Issues, ethics, memory
Many supporters of Israel in the current war upon Gaza claim that Jewish people are indigenous to the region and have a right to claim it as their homeland. Author Rashid Khalidi, whose ancestors were a prominent family in Palestine prior to the creation of Israel, reminds us there were Palestinians living there long before the creation of Israel in 1948.
Shrouq Al Aila, a young Palestinian journalist, spoke to us directly from Gaza recently. She told us that she could hear explosions from Israeli bombs nearby. It has been a deadly year for journalists in Gaza, not to mention the rest of the people there. Hearing Shrouq talk was a disturbing and enlightening experience.
Canada’s foreign affairs minister was talking through his hat recently in Israel. John Baird was on a state visit and repeated at every opportunity that, “Israel has no greater friend in the world than Canada.” Then he would recount his story about how, as a young Parliamentary assistant working in the office of the Conservative... Continue Reading →
Although I have attended Remembrance Day ceremonies at the National War Memorial in Ottawa in the past, in 2009 I decided to support a smaller event whose theme was peace and reconciliation. On November 10 I was one of about three hundred people who heard an agonizingly sad but ultimately hopeful speech by Dr.... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 