Is anybody paying attention?

Letters

Editor: A couple of months ago, I wrote to the Bulletin expressing some apprehensions about a newly formed, so-called peace group – the Peace Walkers Society, which is making some inroads in Vancouver. I wonder whether we have learned enough about their true agenda. This has become even more important after visiting their Web site, which opens with a picture of their founder in front of Yasser Arafat's headquarters and seeing that they were actively promoting the Nov. 17, 2002, march in support of the Iraqi people, alongside a large number of Palestinian and anti-Israel organizations.

I asked then, if they were allegedly supporters of Israel, whether they were also advertising and participating in the rally of solidarity with Israel, held two weeks after the pro-Iraqi demonstration. As I learned later, they did not promote or take part in any pro-Israel activities, which makes one wonder.

Since my letter to you, their activities have multiplied and their aims have slowly become more evident. They made a presentation at my synagogue, Har-El, and there, as at their Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC) meeting, everything was smooth and non-confrontational. They wanted, in my opinion, to make a good first impression and, more importantly, to collect a database of names and e-mail addresses to be used for their activities. It seems I was right since, over the past few weeks, e-mails from the Peace Walkers have started arriving to those on their mailing list, inviting us to participate at a five-session seminar called the Sharing Peace Workshop, hosted again by the JCC, with a dubious agenda and some strange speakers.

Once one does a little research, however, their goals become perfectly clear and the methods obvious.

The main facilitator is "journalist and author" Deborah Campbell, whose name sounded familiar to me. True enough, Campbell is a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli activist, whose book The Heated Place is the "poster child" of the CanPalNet Web site, the voice of the notorious Canada-Palestine Network, the group identified with most of the aggressive anti-Israel demonstrations all over Canada.

Why, from hundreds of qualified and balanced speakers and educators available, not even necessarily Jewish, they chose an openly pro-Arab propagandist is firstly incomprehensible, but it seems to fit into the pattern I warned about in my earlier piece.

Furthermore, according to their agenda, the same workshop has invited some unnamed "counter-culture organizations" to participate, as well as activists who have visited places such as "Israel, Palestine, Syria," in search of a "balanced approach" to the Middle East crisis. "Testimonials" about the conflict, both from Israelis and Palestinians, obviously selected by the organizers, will be featured there. It is known that many Israelis and Jews call the area Judea and Samaria, while most of the media describes it as the West Bank, with some leftists using the words "occupied territories." Only the most extreme pro-Arab groups use the word Palestine as a country, and now the Peace Walkers have joined them.

It is legitimate, therefore, to ask why such a biased, anti-Israel propaganda show is permitted and sponsored by the JCC. Have they checked the agenda, the background of the speakers, the topics of the discussion? Apparently not.

But the last "piece of evidence" was received mid-January, when the same organization invited members of Har-El, and probably others from the city, to attend a CanPalNet anti-Israel meeting at Langara College on Thursday, Feb. 6, featuring the movie Palestine is Still the Issue by John Pilger, as well as a "discussion" where the speakers are known anti-Israel activists and propagandists.

For those not familiar with Pilger, he is a writer who has called Bill Clinton a "war criminal" for attacking the Taliban in 1998, defended Saddam Hussein, and described the creation of the state of Israel as a "crime" and the result of "ethic cleansing." He even justified the Sept. 11 terror as being the consequence of American criminal, anti-Islamic activities.

When asked by one of the leaders of Har-El why the Peace Walkers Society spread the word about the movie, the answer was that it was provided to them by "Jews for a Just Peace."

And here we have the "missing link." From the Canada-Palestine Network to Jews for a Just Peace, from them to the Peace Walkers Society and, through their database, to those of us whose names and addresses they have collected so far.

Add to the mixture the blindness of the JCC and one wonders what the community at large thinks about the mission of our community centre and about its policies.

As well, I have just learned that the Peace Walkers will be addressing the children at the Beth Israel Hebrew school soon. Is anybody paying attention?

Jack Chivo
Richmond

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