BY MOHAMMED AZHAR ALI KHAN Canada played host to two visitors last week. They were from the same country but the way they were received, what they stated to their hosts, the audiences they addressed, and the reception their messages elicited were vastly different — so much so that they might have been from different planets. To Canada's credit, both were listened to with respect. Most attention was focused on Israeli President Shimon Peres, who has visited Canada often. He has also been prime minister two times and has been in 12 cabinets. He received the Nobel Peace Prize, along with former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1994. This is ironic because peace remains elusive in the Middle East. As befits the head of a friendly state, Peres received a 21-gun salute, was feted by Governor General Donald Johnston and met Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leaders of the two opposition parties and the premiers of Ontario and Quebec. Peres spoke warmly of Canada and its support for Israel. He stated that Israel is continuing to search for peace. He did not state what's blocking a just settlement. He did not explain how Israel is seeking peace when it refuses to vacate the territory it occupied in 1967, grabbed large chunks of Palestinian land, illegally settled 500,000 Israelis on the Palestinian West Bank, imposed a brutal siege on Gaza, built an illegal wall on Palestinian land that has separated families from their lands and homes, defied United Nations resolutions and the World Court, made Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank second-class citizens in their own homeland and rebuffed peace offers from the Arabs, including the Saudi peace proposal, endorsed by all Arab countries and members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that includes Iran. He avoided these inconvenient truths. So did his hosts and the mainstream media. The other visitor had a less distinguished career as a politician. But he became one of Israel's most distinguished historians. He was described as Israel's “bravest, most principled, most incisive historian” by journalist and filmmaker John Pilger. Ilan Pappe was born in Haifa to Jewish parents who fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s. He joined Israeli defense forces and fought in the Yom Kippur War. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and got his PhD from Oxford University. He taught at the University of Haifa and has written several books. He is now a professor at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Pappe's tour was sponsored by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, a group that seeks to inform Canadians about the real situation in the Middle East. He spoke in several cities, mostly to students and average Canadians. Pappe stated that he discovered from Israeli archives and research elsewhere that 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes under the Plan Dalet that Israel's future leaders had drawn up in 1947. Israeli leaders wanted to seize all of Palestine in 1948 and kill or exile Palestinians as was done in the Galilee. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, however, vetoed the proposal, partly because he feared world outrage. Pappe stated that in 1965 the Israeli military and government met on the Hebrew University campus, built on an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village, to finalize plans about administering the West Bank once they had conquered it. They implemented the plan swiftly on taking over the West Bank in the 1967 war that President Gamal Nasser had precipitated. Pushed by Generals Moshe Dayan and Yigal Allon, the cabinet decided that Israel would annex the West Bank but deny the West Bank's Palestinians citizenship and other rights and harass them, forcing them to barely subsist or to leave forever. Since then West Bank Palestinians have been harassed constantly. Jobs, building permits, essential health and municipal services are severely restricted. Their civic and basic rights are denied. They face checkpoints, cannot travel freely to their own fields, their houses are demolished, they cannot return if they leave the area briefly, their trees are uprooted and they are detained without charge for days or years. Three-fourths of the Palestinians have suffered this fate, Pappe stated. Palestinians within Israel fare better, Pappe said. They can vote, elect their leaders and speak out. But they were subject to military rule for decades and still face huge obstacles and discrimination that perpetuate poverty and despair. The country's laws favor Jews and deny equal rights to Christians and Muslims. Pappe called Western governments cowards, but said civilized society around the world condemns Israeli policies. He stated that Jews in the US and Europe are turning against Israel because its oppression violates the fundamental values of Judaism. The Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement is gaining worldwide. The Israeli government has had more meetings to discuss the powerful BDS movement than it has had to analyze peace proposals. Pappe stated that though Israel has military and economic might, its policies, based on force and on racial and ethnic discrimination, cannot be sustained indefinitely and that world opinion and world Jewry will force it to seek a just peace with the Palestinians. President Peres received warm praise from the Canadian leader. Pappe received thunderous applause when he spoke to students and other Canadians of all ages and walks of life. Polls show that the majority of Canadians hold a negative view of Israel and see it as the major threat to peace in the Middle East. — Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian newspaperman, civil servant and refugee judge. He has received the Order of Canada, Order of Ontario and the Queen's Golden Jubilee Award. __
