ב תכננה השנה להקציב לארגון כמאה עשרים וחמישה מיליון דולר, אך בפועל יועברו רק כשישים מיליון דולר. עד כה ארה”ב נחשבה לתורמת הגדולה ביותר של אונר”א (מימנה כ-30 אחוז מהתקציב הכולל), והיא הייתה מעבירה לה מדי שנה כשלוש מאות מיליון דולר. ואילו קנדה העבירה לארגון כחמישים מיליון דולר בשנתיים האחרונות, וכאמור היא תמשיך לעשות זאת גם בעתיד.

אונר”א פתחה במבצע לגיוס לא פחות מחמש מאות מיליון דולר לשם הבטחת השירותים שהיא מספקת לפלסטינים בשטחים, בעזה, ירדן, לבנון וסוריה.

Format ImagePosted on January 31, 2018January 28, 2018Author Roni RachmaniCategories עניין בחדשותTags bombing, Canada, Hassan Diab, Paris, synagogue, UNRWA, אונר"א, בית הכנסת, חסן דיאב, פיגוע, פריז, קנדה

UNRWA needs reform

Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist, has launched a campaign against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), tasked with providing “assistance and protection” for five million Palestinian refugees around the world. In Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, UNRWA provides food, other aid and runs schools.

Eid said a recent study by well-known Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki shows that 70 percent of Palestinian refugees are seeking financial compensation rather than the “right of return” to their former homes in what is today Israel. He said that UNRWA, however, has an interest in perpetuating the right of return, in part, to justify its large budgets. These assertions are part of Eid’s blistering attack on UNRWA, which operates with a $1.2 billion budget from donor countries, including the United States.

“Palestinians in refugee camps are suffering, while UNRWA is gaining power and money,” Eid, who grew up in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, told a small group of journalists. “In Gaza, you hear more and more voices saying that UNRWA is responsible for delaying the reconstruction of Gaza” after the heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza last summer.

In an article in the Jerusalem Post earlier this month, Eid called for a five-point program to reform UNRWA including a call for an audit of all funds allocated to UNRWA and a demand that the organization dismiss employees affiliated with Hamas, which controls Gaza.

“Hamas has never denied that the majority of UNRWA employees are affiliated with Hamas and coordinate with the organization,” Eid said.

During the past summer’s fighting in Gaza, Israel accused UNRWA of allowing Hamas to use its schools to fire rockets at southern Israel, a charge UNRWA denied. Later, UNRWA found rockets in two empty schools and issued a strong condemnation.

Read more at themedialine.org.

 

Posted on December 19, 2014December 17, 2014Author Linda Gradstein TMLCategories WorldTags Bassem Eid, Gaza, Palestinians, refugees, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA
Proudly powered by WordPress