XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, bc.politics   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   On 20/01/2014 6:05 PM, ConɀƦConɀ wrote:   
   > Our Prime Minister has a name like mud all around the globe.  They don't   
   > thin much of him in the UN. WE don't think much of him in Canada.   
   > And now they're walking out on him on what he presumed would be 'safe   
   > turf'.   
   >   
   > Aren't Canadians pleased to have elected such a man to head our country?   
   >   
   > ___________________________________   
   > CBC News Posted: Jan 20, 2014   
   >   
   > Ahmad Tibi: Why I walked out on Stephen Harper's speech   
   >   
   > Stephen Harper's speech, policy on Israel 'biased,' 'unilateral,'   
   > Arab-Israeli legislator says   
   >   
   >   
   > An Arab-Israeli legislator who stormed out during Prime Minister Stephen   
   > Harper's speech to the Knesset on Monday says he did so as a form of   
   > protest against Harper's bias.   
   >   
   > Speaking to Evan Solomon, host of CBC News Network's Power & Politics,   
   > Ahmad Tibi said Harper's speech was "biased" and that he described   
   > Israel in "a very unbalanced way."   
   >   
   > "We are 20 per cent of the population, we are suffering discrimination,"   
   > Tibi told Solomon.   
   >   
   > "That democracy of Israel is a selective democracy, ethnic democracy.   
   > Canada is a democracy and people are equal without relation to their   
   > ethnic background. Here, there's a problem with that," he said.   
      
   The Aboriginals and First Nations leaders might disagree with that.   
   >   
   > Tibi is a deputy speaker of Knesset and leader of the Arab Movement for   
   > Change, or Ta'al.   
   >   
   > Canada's foreign policy toward Israel is "biased, non-balanced, and   
   > that's why Canada has a very marginal role in the Middle East," Tibi said.   
   >   
   > He and colleague Abu Arar walked out, Tibi said, "to say that we are   
   > very much unsatisfied with the remarks and the policy of Prime Minister   
   > Harper. It is very diplomatic. It's a protest which is legitimate in any   
   > parliament."   
   > 'Confiscating, occupying lands'   
   >   
   > Harper was speaking out against what he says is a more subtle form of   
   > anti-Semitism than what the world saw ahead of the Holocaust.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > Arab-Israeli legislator Ahmad Tibi stormed out during Prime Minister   
   > Stephen Harper's speech to the Knesset on Monday. 'Why [is he] totally   
   > neglecting the absence of freedom of the Palestinians under occupation?   
   > It is a double-standard,' Tibi says. (Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)   
   >   
   > "Some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel.… Most   
   > disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state. Think   
   > about that. Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind   
   > that," Harper said.   
   >   
   > "A state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was   
   > founded so Jews can flourish as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow   
   > of the worst racist experiment in history," he said. "That is condemned,   
   > and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism. It is   
   > nothing short of sickening."​   
   >   
   > Tibi said Harper didn't mention the Israeli settlements in the West Bank   
   > and East Jerusalem. Canada officially opposes Israeli control over   
   > territories occupied in 1967, although Harper has refrained from   
   > criticizing Israel for its policy.   
   >   
   > "When you are controlling, discriminating, confiscating, occupying lands   
   > from one side and putting them in the corner without any basic rights,   
   > you are by this way ruling and committing apartheid in the occupied   
   > Palestinian Territories," Tibi said.   
   >   
   > "If he is talking about freedom, why [is he] totally neglecting the   
   > absence of freedom of the Palestinians under occupation? It is a   
   > double-standard. These words are moral double-standard from the prime   
   > minister of Canada."   
   >   
   > Reuven Rivlin, a member of the governing Likud Party and former Speaker   
   > of the Knesset, said Tibi has the right to speak his mind because he   
   > lives in a democracy in Israel.   
   >   
   > "Sometimes it's annoying a lot of members of [the] Knesset," Rivlin said   
   > in an interview with Solomon.   
   >   
   > "I believe that he, Mr. Tibi, was elected to [the] Knesset as much as I   
   > was elected to [the] Knesset. But he has to respect the rule of law and   
   > to respect the rule of majority."   
   >   
   >   
   > Support for Jewish state 'very, very important'   
   >   
   > Rivlin said it's important to host the Canadian prime minister, whom he   
   > referred to as one of Israel's friends. Rivlin said Canadian support for   
   > a Jewish state is "very, very important for the Israeli people."   
   >   
   > Tibi also took issue with the idea that debating boycotts of Israeli   
   > products and using the term apartheid is anti-Semitic.   
   >   
   > "Do you accept at any case to be under occupation and then somebody will   
   > tell you that it is absolute democracy? It is not. We are living day by   
   > day here. Palestinians under occupation are living day by day, and   
   > saying that the occupied territory is apartheid has no relation at any   
   > case with anti-Semitism," he said.   
   >   
   > "What's the connection? If you are criticizing the policy of the state   
   > of Israel, immediately you are categorized as anti-Semitic. This is a   
   > twisted logic of Mr. Harper."   
   >   
   > The Knesset has people from all sides and with all views, Rivlin said.   
   >   
   > "In Israel, in spite of all differences of opinion and in spite of the   
   > idea that we are sometimes thinking that Mr. Tibi can incite against the   
   > state of Israel, he has the ability and he has the right to say his   
   > words in the Israeli parliament without any fear.   
   >   
   >   
   > Not just a Jewish state, Tibi says   
   >   
   > Tibi argued that with one-fifth of Israel's population made up of   
   > Arab-Israelis, Israel does not belong only to the Jewish population.   
   >   
   > "We are citizens of this state. We are indigenous people," Tibi said.   
   >   
   > "Israel should be defined as a state of its own nationalities. There are   
   > two nationalities in Israel. One is [the] Jewish majority, one is [the]   
   > Arab-Palestinian minority. We are not transparent. We are not nonsense,   
   > nobody. We are community, we are minority and we are a national   
   > minority. Saying that Israel is the Jewish state is neglecting our   
   > existence, our very existence and our narrative, and I will not accept   
   > that."   
   You can always move to the slaughterhouses of Arab Egypt or Syria or the   
   absolute monarchy of Arab Saudia Arabia.   
      
   --   
   *Read and obey the Bible*   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)