Palestine – Page 2 – Suzanne Berliner Weiss

Jerusalem: Canada’s silence means consent

More than a thousand protesters gathered at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto December 9 in response to a call Al-Quds. We stood in solidarity with Palestine in protest against Trump’s unilateral and illegal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem. I was among the speakers. Here is what I said as a Holocaust survivor:

The whole world has condemned Trump’s blow against Palestine. But Canada’s government is silent. And silence means consent!

Why? Because Canada’s business and government elite look favorably at Israeli apartheid.

Its repressive laws.
Its subjugation of Indigenous people.
Its aggressive militarism.

Well, Mr. Trudeau, the people of Canada think differently. Continue reading Jerusalem: Canada’s silence means consent

Six three-minute speeches …

I’ve learned to make concise and cogent speeches in the three minutes appropriate for rallies and meetings. Of the several dozen “three-minute” talks I have on file, here are six examples.

Against Islamophobia and white supremacy

The video version of this speech made a rally against Islamophobia and white supremacy went viral and received over 26,000 views as of this posting.

I speak today as a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust. Nazism took the lives of most of my family and six million my Jewish community. I and so many other Holocaust survivors are here only because of people united to protect us.

What is anti Semitism? It is simply the hatred of Jewish people. Amazingly, Donald Trump honoured the Holocaust by omitting, and in essence denying history. He forgot to mention that that six million Jews were murdered in the attempt to eliminate the whole Jewish people. It’s amazing that we heard no one object to this omission, and we especially did not hear a peep from Israel who prides itself on building a Jewish state. Continue reading Six three-minute speeches …

Against Islamophobia and white supremacy

The video version of this speech made a rally against Islamophobia and white supremacy went viral and received over 26,000 views as of this posting.

The Gaza slaughter: Not in my name

At a Toronto rally of 25,000: Here, I comments on the stand taken by anti-Zionist Jews against Israel’s massacres in Gaza – and on the real history of the Nazi Holocaust and the resistance to it.

26 July 2014 – I am proud to join more than 250 Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors in condemning “the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza” and “the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Our statement of solidarity calls for “an immediate end to the siege against and the blockade of Gaza” and a “full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel.” Continue reading The Gaza slaughter: Not in my name

Keep on rockin’ for freedom, Neil Young, cancel your Tel Aviv show

13 March 2014 – Will legendary rocker and indigenous rights activist Neil Young cross the international picket line to perform in Tel Aviv this summer?

Dear Neil,

Your “Honor the Treaties” concert tour across Canada struck a blow for fair treatment of the indigenous peoples of Alberta in defense of their land. It was not easy to challenge establishment politics or hear the criticism of your craft and personal commitments.

I think we understand that well: one of us is an Algonquin, once imprisoned for protecting his homeland; the other a Holocaust survivor.

Now we learn you are to give a concert in July in Tel Aviv. We ask you to reconsider these plans and, if you go to the region, to utilize your trip to express solidarity with the Palestinians, the indigenous people under Israeli rule. Continue reading Keep on rockin’ for freedom, Neil Young, cancel your Tel Aviv show

‘Canadian Charger’ must oppose Ottawa’s fake ‘anti-terrorism’ list

On December 11, 2013, the Canadian Charger, a web-based weekly with many readers in the Muslim community, formally retracted its editorial call for the Harper government to place Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood on its fake “anti-terrorism” list. The Charger thus responded to a wave of protests of its damaging editorial, published in its December 4 issue. Along with its retraction, the Charger featured the following article, which combines two of the protest letters. – JR and SW.

By John Riddell and Suzanne Weiss. We wish to express our concern with Canadian Charger‘s editorial, “Canadians: List Egypt’s Brotherhood a terrorist group.” The article’s call on the Harper government to ban the Muslim Brotherhood as “terrorist” group is a serious breach of the Charger’s previous stand for democratic rights and against Islamophobia. Continue reading ‘Canadian Charger’ must oppose Ottawa’s fake ‘anti-terrorism’ list

Toward justice and reconciliation in Palestine and Israel

Talk given to Sarnia Central United Church, October 23, 2016

Let’s look today at a small country on the eastern Mediterranean that has three names. History knows it as Palestine. It is now ruled by the state of Israel. And for adherents of three great world religions, Muslims, Christians, and Jews, it is a land of veneration and pilgrimage, the Holy Land.

For seventy years now this land has been torn by incessant conflict between two populations, now roughly equal in number: Jewish Israelis, most of whom arrived in the last century; and the land’s age-old residents, the Palestinians. Peace negotiations have collapsed and hopes for a settlement are at a low ebb. Continue reading Toward justice and reconciliation in Palestine and Israel

A Handbook for Defenders of Free Speech on Palestine

28 July 2010 – Michael Keefer has compiled a timely and effective handbook for all those resisting attacks on free speech regarding the Israeli government’s crimes against Palestine.

His 268-page book, Anti-Semitism Real and Imagined, contains contributions from eleven committed campaigners in the fight for freedom of expression, as well as position papers from seven well-respected Canadian social organizations.

The book reports on an extra-parliamentary committee named the Canadian Parliamentary Committee to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA), established in 2009 as a lobbying venture by 21 members of parliament hostile to criticisms of the Israeli government’s policies toward the Palestinians. Continue reading A Handbook for Defenders of Free Speech on Palestine

On the Holocaust memorial day why I support Palestinian rights

In Canada, Holocaust Memorial Day has been established by Heritage Canada to be on April 11. It is a good opportunity to review what we learn from the Holocaust experience and how we apply these lessons to the troubled situation in the Middle East.

This year, students in more than 60 cities took part in educational meetings on conditions in Palestine as part of Israeli Apartheid Week, held March 1–7.

It is a controversial event, not popular in Canadian government circles.

It is criticized for supposedly dishonouring the victims of Hitler’s holocaust.

I am a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust, the Nazis’ mass murder of Europe’s Jews.

The tragic experience of my family and community under Hitler makes me alert to the suffering of other peoples denied their human rights today – including the Palestinians. Continue reading On the Holocaust memorial day why I support Palestinian rights

Israel’s apartheid: Making Palestinians pay for Hitler’s crimes

This speech was given on March 2, 2010, to a meeting of students at the University of Waterloo in Canada, held as part of the Israeli Apartheid Week. She, a holocaust survivor, is a member of Not in Our Name: Jewish Voices Against Zionism and of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto.

A year after a murderous Israel’s assault, the war on the people of Gaza continues. Gaza is still under siege – still surrounded by walls and checkpoints. Its people are denied the necessities of life and the right to rebuild and shape their future.

For me, as a survivor of the holocaust, the tragic situation in Gaza awakens memories of what I and my family experienced under Hitlerism – the ghetto walls, the killings, the systematic starvation and deprivation, the daily humiliations. Continue reading Israel’s apartheid: Making Palestinians pay for Hitler’s crimes