Canadian Teacher Under Police Investigation For Saying Palestinians Had Right To Resist Occupation
by Jillian D’Amours, Middle East Eye 14 July 2016.
group claims Shoufani called for ‘violence against Israelis’ when she
said Palestinians had right to resist occupation
Toronto-area school board and Toronto city police are investigating an
elementary school teacher after pro-Israel lobby groups complained about
comments she made during a rally in solidarity with Palestinians.
The
teacher, Nadia Shoufani, addressed a downtown Toronto rally on 2 July,
marking al-Quds Day, an annual event held around the world to support
Palestinian rights and to protest Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian
territories.
“Silence in situations of oppression and injustices
is a crime against humanity,” Shoufani said in her speech at the rally,
in which she condemned the Israeli occupation and Israel’s policies of
home demolitions, land confiscation and arrests of Palestinians.
Shoufani
also quoted Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, an important figure in
the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who
was assassinated by Israeli Mossad agents in a car bombing in Beirut in
1972.
“We say no, no, no to the occupation. We are here to tell the world that Palestinians are not alone,” Shoufani said.
On its website, pro-Israel group Bnai Brith Canada accused Shoufani of “glorifying terrorists” in her speech.
“We
are greatly concerned that an individual who espouses open support for
terror and praises terrorist groups is teaching Canadian youth,” the
group’s CEO, Michael Mostyn, said in a statement.
The
group also accused her of “calling for violence against Israelis” by
saying that Palestinians had a right to resist the Israeli occupation
and its policies.
The Dufferin-Peel District Catholic School Board
told Middle East Eye it is investigating Shoufani after the speech was
brought to its attention by various sources, including Bnai Brith Canada
and another pro-Israel group, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Shoufani
teaches at an elementary school in Mississauga, a large suburb of
Toronto, school board spokesperson Bruce Campbell said in an email. “We
are actively investigating the issue brought to our attention,” Campbell
said.
“In order to conduct a comprehensive investigation we are
unable to place a definitive timeline on determining the results of an
investigation at this point. However, given the serious nature of the
issue, we would look to reach a resolution as quickly as possible,” he
said.
Police launch investigation
Tyler
Levitan, campaigns coordinator at Independent Jewish Voices-Canada, a
group that supports Palestinian rights, said organisations like Bnai
Brith Canada and Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal “are shills for
Israel”.
“Ms Shoufani was speaking passionately in support of the
Palestinians’ right to defend themselves against an occupying power,”
Levitan told MEE in an email.
“Under international law, those
living under military occupation and a system of colonialism have the
absolute right to resist. Ms Shoufani spoke as a defender of the rights
of an occupied and besieged people to resist an obscenely violent and
criminal military occupation over their lands.”
Meanwhile,
Caroline de Kloet, a spokeswoman for the Toronto Police Service, told
MEE on Thursday that a complaint was filed with police on 6 July about
“comments made at a rally”.
De Kloet would not disclose which
specific comments were subject to the complaint, or which and how many
individuals were under investigation. She also would not disclose who
filed the complaint.
“I can’t tell you who filed the report or
what’s being looked into, or any of the specifics,” she said, “But right
now there is a report on file and it’s being looked at.”
Shoufani could not immediately be reached for comment.
‘Put a chill’ on organising
Recently,
pro-Israel lobby groups in Canada have launched several campaigns
targeting groups and individuals supporting Palestinian rights.
Bnai Brith Canada lauded a parliamentary motion
passed earlier this year condemning the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to hold Israel accountable under
international law.
In March, the Centre for Israel and Jewish
Affairs accused Canadian law professor Michael Lynk of demonstrating a
pro-Palestinian bias and of being involved in “anti-Israel advocacy”.
The accusations came after Lynk was appointed as the new Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Pro-Israel
groups have also urged Canada to maintain funding cuts on the United
Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
They are
also pressuring the Green Party of Canada to dismiss two motions, set
to be debated at a party convention in August, that would strip the
Jewish National Fund of its charitable status and endorse BDS.
“I
know from past experience that Bnai Brith would be using every means
possible to try to shut down the al-Quds rally,” said Ken Stone,
treasurer of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War and another speaker
at the al-Quds Day rally in Toronto this year.
Stone told MEE that
Bnai Brith Canada has taken the comments made at the rally out of
context and distorted them in an effort to shut down the annual event
and silence Canadian supporters of Palestinian rights.
“What they’re trying to do is … put a chill on people like Nadia Shoufani,” he said.
“[And]
put a chill on people who might be tempted to get up at an al-Quds
rally and declare their support for the Palestinian cause.”
