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B’nai Brith Canada disagrees with Cotler’s proposed Israeli inquiry into Gaza WarPosted On 10/22/09
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
B’nai Brith Canada disagrees with Cotler’s proposed Israeli inquiry into Gaza War
TORONTO, October 22, 2009 – B’nai Brith Canada has voiced its disagreement with MP Irwin Cotler’s call for setting up an independent commission of inquiry into Operation Cast Lead in response to the United Nations Human Rights Council-mandated Goldstone Report. The Mount Royal MP made the recommendation to the Jerusalem Post yesterday.
“The Goldstone Commission was an outrage from the minute the UN Human Rights Council created it,” said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada. “The Council itself is stacked with some of the world’s most egregious human rights abusers. Their whole purpose for being members of that dreadful council is to shield each other from the microscope and, at the same time, to redirect the heat towards this world’s only Jewish State. Goldstone’s mandate was pre-determined against Israel and members of his investigative team were passing judgment against Israel before the Commission was even set up.
“We have to strongly disagree with Mr. Cotler on this issue. Setting up a commission of inquiry into the events in Gaza will only give credence to Goldstone’s blatantly biased report. We are surprised that Irwin Cotler has fallen into the UNHRC’s anti-Israel trap, and are equally astonished that, as a Canadian Parliamentarian, he is calling on a sovereign state to do something that is so obviously against its interests. Mr. Cotler’s proposal will only, inadvertently, put fuel into the frenzy of Israel-hatred that should concern us all. We also hope that PM Netanyahu stands firm against all of pressure being directed at his state and does not find himself a voluntary participant in the UNHRC’s anti-Israel agenda by agreeing to an internal inquiry.
“It is unconscionable that the forces of Islamofascism, which have vowed to destroy Israel, are being judged by the same standards as a democracy that is trying to defend its citizens from terrorism. Recently, British Army Colonel Richard Kemp emphatically stated that Israel’s operation in Gaza was amongst the most ethical and lawful operations in the history of warfare. A new commission investigating Israel’s actions will only give credibility to the preposterous notion that Israel should be held up to a different standard than everyone else.
“If Goldstone’s report makes its way to the UN Security Council, hopefully President Obama will stand with people of good faith and veto it, so that we can finally put to bed this most current episode in the ongoing attempt to demonize and delegitimize this world’s only Jewish State.”
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For more information, please contact, Dan Rabkin, Communications Officer:
416-633-6224 X 140 / cell: 416-312-9173
B’nai Brith Canada has been active in Canada since 1875 as the Jewish community’s foremost human rights agency
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