The Sage of Vancouver Island Phil Little sends this wake-up call to the craven Liberal government
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland,
Ambassador Marc-André Blanchard, Canada’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Hon.Sheila Malcolmson, MP Nanaimo
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Minister Freeland, and Ambassador Blanchard,
I write to you to say that your shameful decision on December 21, 2017 by Canada to abstain from the emergency United Nations General Assembly Resolution “Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory: draft resolution (A/ES-10/L.22)” continues a morally reprehensible pattern of votes at the UN that the Trudeau government has continued from the Harper era.
I also write to express our horror about the situation on the ground in Palestine: specifically, that the state of Israel holds the distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts lacking fundamental fair trial rights. In the couple of weeks since the Trump government’s illegal decision to name Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state of Israel, the belligerent use of military law in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) has escalated with 170 such detentions of children. This is a sharp escalation from the usual approximately 700 children prosecuted in military courts annually.
Canada’s track record at the United Nations is Appalling
I want to be clear–Canada’s decision to abstain was irresponsible to say the least. To be silent is to be complicit. Would you support the bystander who says, “I can’t get involved” when the schoolyard bully is joined by his big brother, the neighbourhood bully, to say “we will take away all your lunches if you don’t join our gang in terrorizing others?” Surely not. You would expect the bystander to use whatever strength and influence they have to stand in solidarity with the victims.
Whether it is a vote against or an abstention, the Trudeau government’s UN voting record is contrary to Canada’s own stated foreign policy about Palestine. Does the Liberal Trudeau government really wish to carry on in the Harper conservative mode?
I call on the Liberal government along with other political parties to take emergency and urgent steps to join the rest of the world in standing for international law and universal human rights for all people including the people of Palestine.
In addition to the abstention on December 21, 2017, on December 19, 2017, Canada voted against a UN General Assembly resolution on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. On November 30, 2017, Canada voted against the UN General Assembly motion that “any actions taken by Israel, the occupying power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever.” All our other allies, including European Union states, Australia, and Japan, voted in favour of the motions on December 19 and November 30. Canada continues to clearly stand out as the only G20 country other than the USA in the six or seven countries that consistently vote against human rights and international law for Palestine.
As the NDP said in its statement of December 20, 2017: “How can Canada claim to champion a rules-based multilateral order when the Liberal government continues to refuse to uphold international law?” I ask the NDP to show courageous leadership to speak truth to power. I ask Green Party Leader Elizabeth May to stand with her own party’s policy related to Palestine, and the Bloc Québécois to continue to speak publicly as they did in May 2017 for Palestinian self-determination.
Does Canada really wish to follow the call from Israel and the USA to follow an anachronistic, outdated model that does not
Perhaps the answer to the UN voting record is that the Canadian government is out of line with public opinion when it comes to Palestine. In a March 2017 EKOS poll, Canadians indicated they believe overwhelmingly that sanctions are a reasonable way for Canada to censure countries violating international law and human rights, and a strong majority of Canadians believe that government sanctions on Israel would be reasonable. In the context of Israel’s ongoing violations of international law, a very strong majority of Canadians believe that the Palestinians’ call for a boycott of the state of Israel is reasonable.
I call on you to speak out clearly that the Canadian government will take steps to bring its voting at the UN in line with the rest of the world, and not tie itself to voting with the US and Israel. Regardless of partisan affiliation, I remind all federal elected members of parliament and all federal senators that to follow party lines is not acceptable, when issues of international law and universal human rights are at risk, and so ask you to stand with the people in your constituencies and across the country and world in calling for justice for all people including the people of Palestine.
No Way to Treat a Child
At this perilous time, we call the government of Canada to take specific, urgent action to stand with the children and youth of Palestine. Specifically, this is the time for civil society around the world to call the Israeli government to account for their illegal, immoral and belligerent use of military law on children.
Over the holiday the world’s attention has been on one family, the Tamimi family, whose 16-year daughter, mother, 21 year old niece, along with 17 members of the community, Nabi Saleh, have been arrested after a 14 year-old Tamimi cousin was gravely injured by a metal rubber-covered bullet shot in his face by the Israeli military. This is not an isolated situation, but part of a brutal, systemic illegal occupation.
