Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff issued a press release on March 1st, shown in full below, condemning Israeli Apartheid Week. In it, he calls upon Canadians to reject this week's protests against the suppression of Palestinians, linking Israeli Apartheid Week to anti-semitism, but forgets he himself once abhorred the "Bantustan" system used by Israel.
Bantustan. His word, not ours.
We at rabble.ca hope NDP leader Jack Layton will come out as the voice of dignity and reason in the face of censorship and the closing down of dialogue and debate by our elected officials over Israeli Apartheid Week. We feel freedom of expression is at stake.
Parliament Hill is under siege by a neo-McCarthyist mood: it won't be easy to speak to justice, human rights and the importance of safeguarding freedom of expression, and not play safe politics in that atmosphere. Ignatieff has already succumbed to weak, opportunist politics.
And special thanks to our blogger Derrick O'Keefe for reminding us of how slippery Iggy's tongue is by locating this piece of op-ed journalism written for U.K. newspaper The Guardian in 2002:
"When I looked down at the West Bank, at the settlements like Crusader forts occupying the high ground, at the Israeli security cordon along the Jordan river closing off the Palestinian lands from Jordan, I knew I was not looking down at a state or the beginnings of one, but at a Bantustan, one of those pseudo-states created in the dying years of apartheid to keep the African population under control."
- Michael Ignatieff, The Guardian, April 19, 2002.
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For Immediate Release
March 1, 2010
Statement by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff regarding Israeli Apartheid Week
OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made the following statement today:
"On university campuses across the country this week, Israeli Apartheid Week will once again attempt to demonize and undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish state. It is part of a global campaign of calls for divestment, boycotts and proclamations, and it should be condemned unequivocally and absolutely.
Apartheid is defined, in international law, as a crime against humanity. Israeli Apartheid Week is a deliberate attempt to portray the Jewish state as criminal.
The activities planned for the week will single out Jewish and Israeli students. They will be made to feel ostracized and even physically threatened in the very place where freedom should be paramount -- on a university campus.
Let us be clear: criticism of Israeli government policy is legitimate. Wholesale condemnation of the State of Israel and the Jewish people is not legitimate. Not now, not ever.
The very premise of Israeli Apartheid Week runs counter to our shared values of mutual respect and tolerance, regardless of nationality, race or creed. It is an attempt to heighten the tensions in our communities around the tragic conflict in the Middle East.
On behalf of the Liberal party of Canada and the Parliamentary caucus, I urge all Canadians to join with us in condemning Israeli Apartheid Week, and to reject, in principle, all forms of anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance, both within this country and around the world."
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It's true that the pro-Zionist forces are trying to close down dialogue and debate about Israeli apartheid, and thus freedom of expression is at stake.
But it would be a mistake to let the Ignatieffs and Harpers set the terms of the discussion around Israeli Apartheid Week. We need to talk not only about freedom of speech for ourselves, but more importantly, about the substantive issues of freedom for the Palestinians. We must not lose our focus on education and agitation around Israel's criminal practices and policies; the support of both the government and the "opposition" for those crimes and policies; the meaning of "apartheid" as a crime under international law; promotion of the BDS campaign; and the desperate plight of the people of Gaza.
Let's not get lost in a meta-debate about the right of Israeli Apartheid Week to exist, when the real question is the existential right of the Palestinians themselves. And please, could we try not to limit our political critique to the narrow confines of what is said on Parliament Hill?
I look forward to reading more stories on rabble about what's going on "over there".
I think what got me upset about Ignatieff's comments was that he wrote about "legitimate" criticism. It's OK to criticize the Israeli goverment, but not the condemnation of Israel itself and the Israeli people. I am not so much upset about the Israeli part as Ignatieff's reference to legitmate comments. I would hate to think that if we were to extend his logic to Canada and Canadians, it would be fine to criticize the Canadian goverment. It would be illegitmate to condemn Canada or the Canadian people. Some Canadian people need to be condemned such as right-wing anti-abortionist Christians and the über-libertarian-Capitalists. Sometimes, we need to condemn ourselves including progressive people. I don't mind criticizing ourselves when we can't work things out at any political level.
Just to be fair, the next time I criticize Israel, I will make a critical comment about Luxembourg. The Luxembourgeoisie have a very funny language.
"De mann ass grouss."
No, the man does not have a gross ass. He is just tall.