<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Canada’s Role in Whitewashing Ethnic Cleansing Met with&nbsp;Protests]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span class="article-details"><span class="article-detail">Tuesday February 22, 2011 16:19</span><span class="article-detail"> by Ramona M. &#8211; IMEMC &amp; Agencies</span></span></p>
<blockquote class="article-intro"><p>On Monday, Palestinian, Israeli and  international activists protested and held vigils in front of Canadian  Embassies organized by the Committee for the Defence of the Rights of  the Latrun Villages. The Committee represents residents from Palestinian  villages that were forcibly expelled from their villages by Israeli  occupying forces in 1967.</p></blockquote>
<p class="photo"><a name="attachment36581"></a> <img class="summary-image aligncenter" title="Click on image to see full-sized version" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.imemc.org/attachments/feb2011/200pxcanadaparkcropped1.jpg" alt="200pxcanadaparkcropped1.jpg" width="200" height="175" /></p>
<p class="article">The  actions were held in Ramallah in front of the Representative Office of  Canada to the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Embassy of Canada to  Israel in Tel Aviv.</p>
<p>A Memorandum to the Representative of Canada to the Palestinian  Authority in Ramallah and the Ambassador of Canada in Tel Aviv was  submitted, protesting on behalf of families of the Latrun villages.</p>
<p>The protests and vigils targeted the Canadian Embassies because of  Canada’s role in whitewashing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that  took place in 1967. It did this by helping fund the construction of a  park, “Canada Park”, on the lands of the destroyed villages. The park  currently serves as a recreational space for Israelis.</p>
<p>The Canadian arm of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) was responsible for  erecting “Canada Park”, after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. The  park is located on the land where the Palestinian villages of Imwas,  Yalo and Bayt Nuba used to be situated. The village’s residents were  uprooted and are now refugees in the West Bank and Jordan.</p>
<p>“Canada Park was planted and funded with the support of the Jewish  National Fund of Canada over the lands and over the ruins of three  ethnically-cleansed villages: Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba, occupied and  ethnically cleansed in the course and the wake of the 1967 war,” Dr. Uri  Davis told the Alternative Information Center (AIC).</p>
<p>“The ethnic cleansing was perpetrated by the Israeli army, not the JNF,  but the JNF is complicit in this crime against humanity by veiling and  covering up the crime, planting the Canada Park over the lands and over  the ruins, and presenting itself as an environmentally-friendly  organization concerned with public will and recreational welfare of all  citizens of Israel.”</p>
<p>Participants carried banners reading: “Canada Park is Complicit with a  Crime Against Humanity Perpetrated In Our Villages,” “We Demand That The  Government of Canada Recognise and Act to Implement the Rights of the  People of the Latrun Villages,” and, “We Demand the Nullification of the  Legal Status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Canada.”</p>
<p>The Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Latrun Villages has  repeatedly requested that the Representative Office of Canada to the  Palestinian Authority in Ramallah meet with the Ambassador of Canada to  Israel in Ramallah so that they can together visit the remains of the  destroyed villages over whose ruins the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has  planted &#8220;Canada Park.”</p>
<p>“Most representatives of the destroyed Latrun villages are not able to  come to Tel Aviv to meet the Ambassador, it is our request that the  Ambassador arrive in Ramallah, meet the people concerned and with a  delegation of the destroyed, ethnically cleansed villages, visit Canada  Park and submit an official report of his fact-finding to his  government,” Dr. Davis said.</p>
<p>He continued by saying, “Canada Park represents a blatant violation of  international law, but it also represents a blatant violation of  official Canadian policy condemning any intervention of settlement or  occupation or change of demographic composition or any other alteration  in the 1967 occupied territories.”</p>
<div class="article-details"><span class="article-details"> <span class="article-detail"><img class="icon" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.imemc.org/graphics/star.gif" alt="category" /> <a class="category-text" href="http://www.imemc.org/newswire/israel">israel</a> |          <a class="category-text" href="http://www.imemc.org/newswire/refugeesimmigration">refugees/immigration</a> |          <a class="category-text" href="http://www.imemc.org/newswire/newsreport">news report</a> </span></span></div>
<p class="article-photo"><a name="attachment36582"></a> <a href="http://www.imemc.org/attachments/feb2011/pc2.jpg"><img class="standard-image aligncenter" title="Click on image to see full-sized version" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.imemc.org/cache/imagecache/local/attachments/feb2011/460_0___10000000_0_0_0_0_0_pc2.jpg" alt="pc2.jpg" width="460" height="306" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imemc.org/article/60691">Canada’s Role in Whitewashing Ethnic Cleansing Met with Protests &#8211; International Middle East Media Center</a>.</p>
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