The West Bank Palestinian village of Bili’n has filed suit in Quebec Superior Court for $2 million against two Montreal firms, Green Park International and Green Mount International, for building and selling homes on Bili’n land which was seized and joined to an Israeli settlement.  Lawyers for Bili’n claim that the activities of these companies violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. 

Israel seized land in Bili’n to build its separation fence, an act found to be a violation of international law by the International Court of Justice in the Hague.  The Israeli Supreme Court ordered Israel to change the route of the wall to take less land, but the new route proposed would return only 10% of the land seized.  In the meantime, Israel is building on the land and moving settlers in, a move which Ahmed Issa Abdallah Yassin, head of the local council, says is designed to make it more difficult for the Israeli Supreme Court to reject the modified route.  The Court earlier found that the route chosen was designed to take Palestinian land to give to the Israeli settlement of Modi’in Ilit. 

The Geneva Convention provides that “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territory it occupies.”    

Egypt chooses new imam for Ottawa

The Egyptian Ministry of Religious Affairs has appointed Khalid Abdul-Hamid Syed, a graduate of Al-Azhar University, as the new imam of the Ottawa Mosque, Ottawa’s largest.  The Ottawa Muslim Association interviewed candidates from North America but could not find one on whom they could agree, so they went to Egypt, which selected one for them.  Egypt will pay his salary.

Some of the local Muslims have opposed the Egyptian option, preferring that the new imam have a background in Western culture, preferably from North America.  That being said, Al-Azhar University is recognized internationally and has a program of providing imams to Muslim communities around the world.  The university leadership has strongly opposed extremist Islamic movements and supported the Mubarak régime  in Egypt.