In fact, Canadian University of Western law professional and special rapporteur for the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Michael Lynk has provided a framework to the UN on October 27, 2017 that shows Israel to be an “illegal occupant” based on the i) length of occupation; ii) annexation of occupied territory; iii) lack of responsibility of trustee as occupied; and iv) lack of good faith.
Israel is the only state that systemically uses military law against children and youth. Not only is this against international law, the United Nations Conventions for the Rights of Children, it is also against international humanitarian law. In the couple of weeks since the US Trump indication that they were naming Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state of Israel, 170 youth and children have been detained under military law according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. These individuals join 10,000 children and youth that have been arrested in Israeli-occupied Palestine since 2000. Each year between 500 and 700 children are arrested without the most basic legal rights such as denial of a lawyer and without parents being present; this while being tortured, forced to sign confessions in Hebrew, a language the children do not know, and denial of basic rights like going to the washroom and being provided food.
The No Way to Treat a Child campaign began in Canada in July 2017, and so far more than 25 organizations across the country have joined as sponsors. The campaign in the US is several years old, and in November 2017 resulted in legislation being introduced in the United States’ Congress in a Bill calling for promoting human rights by ending Israeli military detention of Palestinian children, in particular the use of US taxpayers’ money detain and torture children.
The No Way to Treat a Child campaign is based on the work on the ground and in the military courts by the human rights legal organization for children, Defence for Children International-Palestine.
As a federal member of Parliament, I ask you to call that steps to be taken immediately by the Canadian government to let Israel know that it needs to stop the use of military law on Palestinian youth and children.
In making this call I remind you that:
1. Israel ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child on October 3, 1991, which states in:
· Article 37(a), that ‘‘no child shall be subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’’;
· Article 37(b), that the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child ‘‘shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time’’;
· Article 37(c), that ‘‘every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or heritage’’; and
· Article 37(d), that ‘‘[e]very child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action’’.
2. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there are two separate legal systems, with Israeli military law imposed on Palestinians and Israeli civilian law applied to Israeli settlers.
3. The Israeli military detains around 500 to 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 each year and prosecutes them before a military court system that lacks basic and fundamental guarantees of due process in violation of international standards.
4. Approximately 2,700,000 Palestinians live in the West Bank of Palestine, of which around 13% are children under the age of 18, who live under military occupation, the constant fear of arrest, detention, and violence by the Israeli military, and the threat of recruitment by armed groups.
5. That since 2000, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli security forces in the West Bank of Palestine and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system.
6. Children under the age of 12 cannot be prosecuted in Israeli military courts. However, Israeli military forces detain children under the age of 12 and question them, for several hours, before releasing them to their families or to Palestinian authorities.
7. Human Rights Watch documented, in a July 2015 report titled ‘‘Israel: Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children’,’ that such detention also included the use of chokeholds, beatings, an coercive interrogation on children between the ages of 11 and 15 years.
8. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) concluded, in a February 2013 report entitled ‘‘Children in Israeli Military Detention,’’ that the ‘‘ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest until the child’s prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing.’’
The 2013 UNICEF report further determines that the Israeli system of military detention of Palestinian children profoundly deviates from international norms, stating that ‘‘in no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights.’’
UNICEF also released reports in October, 2013 and February, 2015 noting that Israeli authorities have, since March 2013, issued new military orders and taken steps to reinforce existing military and police standard operating procedures relating to the detention of Palestinian children. However, the reports still found continued and persistent evidence of ill-treatment of Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces.
9. In 2013, the annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories (‘‘Annual Report’’) published by the Department of State noted that Israeli security services continued to abuse, and in some cases torture minors, frequently arrested on suspicion of stone throwing, in order to coerce confessions. The torture tactics used included threats, intimidation, long-term handcuffing, beatings, and solitary confinement.
The 2013 Annual Report also stated that ‘‘signed confessions by Palestinian minors, written in Hebrew, a language most could not read, continued to be used as evidence against them in Israeli military courts.’’
