War crimes, political parties and public amnesia
October 13th, 2006 | Posted in Politics
Two posters created by Ron Saba
The posters refer to the current leadership race in the Canadian Federal Liberal Party. In English Canada, candidate Michael Ignatieff remarked in August that he wasn’t losing any sleep over the massacre of Qana. Recently in left-leaning Quebec, he said that his comment had been a mistake, continuing, “I was a professor of human rights, and I am also a professor of the laws of war, and what happened in Qana was a war crime, and I should have said that. That’s clear.” Bob Rae and Stephane Dion, rivals for the Liberal leadership position, immediately denounced his statement.
It should come as no surprise that not one politician in Canada will denounce Israeli aggression for what it is. All parties are quite happy to compete with each other to show that they are “friends”of Israel,simply ignoring the gross acts of naked aggession by the IOF in the proces, or else giving passing acknowledgment of legitimate Palestinian grievances, but quickly neutralizing their concern by pretending that the suffering on both sides is equal.This is a standard western orthodoxy that is deeply entrenched in political thought and canada is no exception. War crimes are well defined, clearly written in the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, and should be well known to everyone in politics. For Stephen Harper to say that Ignatieffs comments on Qana are ”not my position” simply dismisses the pertinent documents on war crimes as irrelevant. Shamefully,this is the opinion of all canadian politicians, at least in public,and reflects a disturbing disregard for humanitarian law, the end result of which is the brutal invasion of lebanon and the ongoing repession of the Palestinians.Canada needs a leader, someone who will see international issues in terms of justice and equality for all people,not in terms of competing ideologies in which we pick a side and support it no matter what. Sadly, none of the morally vacant members of the current government, nor the ethically challenged candidates for the liberal leadership seem to offer any hope for a change in direction.It is going to be up to popular pressure to force a change, and that is why groups such as yours are so important. Thank you, and keep it up.
Comment by john menzies — October 15th, 2006 @ 1:20 PM