Monzer Zimmo is an Ottawa Muslim who is deeply involved in interfaith activities.  The following is an e-mail from him which has just been forwarded to me, though it was written in April.    He explained that the destruction of farms in that area took place after a clash between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces in an area near to the farms.  However, the destruction took place hours after when things were quiet.  “We believe that the Israeli action was a typical form of collective punishment.”  The e-mail quoted below is slightly abridged. 

Friends,

During the weekend, I received news from Gaza, Palestine, that Israeli tanks and bulldozers obliterated what was left of our family farm in Gaza.  The Israelis destroyed everything: olive orchards, orange groves, all other trees, the farmhouse, the water well, the irrigation pipelines….everything. 

A few of those trees were planted by my own hands a little less than 50 years ago.  My father wanted his children to strengthen our bond with the land: so we participated in planting trees.  At that time, it was a big party.  Little did I know that it would become a source of sharp pain 50 years later.  Philosophically speaking, it seems that such is life; when it is conceived and nourished, it brings joy and happiness, and when it ends, it imposes pain and sorrow.  However, when life ends by a blatant act of injustice, the pain and sorrow run much deeper.  The only blessing is that my father was spared the devastatingly explosive feelings of pain and anger that my mother, brothers, sisters, and I are experiencing today; he passed away some years ago. 

The only thing the Israelis left behind—before they went on to destroy another farm nearby—was the rubble.  Our family farm, which is no more, was located in a quiet area south-east of Gaza city, called Juhr Ed-Deek, and it was a source of income for a few families.

At this devastating personal moment of sorrow, I say to all Zionists who are determined to destroy life: The Palestinian people are determined to bring life at a faster rate than your ability to destroy it.  Perhaps one day you will wake up, end your madness, recapture your humanity, and all of us will join hands to protect life and build peace for all on the land of Canaan.  In the meantime, my family farm in Juhr Ed-Deek, Gaza, Palestine, will be brought to life again—if not sooner, then later.  If you destroy it again, we will bring it to life again, and again, and again…until you learn that life and hope are not only more beautiful but also much stronger than death and fear. 

Abdelrazik’s lawyer still on the hook

Judge Anne Mactavish refused, on July 5, to order the government to pay Abousfian Abdelrazik’s legal bills, though his lawyer Yavar Hameed pled that he could not afford to continue without financial help.  Abdelrazik is stranded in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, after having been imprisoned in Sudan at Canada’s request, in spite of the fact that there have been no charges laid against him.  He is unable to return to Canada because he is on no-fly lists and is asking the courts to order the Canadian government to return him to Canada. 

The judge did order Canadian officials not to interfere with his communications with his lawyer and not to read any such communications.  

Canada resists Abdelrazik’s return

Abousfian Abdelrazik cannot be returned to Canada from Sudan, where he has been stranded since 2003 and where he was imprisoned at Canada’s behest.  The government’s lawyer argues the impossibility of returning him in answer to a law suit brought on his behalf demanding that Canada bring him home.

According to Anne Turley, the government lawyer, Abdelrazik cannot fly home because he is on the UN list of suspected al-Qaeda affiliates.  Even a direct flight on a special plane would not be possible, she argues, as the airplane would fly over the territories of other nations. 

Her argument flies in the face of other cases, where persons on the U.N. list have been returned home.  Toronto Globe and Mail reporters cite the case of Abdelghani Mzoudi, returned from Germany to Morocco in 2005.  They say that there are “several” such cases.

Deserter wins new hearing

American military deserter Joshua Key got a Fourth of July present from Canada’s Federal Court. It found that the Immigration and Refugee Board erred when it said that his claim for refugee status failed because the behavior he was ordered to carry out in Iraq was not at the level of crimes against humanity, war crimes, or crimes against peace. 

Judge Robert Barnes said that some of the things Key was ordered to participate in were violations of the Geneva Convention because they were “outrages upon personal dignity,  in particular humiliating and degrading treatment” and “unlawful confinement.”  He had to blow up the doorways of homes during night raids and to assist in detaining all males found there.  He says that some soldiers humiliated the occupants and looted.

The case now goes back to the Immigration and Refugee Board, which must now utilize the new standard set by Justice Barnes.  Key will need to show the Board that he could be a victim of “undue hardship” if returned.  Besides Key, the ruling has important implications for the some hundred other deserters in Canada.

Key lives in the small northern Saskatchewan town of Spiritwood with his wife and four children.  He has co-authored “The Deserter’s Tale,” a book about his experiences.  His lawyer, Jeffry House, is a draft dodger from the Viet Nam era.

Arar serves on Redress Body

Maher Arar has been appointed as a member of the Honorary Council of the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ), an organization dedicated to bringing perpetrators of “war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and torture” to justice, and to “support the survivors of these acts and seek compensation for them.”

Arar addressed the public meeting of the CCIJ, held at the National Library and Archives of Canada on June 26,  for the media and other interested persons.  He related his own experiences and of the need for action to bring about justice.

People, he remarked, would say that he “seems to be doing well.  I wish this were the case.”  Physically, the healing is progressing, but he suffers significantly from the psychological effects of the torture inflicted on him in Syria: “anxiety, depression, fear of the unknown.”  He would like to bring law suits for damage that he has endured against the countries responsible for his mistreatment.  There has been a settlement in Canada, and there is some movement in the American courts.  However, elsewhere he is stymied.

Unfortunately, since his talk the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that it lacks jurisdiction because he was not “technically” in the United States when apprehended at the airport in transit.  Perhaps the court could specify just where he was.  In any case, the 2-1 ruling, which Arar termed “outrageous” will be appealed.   

There is no possibility of getting anywhere in bringing actions in Jordan and Syria because of the legal conditions there.  As well, Canada’s States Immunity Act prevents him from suing them in Canada.  The Canadian law needs to change, he said, to make such redress possible. 

However, a monetary settlement would be “only partial justice.”  “Torturers,” he said, “know that they will never be brought to justice.”  “The Syrian torturers and American conspirators” will remain unpunished.

American conspirators indeed, as it is clear that it is not just places like Syria, Egypt, and Morocco that commit torture.  He mentioned Guantanamo and the foreign blind sites.  It is because of the wide-spread abuse of human rights that the CCIJ is needed, he declared.  

Big mosque opens in Calgary

At 48,000 square feet, Calgary’s Baitun Nur Mosque is the largest mosque in Canada.  It had its official opening on July 5, its first Friday service the day before.  The mosque will serve the members of the Ahmadi sect. Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Dave Bronconnier, mayor of Calgary, were in attendance at the opening ceremonies.

Iraq’s uranium to Canada

Canada’s Cameco Corporation, the world’s top producer of uranium, has purchased 550 tons of yellowcake, a type of uranium used in nuclear reactors, from Iraq. The yellowcake had been sitting in a site south of Baghdad for over a decade, Saddam Hussein’s stash.  It arrived in Montreal on July 5.  Before the shipment landed in port, the whole matter was strictly hush-hush, because of American security concerns.