Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘activism’

It is beyond me why Israelis were surprised at what went on at the Pro-Palestinian UN conference Anti-Israel propaganda fest held in New York yesterday:

Postcards of a Palestinian child dwarfed by the Israeli fence, slide shows of Palestinian humanitarian crises allegedly caused by the fence’s construction, informational leaflets printed by the anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox group Neturei Karta, and maps of “Palestine” from the river to the sea from 1920, minus the caveat that Palestine was never a state, were all on display yesterday at UN headquarters in New York, where delegates from across the globe gathered for the International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People.

The theme of the two-day conference was “End the Occupation!”

Ridiculous allegations were also levelled against the security fence, delegates were urged to overlook and excuse Palestinian terrorism, and Rachel Corrie’s mother was called up to speak. ADL chairman Abraham Foxman wrote a letter to Kofi Annan urging him not to support this conference, which – surprise, surprise – was ignored.

And people wonder why Israel doesn’t trust the UN . . .

Protesters Hooligans are at it again on the streets of downtown Montreal:

A handful of protesters, lofting wooden boards and metal dustbins, took out their frustrations on the windows of a Burger King restaurant, the American clothing chain The Gap and Canadian clothing store Jacob.

The demonstrators, 200-strong at one point, also smashed the windshields of two cars, a Porsche and a BMW, which had been parked on the street, and shattered windows at a building occupied by Canada’s armed forces.

This protest, against the World Trade Organization meetings taking place downtown this week, was billed as “child-friendly” and organizers renounced the use of violence.

Yeah right.

About five city blocks of downtown are shut to traffic because of the security concerns associated with these demonstrations, inconveniencing people who work downtown and virtually shutting down retailers and businesses. Not to mention the damages that the rioting and destruction are incurring.

How much do you wanna bet that the protesters, a la Netanyahu-riot, will blame the WTO for “provoking” their actions and renounce all responsibility? I’d say it’s pretty much a sure thing.

Update: Well, that didn’t take long. Organizers are defending the violence:

Another organizer, Stefan Christoff, defended the violence against the stores, saying the Gap is a multinational corporation that runs sweatshops.

“These are very legitimate targets, as the WTO is a legitimate target,” said Christoff, who denounced the police presence in downtown Montreal as a militarization of the city.

Police have arrested 100 people already, including Jaggi Singh, one of Canada’s most high-profile shit-disturbers.

I swear, these news stories could’ve been written weeks in advance.

Pettigrew to communists: you’re wrong, I’m right:

The stubborn opponents of globalization are living in the past while governments fight to remove barriers that punish the poor, International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Friday.

Protesters are planning to conduct several marches in an attempt to disrupt a three-day World Trade Organization meeting that begins in Montreal on Monday.

But Pettigrew warned them they won’t succeed against tight security.

“If they want to stop us, fine, good luck,” Pettigrew told a news conference.

“I trust the police of Montreal but they (protesters) should bear the responsibility that what they’re trying to do is really to screw the African cotton farmers and the African HIV victims as well.”

Somehow I doubt the WTO protestors will be scared off by that.

Buried in today’s Gazette, taking up a tiny two columns in the middle of yet another story comparing the life of a suicide bomber to the life of one of her victims, is an AP story with perhaps the most important news in the entire conflict: Palestinians demonstrating against terrorists:

Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated Tuesday after a five-day Israeli invasion damaged farms and buildings, but in a rare twist, their wrath was directed at Palestinian militants for inviting the attack by firing rockets from their property.

Two hours after Israeli troops left, about 600 angry residents of the town of 35,000 took to the streets in a spontaneous protest, complaining that the militants had caused Israel to destroy 15 houses and uproot thousands of olive, citrus and date palm trees. It was a rare outburst; most Palestinian demonstrations are aimed at Israel.

The protesters blocked a main road with trash cans, rocks and burning tires in a show of outrage against the militants. Most of the rockets are launched at towns inside Israel by members of the militant Islamic movement, Hamas.

“They (the militants) claim they are heroes,” said Mohammed Zaaneen, 30, a farmer, as he carried rocks into the street. “They brought us only destruction and made us homeless. They used our farms, our houses and our children … to hide.”

