A pro-Palestinian group protested a fundraising event in Toronto where the former PM was the guest of honour
Jun 15, 2023
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was the guest of honor at the annual fundraising event of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Research, held last night in Toronto.
Outside the building where the event was held, dozens of pro-Palestinian activists gathered to protest against the arrival of the “war criminal” Bennett in Canada. The demonstrators, who waved Palestinian Liberation Organization flags and wore the traditional Palestinian Arab headscarf, chanted slogans in support of the Palestinian Arab struggle against Israel.
One of the speakers at the demonstration said that during Bennett’s tenure as Prime Minister, the Israeli authorities were involved in the theft of Palestinian Arab lands. He declared that the injustice caused to the Palestinian Arabs will not last forever, and that the Palestinian Arabs have the right to return to their homeland and become citizens with equal rights.
The demonstration was backed by a Palestinian Arab youth movement that operates in North America and regularly expresses support for the armed struggle against Israel. Representatives of a radical Jewish leftist organization that identifies with the Palestinian Arab struggle also participated in the demonstration.
Prior to the event, lawyers representing Canadian-Palestinian organizations, as well as a Jewish organization, submitted a petition on their behalf to the Canadian government to prevent Bennett’s entry into the country. The petition was based on Canadian law which states that the federal government has an international and legal duty to prevent the entry of people who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.
In this context, it was noted that Bennett was involved in “the development of the settlements in the West Bank”. This assertion is based on a report by Peace Now, according to which “construction in settlements in the West Bank increased significantly during his tenure as prime minister, and he supported the eviction of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem to settle Jews settle in their place.”
The petition asserted that the Canadian government does not recognize Israeli control over Judea and Samaria, and in its opinion and according to international law the settlements are a war crime.
It is also claimed that Bennett also has a history of violence and racism, in light of his involvement in the deaths of 102 Lebanese citizens in Qana in 1996 and his public call to kill Palestinian Arabs during a confrontation with IDF forces. According to the text of the letter, in response to the words of National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror who said that this was illegal, Bennett replied that he had killed many Arabs and he had no problem with that.
SOURCE : Bennett denounced as ‘war criminal’ in Toronto | ערוץ 7 (israelnationalnews.com)
