Canada's political, corporate, and media elite have shown unanimous support for Israel's assault on Gaza. @thebreachmedia has exposed this support through various pieces. They discuss the Canadian government's longstanding one-sided backing of Israeli aggression, the Israeli Consulate's manipulation of Canadian public opinion, Stephen Harper's involvement in boosting Israeli companies, and the criminalization of Palestine solidarity. They also highlight the biased media coverage and disproportionate attention given to Israeli deaths. The team at @thebreachmedia is dedicated to shedding light on these issues despite limited resources. Sign up for their newsletter to support their journalism.
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@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
As Canadaās political, corporate, and media elite have unanimously mobilized support for Israelās murderous assault on Gaza, we at @thebreachmedia have tried to expose their efforts as best we can.
Hereās 10 of our pieces from the last three months. š§µ
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
We did a historical overview of the Canadian governmentās longstanding support for Israel.
Far from being an even-handed honest broker in the Middle East, it has been a one-sided backer of Israeli aggression as a junior partner to the United States.
Video Transcript AI Summary
Canada's strong support for Israel is highlighted, with mentions of selling weapons, backing them at the UN, and offering special trade access. The relationship between the two countries is attributed to their shared values as settler colonial states and their alignment with the United States. Canada has historically assisted US interests in the Middle East, and their policies are shaped by this superpower. The transcript also mentions Canada's role in supporting Israel at the UN and their refusal to deal with the PLO until much later. The Canadian government's extreme support for Israel under Prime Minister Stephen Harper is noted, along with their decision to cut off aid to the Palestinian authority after Hamas was elected. The transcript concludes by mentioning the divergence between public opinion and the government's stance, with a growing movement calling for decolonization, respect for international law, and justice and peace for all.
Speaker 0: We stand with Israel.
Speaker 1: We stand by Israel. Canada stands with Israel. As pulverizes the Palestinians in Gaza, it's more clear than ever. Canada has become one of Israel's most extreme supporters. They sell Israel weapons.
They back them at the UN. They offer them special trade access. They even serenade their leaders. Someone obviously didn't tell Stephen Harper what Jude means in German. So what explains this relationship?
Speaker 0: That's right.
Speaker 1: In 2005, liberal prime minister Paul Martin put it this way. Israel's values are Canada's values. They are indeed the values of settler colonial states. Both cleared the land of indigenous peoples to make room for dealers, both imposed entrenched that land theft with police or military violence. They shit that Both signed one-sided treaties to normalize this inequality on the ground.
And both offer tearful apologies, but won't stop committing their crimes. While like recognizes like, the policies of Israel and Canada are fundamentally shaped by a far greater superpower. The United states of America, since Israel's foundation, Canada has assisted US interests in the Middle East. Backing a strong client state to help control the region's oil and keep Arab nationalism in check. During the deliberations over the partition of Canadian diplomats took the American lead.
We will have nothing to say until after the United States has spoken. In the 19 fifties, the US wanted to sell fighter jets wanted to sell fighter jets to Israel, but were worried about their support being visible. So Canada sold it for them instead. Ladies and gentlemen, the Royal Canadian Air Force proudly present Over the following decades, Canada voted so often with Israel and America at the UN, that it developed a reputation as their 2nd BFF. In some cases, Canada outdid even the US.
By the 1980s, most of the world had recognized the PLO as the palestinian's official representatives at the UN. When US president Ronald Reagan indicated that they too would open contact, Ottawa refused. Making them the last country apart from Israel to formally deal with the PLO. In 1993, the US with Canada by its side presented themselves as peace brokers. Helping ink the Oslo peace accords.
The so called peace process wasn't intended to create an independent Palestinian state. It was intended to create as former Israeli foreign minister, Shlomo Benami acknowledged a permanent neocolonialist dependency. Back at home, Canada spy agency targeted Palestinian activists who oppose this development. Canada began pouring tens of millions into a corrupt Palestinian authority who managed the occupation on Israel's behalf. With Canadian and US backing, a Palestinian security force more accountable to Israel and its own people would soon crack down on descent.
They also inked a free trade agreement that recognized Palestinian territory as de facto part of Israel, billions in trade ensued. Canadian companies built the Israeli Air Force's communication system and components for bombers and helicopters, unmanned drones and maritime patrol aircraft, surveillance systems and body armor. They've even helped build the highways used by Israeli settlers that are off limits to Palestinians. Trading what Israeli human rights group at Salem, calls a regime of apartheid. Under conservative prime minister, Steven Harper, Canada started out doing the US once again in their extreme support for Israel.
Speaker 0: Given a warm welcome at the Knesset, even given the key to Israel's parliament.
Speaker 1: And when Palestinians in Gaza voted for Hamas in fair and free elections in 2006, Canada became the 1st country in the world to cut off aid to the Palestinian authority. To teach them a lesson for doing democracy the wrong way. Canada's votes at the UN by this point were so one-sided That even government officials complained in private. Voting against the majority of these resolutions, while welcomed by Israel and the US, has been perceived as unfouled by the Palestinians, the Arab nations, and the g 77 plus China. Today, as the Israeli state engages once again in open ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Gaza, Canada continues to parrot what the US says quite literally The blast killed hundreds of people yesterday.
This morning, president Biden said intelligence appears to show
Speaker 0: it was, quote, done by the other team, meaning Palestinian militants.
