(Ottawa) former Liberal Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler joined thousands of Jews who called Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, to end war and famine in Gaza.
This long -standing human rights activist is a fervent supporter of Israel and has received death threats from Iran because of his support for the Jewish state as well as democracy in the world. He signed an open letter claiming that Prime Minister Netanyahu jeopardizes peace, both national and international.
“The government’s politics and rhetoric that you direct have lasting prejudice to Israel, to its reputation in the world and to the perspectives of peace for all the Israelis and the Palestinians,” said the letter.
“This has serious consequences for Israel, but also for well-being, security and unity of Jewish communities around the world. »»
The letter, written by a group called London Initiative, describes the restrictions on Israeli aid in Gaza as “moral and strategic disaster”, which offers a “propaganda victory in Hamas” and which compromises the important work to fight against Hamas and Iran.
“We are not denying the contemptible role of Hamas in the theft of aid and hindering it in its distribution, but we cannot deny the evidence that we have seen and heard as to the extent of human sufferings and the role of the policies of your government in them,” say the signatories.
The letter also denounces Israel’s inability to repress the violence of the colonists, which, according to the document, helped to feed the current “diplomatic tsunami” of criticism from its historic peers.
“If the Israeli army, on daring order on your part, can send a missile through a window to Tehran to shoot an Iranian general with infallible precision, it certainly has the capacity to maintain order in the West Bank, to prevent Jewish extremist violence, to protect Palestinian civilians and to enforce the law,” said the letter.
The document also denounces the rhetoric of the ministers of Mr. Netanyahu, which he designates as a “moral abomination and Hilloul Hashem – a desecration of Jewish values and the founding principles of Israel”.
The example of the Israeli Minister of Heritage, Amichai Eliyahu, is cited, he who declared that his government “erases Gaza” and that the territory would be entirely Jewish.
Mr. Netanyahu governs with a coalition made up of Jewish supremacist parties which invoked religion to defend policies largely perceived as ethnic cleaning.
“Members of your government have kept racist, hateful and incentive without any censorship,” you can read in the letter. Any opportunity to release all the hostages must be seized and privileged, before seeking to appease extremist members of your coalition. »»
The letter warns that this “incentive language” undermines efforts to strengthen the links of Jews with Israel and “weakens Jewish communities, while we are faced with a rise in anti -Semitic and anti -Zionist hatred”.
The letter is also signed by Canadian philanthropic Charles Bronfman, one of the founders of the Birthright program, which allows young Jews to travel to Israel.
Among the signatories listed are also eminent Canadian teachers and volunteers involved in projects like the New Israel Fund and the Herzl Project, although the letter specifies that the signatories are expressed individually and not in the name of their institutions.
Mr. Netanyahu does not seem to have responded directly to the letter since his publication a week ago, although he defended the war on Sunday, arguing that the only choice of Israel was to completely overcome Hamas.
