A prominent Middle Eastern scholar said Canada is complicit in war crimes committed during the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

During his September deliver a lecture to "Apartheid Israel and the Jewish National stock (JNF)," Dr. Uri Davis criticized the non-governmental organization for actively funding Israel's controversial Canada Park, along with illegal payments in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Davis discussed the impact of Canada's policies onward the region at York University--a part of his Ontario and Quebec tour--organized according to the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations and the "Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights".

"It is my responsibility as a citizen in the state of Israel to stair forward and shout at the top of my voice, 'not in my name,'" said Dr Davis, author of 15 main division s including his 1995 autobiography, Crossing the Border, and Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the have a contest Within.

A Jewish citizen of Israel, Davis is a founding member of the manner of moving against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine (MAIAP) and an observer-member of the Palestinian National Council. He is also involved in several other organizations, including MIFTAH (the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy) and Al-Beit (the Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Israel).

He said that "Apartheid is revealed in Canada Park." He accused Israeli authorities of "ethnically cleansing indigenous localities" there and reducing the Palestinian population into the "misery of statelessness."

The JNF along with its affiliate, the Jewish National capital of Canada, has planted more than 240 million tree in Israel in the group's 100-year-history. It has built through 450 parks, playgrounds and recreation areas for Israeli families, while preserving vital ecosystem combating desertification, protecting watersheds and managing water grow in the region. With Canadian tax-deductible dollars, the JNF of Canada raised more than $15 million to establish Canada Park in 1973 It is still responsible for the site's day-to-day upkeep

However, the park bears no signs of former indigenous enclaves. According to Davis, it is planted through the whole extent of the ruins of three Palestinian-Arab localities (Amwas, Yalu and Belt Nuba), which were decimated during the region's 1948-1949 war. In Amwas, tree stand among the surviving tombstones of a desecrated church-yard Names of unsuspecting Canadian donors are engraved in tin plaques, it is reported.

The destruction of these villages has been described by dint of critics as a "war crime," in direct violation of The 1948 Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory.

Dr Davis said, "Even those of us who wish to walk with one integrity with the political Zionist argument, and do likewise with a measure of decorum in my view, should arrive at a exigency where the Zionist argument is untenable uniform in their own terms and should be cast awayed It should be rejected not and nothing else for double standards and inconsistencies, on the other hand also for the injury it perpetrates against the indigenous the bulk of mankinds of Palestine."

Dr Davis maintained the JNF's afforestation plans are not deserving of tax-exemption in Canada. He challenged the NGO's status as a charitable organization make anxioused with ecology and sustainable development

"The implication that the State of Israel religiously says the sanctity of holy sites is wholly misguided. Indeed, the facilities of the JNF are render free of access to all without segregation However, the JNF is an accomplice to the cover-up of the crimes against humanity.

"This implicates each citizen of Canada in Canada Park, because the exemption is taken abroad of the commonweal, out of the bear of Canadian citizenry. This is perpetrated not barely in my name as a Jewish citizen, unless also in that of all Jewish communities worldwide."

Davis implored Canada to declassify the JNF's charitable status immediately. In addition, he urg those who have park tree planted in their name to write to the JNF requesting their removal.

common day, the Palestinian refugees will reply he said confidently.

"They will recur and they will reconstruct their pull downed homes. And they will be beneficiaries of appropriate compensation that will give them the capital to do in the same manner They will be given various economic options in order to advance their economic status."

RELATED ARTICLE: Four years of the Intifada: the human toll.

Casualties

* 3499 the public have been killed over the course of the past four years: 635 Israelis, including 110 minors, were killed in attacks by the agency of Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians;

* 2827 Palestinians were killed at Israeli security forces, including at least 1544 who were not taking part in fighting, and 558 minors. 490 Palestinians were killed in the last year alone--at least 309 of whom were not revolv in fighting;

* 40 foreign citizens, including 2 minors were killed in attacks on Palestinians targeting civilians;

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