After decades of blaming Israel for the situation that extremists in their own population and government created, a small group of Palestinians is finally facing up to the fact that peace cannot exist alongside terrorism.

Why isn’t the media jumping all over this? Why isn’t a bigger deal being made out of this enormous turning point?

Sure, it’s small. It’s one demonstration against Hamas amongst hundreds against Israel. But the seeds of change need to start small before they grow into something larger. Yesterday, 600 people demonstrated. If enough people notice and it starts a tide, maybe tomorrow, there will be 6,000, and next week 60,000.

For all of Israel’s security measures, terrorism will only be erradicated when the Palestinian people decisively state that they don’t want it. And a few of them are apparently waking up to this fact. So why isn’t this bigger news?

A jury apparently believed Jaggi Singh’s and his codefendants’ versions of the facts, because they acquitted the three activists of charges of participating in a riot:

“I had to believe we had a jury that could make a statement that it’s totally illegal and unacceptable to criminalize these people for democratically expressing their points of view,” Lescarbeau said later in an interview.

“Now, I believe we still live in a democratic society.”

If you ask me, this is the worst possible news for Singh. Now, whenever he charges that the system is corrupt, he’ll have to explain why he was given the democratic right to trial, and subsequently acquitted. If Canada was really the police state he constantly tries to make it out to be, his propaganda would play much better from a jail cell, wouldn’t it?

From this courtroom, Singh goes straight into preparation for his next trial, in Quebec City on charges of rioting at the 2001 Summit of the Americas, where I suspect we’ll be hearing more of the same defense.

Speaking of Concordia, the left’s favourite punching bag is of course Rector Frederick Lowy. He’s such an easy target for them because he’s openly Zionist – therefore he must be evil, of course (insert sarcasm here). See if you can trace this logic:

The Canadian Jewish News attributed some comments to Lowy, which alleged that the administration was going to ask the government to de-certify the CSU. This turned out to be erroneous but a coalition of “pro-Palestinian students and community activists” decided to take one of Lowy’s remarks out of context as an excuse to accuse him of their favourite charge: racism.

So by their logic, now all the students charged by the university in connection with the September 9th riots should have their charges lifted. Never mind that the sentences were handed down by a student panel, not by Lowy himself. Never mind that Lowy never actually said anything wrong – his words were twisted, that’s all. And never mind that the people charged in connection with the riot were actually guilty. Apparently, none of that matters:

Mouammar, a spokesperson for a coalition of pro-Palestinian students and community activists, is calling on the university to throw out internal complaints against students stemming from September’s protests against former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She said Arab students in the protest were punished more harshly than non-Arabs.

More unsubstantiated charges of racism. That’s their favourite tactic, it seems. When in doubt, find a Zionist to accuse of racism. It helps if he’s also a white male and a capitalist, preferably in a position of power. Never fails, right?

Montreal’s favourite whining activist poster-boy, Jaggi Singh, is still dancing the “I’m innocent” speech in front of a jury. Charged with participating in a riot outside the G20 summit in 2000, Singh has been defending himself, levelling the usual leftist allegations of police bias and brutality, a corrupt system, and the old standby, “it’s not fair!”:

Singh, who is representing himself, suggested he was “No. 1″ on a list of 12 photos being circulated by police in part because he was critical of police actions at earlier anti-globalization protests.

Or perhaps it was because he’d participated in and instigated riots before? Nah! Couldn’t be! The police – which everyone knows are just tools of capitalist oppression – must have been out to get him (and his co-defendants).

Anyone notice how at every single one of these so-called “protests” that wind up turning into riots, everyone who is arrested claims police corruption and brutality? Or that they all maintain charges should be dropped against them simply because everyone else wasn’t arrested, too?

If this is sounding an awful lot like the Concordia riots, well, surprise, surprise, many of the same people – including Jaggi Singh – were at that one too. And of course, he was the first to claim police brutality when arrested for ignoring a court-order on a rabble-rousing trip to Israel. Arrests – and counter-charges of police brutality – seem to follow this guy around like glue. But I suppose it’s all coincidence, right? Or maybe just an oppressive capitalist ploy.