The 2016 Annual Report noted a ‘‘significant increase in detentions of minors’’ in 2016, and that ‘‘Israeli authorities continued to use confessions signed by Palestinian minors, written in Hebrew.’’ It also highlighted the renewed use of ‘‘administrative detention’’ against Palestinians, including children, a practice in which a detainee may be held indefinitely without charge or trial, by the order of a military commander or other government official.
10. The nongovernmental organization Defense for Children International Palestine collected affidavits from 429 West Bank children who were detained between 2012 and 2015, and concluded that: i) three-quarters of the children endured physical violence following arrest; ii) under Israeli military law, children do not have the right to a lawyer during interrogation; iii) 97 percent of the children did not have a parent present during their interrogation; iv) 84 percent of the children were not properly informed of their rights by Israeli police; v) interrogators used stress positions, vi) threats of violence, and isolation to coerce confessions from detained children; and v) 66 children were held in pre-trial, pre-charge isolation for interrogation purposes for an average period of 13 days.
11. Amendments to Israeli military law concerning the detention of Palestinian children have had little to no impact on the treatment of children during the first 24 to 48 hours after an arrest, when the majority of their ill-treatment occurs.
12. In 2002, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, reviewed Israel’s compliance with the Convention and expressed serious concern regarding ‘‘allegations and complaints of inhuman or degrading practices and of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children’’ during arrest, interrogation, and detention.
In 2013, the Committee declared that Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces ‘‘continue to be systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture’’ and that Israel had‘ ‘fully disregarded’’ the previous recommendations of the Committee to comply with international law.
Based on these dozen points:
I clearly speak against any Canadian taxpayer funds being used to support the military of Palestinian children, as the prosecution of Palestinian children in a military court system by the Government of Israel: violates international law and internationally recognized standards of human rights; and is contrary to Canadian values of human rights, equity and dignity for all people.
I ask the government of Canada to immediately take urgent steps to let Israel know that any relationships with Canada are dependent on Israel stopping immediately the military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in violation of international humanitarian law including stopping the use against Palestinian children of any of the following practices:
· Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.
· Physical violence, including restraint in stress positions.
· Hooding, sensory deprivation, death threats, or other forms of psychological abuse.
· Incommunicado detention or solitary confinement.
· Administrative detention, as described in 26 section 2(13).
· Denial of access to parents or legal counsel during interrogations.
· Confessions obtained by force or coercion.
Minister Freeland and Ambassador Marc-André Blanchard, on December 21, 2017, you asked for “calm.” I also understand Ambassador Blanchard you have indicated Canada will be attending Nikki Haley’s post-vote Jerusalem celebration party. The continued Canada voting record at the United Nations and the situation on the ground of Israeli military terror against Palestine, including its children, is not something to be either calm about or to celebrate.
Canada has an obligation based on Article 1 of the Geneva Convention which requires that Canada take actions to “’ensure compliance’ with the Geneva Convention by other High Contracting Parties.” This means clear condemnation of any nation that names Jerusalem as capital of the state of Israel, and to move forward with urgent action to put Israel on notice that its use of military law is against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and that the government of Canada insists that the use of military law in regard to children in the oPt stop immediately.
Sincerely,
Phil Little and Anne Marie McDonell
10846 Grandview Road
Ladysmith, B.C. V9G1Z7
telephone 2502457245
email sacolargo@gmail.com
Michael Bosner, Minister-Counsellor to Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations
Foreign Affairs and International Development Government Standing Committee c/o Chair Robert D. Nault
Justice and Human Rights Government Standing Committee c/o Chair, Anthony Housefather
Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Group c/o Chair, MP Tabbara
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Senate Standing Committee, c/o Chair A. Raynell Adreychuk
Human Rights Senate Standing Committee, c/o Chair Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard
Leader of Green Party of Canada, Elizabeth May
Leader of Conservative Party of Canada, Andrew Scheer
Leader of NDP, Jagmeet Singh
NDP Foreign Affairs Critic, Hélène Laverdière
Conservative Party of Canada Foreign Affairs Critic, Erin O’Toole
Bloc Québécois Foreign Affairs Critic, Luc Thériault
Deborah Lyons: Canadian Ambassador to Israel
Douglas Proudfoot: Representative of Canada to the Palestinian Authority
Nabil Maroof: Chief Representative, Palestinian General Delegation, Palestinian Delegation to Canada