Having to separate fact from fiction, HRC takes to the pages of the Montreal Gazette on May 8 to set the record straight on the status of east Jerusalem and the raison d’etre of Israel’s security barrier:
“Israel’s Wall was a Response to Terrorism”
Re: “East Jerusalem meeting spot showed support for Israeli policy” (Opinion, May 8)
Thomas Woodley justifies his “gall” at Foreign Affairs Minister John
Baird’s meeting with an Israeli official in Jerusalem by invoking “international instruments.” Yet, the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles signed in 1993 leaves open
the status of Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israelis and the Palestinians.
Gaza and the West Bank have never, in any legal document, been determined as sovereign Palestinian territory. UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 required that the conflict be settled by negotiation between the parties. Israel affirms its legal right to Israel and the territories by virtue of the
, the San Remo Declaration of 1923, the League of Nations instrument, Article 80 of the UN Charter and the laws of conflict. Jerusalem was divided in 1949 as a result of the Jordanian army having invaded and illegally occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem.
While Jerusalem has never been a Palestinian capital, it is the ancient capital of the Jewish people, who have a historic connection going back more than 3,000 years. Protesting a cup of coffee in Jerusalem is tantamount to adopting the Palestinian fiction that Jews have no history or rights in Jerusalem or, according to the Fatah logo, to any part of Israel, for that matter.
Mr. Woodley is right to state that “Israel alone decided on the course of the wall.” But this is because the Palestinians alone decided on the course of terrorism which claimed thousands of innocent Israeli civilians. The security barrier has reduced those deaths by 90 per cent. Still, Israeli construction of the path of the barrier can and often is, appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court and the barrier has been rerouted a number of times.
Finally, it is not the security barrier, but a glorification of war and terror against Israel, that has prevented Palestinian society from reaching its full potential. Building a Palestinian state by denying a Jewish one is neither the path to peace nor prosperity.
Michelle Whiteman
Quebec Regional Director
Honestreporting Canada
Montreal