After all, how dare anyone criminalize rioting?

Singh’s case is due to go to the jury for deliberation today. It remains to be seen whether they buy into the tapdance. The smart money says they probably will.

Well, this is a bald threat if I’ve ever heard one: The SPHR and other activist groups are threatening a protest that will “make the September 9 protest look like nothing” in order to voice their displeasure with the election of Evolution to the CSU:

In an attempt to send a message to the both the administration and to already beleaguered students, activist groups are planning to stage a massive protest, one prominent student politician tells me. At issue is the policy of the new Executive to put activism second and academics first. The act of civil disobedience will apparently “make the September 9 protest look like nothing. They will take over the entire Hall Building.” What’s more, people will be flown in from outside of the country “to do the dirty work.”

My source, who has strong contacts with many student associations (including the SPHR), assures me that this protest will take place sometime in the early fall, and that it will “show that only CSU slates that support activism will be able to maintain order at Concordia.” “People should have voted for Clean Slate,” he says, “because they support activism. The message is that Concordia is about activism.”

This is the way these people operate. They hail democracy as long as it works in their favour. But if students democratically elect people they disagree with, they try to blackmail the students by threatening violence.

Absolutely disgusting. Not too surprising, though.

(Via Wordniness).

Update: Having posted this on the Link’s website, in a response by Adam Slater, he seems to suggest that this may not be true. Well, I can’t confirm or deny it one way or the other. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. But, like I wrote in response to Mr. Slater, there’s only one way to find out: if there’s a riot in September, then I guess it’s true. Although I’m sure the SPHR cronies will maintain that “the Zionists started it”, like they did after September 9th.

A group of students from the high school down the street from me got to miss class time to protest the war in Iraq. Understandably, parents are incensed – but, in my opinion, for the wrong reason:

Theresa Leblanc was appalled to learn that her daughter spent her time in art class on Monday at École secondaire Des Sources making anti-war posters while students were ridiculing U.S. President George W. Bush.

Then when she heard the posters were for an anti-war march that would take place during school hours, she hit the roof.

“I’m just up in arms,” said Leblanc, who has a nephew in the U.S. marines, fighting in Iraq.

“This is such a lack of respect. You can have a debate but it’s another thing to have a demonstration like this during school time. It’s appalling.”

Another parent, who didn’t want to be named, said she was also furious when one of her two daughters said she had been forced to make posters.

She, too, was unhappy about a demonstration during school time. “My girls missed physics and French – that’s more important than a march.”

It’s not as though it’s a big sacrifice for most high school students to miss class time. We used to invent any reason we could think of, from play practices to charity walkathons, all in effort to spend as few hours as possible behind a desk.

But this crosses the line, since it is essentially pressuring the students into all thinking the same way. While the Gazette reports that “students who didn’t want to participate in the march had the option of attending a debate on the Iraqi situation”, I bet I know exactly what form that so-called “debate” took.

I’m sure there were students who wanted to demonstrate because they read up on the issues and formed educated political opinions. But I’m also sure that there were equally as many who did not. Consider the following quote by one of the organizers:

“I’m against killing innocent people,” said Grade 11 student Ruba Al Karan. “Saddam (Hussein) did a lot of stupid things but Bush is no better.”

Other students spoke of U.S.-bashing going on while the students used their time in art class to draw up posters.

High school can be a difficult time for students with dissenting opinions. There’s an incredible amount of pressure to follow the crowd. Not to mention, about half the students at the school had probably never taken a history course in their lives. Students are entitled to their opinions, but this was incredibly inappropriate.

Today, several pro-American and pro-war in Iraq rallies were held across Canada, the largest of which in Ottawa attracted over 5,000 people:

(Peter) Goldring said the fact that people were marching in favor of the United States on Saturday showed that a “silent majority” actually supported the war.

“We do have a new world reality following Sept. 11, and the new world reality says that we must go to root out terrorism,” he said.

More rallies are scheduled for next week, including a massive one in downtown Toronto on Friday. It’s about time that we Canadians spoke out in support of our friend and ally south of the border, who keeps doing our dirty work for us time and time again while we keep our noses clean and then criticize them.