Canada Palestine Association,
P.O.Box 1085,
Halifax, NS, B3J 2X1
April 15, 2004
The Hon. Mr. Bill Graham,
Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Dear Mr. Graham:
The statements by President Bush, allowing Israel to
annex the illegal settlements in the West Bank, is a blatant violation
of international law. The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza
are under illegal Israeli occupation that has been allowed to stand for
37 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council
resolutions. These settlements are illegal as defined by Security Council
resolution #465 (1980), and the Fourth Geneva Convention, and constitute
war crimes, as defined by international law. No government, including
the US government, is entitled to grant Israel what it is not entitled
to. Complete withdrawal from these illegally-occupied territories should
be an imperative, that requires no negotiation, as was practised with
the illegal occupation of Kuwait, by Iraq, in 1990. The incredible justification
of this annexation on the basis of the so-called " new realities
on the ground", is providing a license for further invasion and annexation
of other territory, based on creating new facts on the ground.
Similarly, the Right of Return for the Palestinian refugees to their homes
is an inalienable right based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the repeatedly reaffirmed UN Resolution #194. This is an individual
right and no authority has the right to dismiss it.
We, thus, call on our government to strongly condemn the Bush/Sharon agreement,
in recognition of our country's pride in upholding the UN Charter and
international law, and call for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Furthermore, on the basis of our obligation under Article #1 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention, we call upon our government to call for action against
the continuing Israeli violation of virtually every article of the Fourth
Geneva Convention.
Yours sincerely,
Ismail Zayid, MD.
President, Canada Palestine Association.