Canada Park lecture condemns war crimes

A lecture at SMU got heated Monday when the organizers accused Canada of complicity to Israel's war crimes

John Reynolds (right), a human rights lawyer, wants to inform Canadians about Canada Park. (Photo: Zander Brosky)

A lecture whose title accuses Israel of war crimes is bound to be controversial. Especially if it also accuses Canada of helping in those war crimes. John Reynolds, a human rights lawyer, argued this case to 86 people at Saint Mary’s University on Monday.

Reynolds came to SMU to tell Canadians about Canada Park, which sits on the ruins of three Palestinian villages in the Latrun region: Yalo, Imwas and Beit Nuba.

Reynolds, who works for a Palestinian human rights group called Al Haq, wants the land to be returned to Palestinians.

A group called Canadians, Arabs and Jews For a Just Peace invited Reynolds to Halifax. They want to publicize human rights abuses in the Middle East.

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Ismail Zayid, one of the organizers of the lecture, hails from Beit Nuba, one of the destroyed villages upon which Canada park now sits. (Photo: Zander Brosky)

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Dr. Judy Haiven, assistant professor of management at Saint Mary's University in Halifax and founding member of Canadians, Jews and Arabs For A Just Peace, talks about her memories of the Jewish National Fund and the Canada Park controversy.

“The people of these villages were driven out, and today what stands on the ruins of these villages is the infamy that is Canada Park,” said Ismail Zayid, one of the lecture’s organizers. He is from Beit Nuba, one of the destroyed villages.

Jon Goldberg, director of the Atlantic Jewish Council, dismissed the whole affair.

“We’re not going to change what we think of [Dr. Zayid’s] fallacies and misbeliefs,” he said.

Goldberg is suspicious of Zayid’s and the other organizers’ motivations.

“As far as we’re concerned, it is the official policy of Dr. Zayid and his people to use Arab refugees as a pawn for future leverage against Israel.”

Goldberg said that lectures like the one on Monday are part of this agenda.

The villages were destroyed during the six-day war in 1967 and the park was built in 1973. The money to build the park came from Canadians who donated money to the Jewish National Fund of Canada. The fund declined to comment on Monday’s lecture.

Reynolds first gave a background of Al Haq, which means “the truth” in Arabic.

“When the organization was established…the main source of human rights violations is the Israeli army,” said Reynolds. “That remains the case today.”

Reynolds acknowledges the Palestinian Authority commits its fair share of rights violations and said his group condemns them.

Al Haq does not usually deal with issues that happened in the distant past; however, the group decided to focus on Canada Park in 2007 to mark the 40th anniversary of the occupation.

“We thought it provided a tangible link between the very start of the occupation and what happened then during the six-day war and what was continuing to happen 40 years later,” said Reynolds.

Memory Of The Cactus, the film that played after the lecture, told the story of the villages’ destruction through the eyes of its habitants. Al Haq produced the film and Monday’s lecture was the Canadian premiere.

Reynolds cautioned the audience about the film.

“It’s not meant to give the whole picture with facts and figures of what happened to everybody,” he said.

Reynolds gave the audience some of the reasons behind the destruction of the three villages.

He said the Israeli army suffered two major defeats in the 1948 War of Independence, one of which was near where Canada Park is today.

“It became something that was engrained in the Israeli military psyche that this area was important to them,” said Reynolds. “Not just strategically . . . but also out of revenge for the losses they suffered there.”

Reynolds said after the war, the Israeli military drew up a plan to occupy and destroy the villages at the first opportunity.

After the film there was a question and answer session. The moderator acknowledged this was a “hot topic” and asked everyone to “please keep all statements civil and constructive.”

The tensest moment of the session happened after Zayid took the floor.

“It is the height of audacity for any supporter of Zionism or Israel to attack the Palestinians for massacres and terrorism,” said Zayid.

At this point, a man wearing the Israeli flag walked out of the room saying, “What a bunch of hypocrites.”

The question following Zayid’s had to be cut off by an organizer because of all the shouting.

“Let’s just stick to the question so we don’t turn it into a fight,” she said.

Reynolds expects accusations like the ones the audience threw his way.

“There’s always going to be an element at these kinds of things that are here for a reason and are going to ask the questions they’re going to ask regardless of what you say,” he said.

Some felt the presentation was biased against Israel.

“They claim to be rallying peace but the whole time it was just pointing fingers at Israeli people,” said Stephanie Krezner, a Jewish student at Dalhousie. “You can’t just blame the whole situation on one side. It just doesn’t make sense and it’s never worked in the past . . . they weren’t allowing a debate to occur.”

“I think that there really could be an interesting discussion if they would let people speak and argue,” added Megan Gelmont, another Dalhousie student. Gelmont had the flag of Jerusalem wrapped around her shoulders.

Reynolds and the film will be traveling to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.

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