A Canadian resident with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took to the stage in Ottawa recently, where expressed his support for arming Palestinians and took aim at the Canadian government for designating groups like Hamas and Hezbollah as "terrorists."
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Speaking on June 3 at the "International League of People's Struggles in Canada" conference, Khaled Barakat sought to blame Israel for Palestinian violence.
"Palestinian resistance are manufacturing missiles today because that's the only way they left us is to have a strong resistance, and those who don't want us to have armed struggle can please tell us how we can achieve our right when we couldn't achieve it by any other means possible," he said. "So really armed struggle is an option Israel chose for us, we didn't choose it."
Barakat lives in Vancouver with his wife Charlotte Kates, who runs Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which the Israeli Defense Ministry considers a terrorist organization.
During the event, which was held at a city-owned community center, Kates claimed that Jewish groups – calling out B'nai Brith Canada and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs by name – tried to shut down the event because they were hoping to silence the voices of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
She praised a group of six Palestinians who escaped from Israel's Gilboa Prison last September, claiming it showed the "regime of Zionism is not impenetrable … Palestine from the river to the sea is a right we stand with."
The men, who were apprehended within days and were members of either the Palestinian Islamic Jihad or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, were all serving life sentences for terror attacks on Israelis.
During his talk, Barakat also took aim at the government and its Foreign Terrorist List, which include Hezbollah and Hamas, asking why Israel isn't on it along with Arab groups that have murdered Canadians.
"We challenge the Canadian government, and we say why are you listing, for example, the Popular Front on your terrorist list? What did the PFLP do against Canada or Canadian interests, or commit any crime against Canada here or abroad? Zero. Nothing.
"Yet Hamas is on the terrorist list. We have to ask these questions and mobilize in order to erase this shame – this list is the so-called terrorist list – it has to be abolished. … We aren't going to shy away and say we don't support the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance."
And for what, he added, so Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "can like us?"
Becca Wertman-Traub, director of Research at CIJA said, "We are concerned by remarks made by speakers at the ILPS conference that took place at a venue that is under the jurisdiction of the City of Ottawa. Some of those remarks incite hatred against the Jewish community.
"CIJA and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa will continue to engage directly with the city and ensure in future they apply their own guidelines, and not provide a platform to groups or individuals that have links to organizations that are designated by Canada as terrorists."
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
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