The Palestinians leading the Oslo negotiations thought they were impressing the world with their eagerness to compromise by making a massive concession in accepting the establishment of a Palestinian state on only 22% of historic Palestine. This is half of what the United Nations gave Palestinians in the UN General Assembly Partition Plan of 1947.After thirty years, it became evident that the “dream” of establishing a Palestinian state through the Oslo agreement was merely a nightmare with continued Israeli military occupation. It has become evident that the Oslo Accords did no more than consolidate the Israeli occupation, as the Accords did not include the discontinuation of Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories.

 Israelis of Ethiopian origin have lived in the country for years. Some of them made the long journey from Ethiopia to Israel 30 or 40 years ago, while others were born in Israel to Ethiopian-born parents. Yet many of them feel that Israeli society still treats them as outsiders, making their integration difficult.

Despite Canada’s official policy that it “does not recognize Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem,” it is also evidently not concerned about changing facts on the ground. Canada maintains that “the status of Jerusalem can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute.” 

Shortly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Chrystia Freeland to the portfolio of Minister for Foreign Affairs, the U.S. State Department triumphantly crowed, by way of a now declassified memorandum, that Canada had adopted an ‘America first foreign policy’. The memo can be viewed on the U.S. State department web site with the subject line ‘Canada Adopts America First Foreign Policy