LABOUR GROUPS JOIN PRO-HEZBOLLAH LOBBY, CONDEMN ISRAEL
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Posted by CJN on 13:10:25 2008/03/24
LABOUR GROUPS JOIN PRO-HEZBOLLAH LOBBY, CONDEMN ISRAEL
By Janice Arnold
Published in: The Canadian Jewish News March 20, 2008
http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14256&Itemid=86
MONTREAL - The Quebec-Israel Committee (QIC) expressed shock that a dozen Quebec labour, non-governmental and community groups have joined with a local pro-Hezbollah organization in condemning Israel.
The coalition was announced March 7, a day after the shooting deaths of eight students at a Jerusalem yeshiva. Some sources have implicated Hezbollah in the terrorist act.
It includes Tadamon (Arabic for solidarity), which is actively campaigning to have Canada remove the Lebanese-based Hezbollah from its list of terror groups, as well as for an economic and academic boycott of Israel. The campus group Solidarity With Palestinian Human Rights is also in the coalition.
"How can representatives of civil society accept to associate with an organization that boasts of putting into question the definition of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and at the same time claims to work for peace in Palestine?" asked QIC executive director Luciano Del Negro.
"Hezbollah, like its ally Hamas and their Iranian sponsor, are opposed to any peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and call for the destruction by force of a United Nations member state, Israel."
Quebec's major labour federations have signed on, including the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), the Centrale des syndicates du Québec (CSQ), and the Fédération des enseignants et enseignantes du Québec, as well as the Fédération des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), which has not been historically as pro-Arab as the other three.
Others groups involved include the Association québécoise des organismes de coopération internationale, the Confédération des organismes de personnes handicapées du Québec, and the Fédération des femmes du Québec.
The coalition called on the Canadian government to press Israel to stop its military actions in Gaza immediately.
It also launched a public campaign to raise $100,000 to rebuild a clinic in Gaza that's said to have been destroyed in an aerial bombardment.
The coalition said at a press conference that Israel's alleged strike on a major health care centre was the final straw that drew the disparate groups together.
Louis Roy of the CSN said the air strike not only destroyed the building but also an ambulance, medical supplies and equipment for handicapped people.
"For months, more than one million people have been taken hostage by the Israeli government and the uninterrupted operations of its army," said Réjean Parent of the CSQ in a press release.
"The sealing off of the territories is accompanied by daily bombardments and regular military incursions. Each day, civilians, very often children, are killed. This must stop immediately."
René Roy of the FTQ added: "It is imperative that the violence on both sides stops immediately and that human rights are respected."
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