Speaker 1: Does he agree with president Biden that the offending missile originated with terrorists in Gaza.
Speaker 0: It means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes. Canada supports humanitarian pauses In order to protect civilians.
Speaker 1: The good news is that public opinion in Canada now strongly diverges from our government. 3 out of 4 Canadians want Canada to oppose the Israeli annexation of Palestinian land. And nearly half want Canada to impose economic or diplomatic sanctions against Israel. A growing movement is connecting the dots. Calling for decolonization at home and abroad.
Respect for international law. An end to military violence and most important of all, land back, that would break Canada free of the US empire. And help achieve justice and peace for all.
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
We exposed how the Israeli Consulate in Toronto worked with a Liberal ādirty-tricks manā to try to cook Canadian public opinion about Israelās war on Gaza.
A group of Liberal insiders then plotted to use the poll to shape the Liberal government's thinking
https://breachmedia.ca/israeli-consulate-backed-aurora-strategies-poll-gaza/
In ācovert op,ā Israeli consulate backed poll inflating support for Gaza war ā The BreachLiberal insiders strategized to use poll to āinform thinkingā in prime ministerās office, messages showbreachmedia.ca
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
We investigated how Stephen Harper is leading a firm thatās boosting Israeli companiesāa ācontinuationā of his extreme support for Israel as prime minister.
Itās poured hundreds of millions into Israeli spy and security techābenefiting the Israeli army. https://breachmedia.ca/stephen-harper-awz-ventures-surveillance-tech-israel/
Stephen Harper's firm pours $350M into developing military tech for Israel ā The BreachCanadian money helped develop high-tech tools like ābehaviour recognitionā then used in Israelbreachmedia.ca
In stunning pre-dawn raids, Toronto police āterrorizeā Palestine activists ā The BreachAfter operation that policing expert say may have cost 'seven figures', Toronto police pursuing hate-crime charges against activists who postered Indigobreachmedia.ca
Naomi Klein to Heather Reisman: Charges must be dropped against Indigo 11 ā The BreachThe extraordinary raids, arrests and property seizures of Palestine solidarity activists represent an extreme attack on political speech not seen in a generationbreachmedia.ca
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
Canadaās media has always been awash in dehumanization, double standards, and denial of Palestinian realitiesābut more people are waking up to it.
Weāve tried to contribute to this awakening with a series of empirical studies and investigations.
https://breachmedia.ca/cbc-the-national-more-israelis-than-palestinians-gaza/
CBC featured more Israelis even as Palestinian casualties rose, data shows ā The BreachPublic broadcaster barred employees from sharing outside journalism about Gaza, contradicting CBCās general policybreachmedia.ca
CTV reports on Gaza with anti-Palestinian double standard, data shows ā The BreachCTV National News featured disproportionately more Israeli voices than Palestinian ones in the last monthbreachmedia.ca
CTV forbids use of āPalestine,ā suppresses critical stories about Israel ā The BreachThe media conglomerate that runs CTV, CP24 and BNN Bloomberg is distorting the truth about Israelās violence in Gaza, its own journalists saybreachmedia.ca
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
We crunched the data on thousands of sentences in Canadaās major newspapers and found disproportionate attention, humanization, and outrage for the deaths of Israelis.
Itās the the editorial trickle down effect of deep anti-Palestinian bias. https://breachmedia.ca/palestinian-deaths-canadian-newspapers-data/
Palestinian deaths count for less in Canadaās newspapers. Data proves it ā The BreachAn analysis of thousands of sentences in Canadaās top newspapers shows a clear bias that serves to sanitize Palestiniansā deathsbreachmedia.ca
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
(Ok, toddler asleep, back to the list)
Our podcast has gone deeper on history: Canada playing right-hand man to the British and US empire on Middle East policy & feds trying to undermine the ICC and ICJās attempts to secure justice for Palestinians.
https://breachmedia.ca/theshow
The Breach Show ā The Breachbreachmedia.ca
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
We tried a more literary style in this video narrative.
It tries to communicate something of the supremacist mentality that has driven Israel to genocidal intent against the Palestinians.
Video Transcript AI Summary
In 2009, the speaker visited Gaza after a devastating bombardment. They met generous people who had faced immense challenges. The speaker described the border between Israel and Gaza, highlighting the stark contrast between the two sides. They shared their personal experience with the Israeli border, emphasizing the casual misogyny they encountered. The speaker recalled a conversation with an Israeli official who claimed they would save the speaker's life because they were Jewish. This interaction conveyed a worldview of patriarchy, victim becoming victimizer, and the ranking of human life based on power. The speaker criticized Israel's response to attacks, describing it as retribution and collective punishment. They argued that this mindset reflects supremacy and the violent logic of colonialism. The speaker called for a fight for life and the right to live with decency. The current violence should remind us of these fundamental truths.
Speaker 0: This is not just exceptionalism. The only word for it is supremacy. I've been to Gaza. It was in 2009. It was 6 months after the devastating bombardment that they called operation cast led.
It was confusing that they let us in Because I was traveling with my partner, Naomi Klein, and also with us was our friend, Cecily Seraski. The people we met, The extraordinary generosity, the level of discussion around the most magnificent dinner tables with people who had Massive challenges putting together those meals, I have no doubt. We met Gazans who had lost their entire family in a single explosion. It was a brutal foreshadowing of the situation today in which most of Northern Gaza and vast swaths of the south, The built environment and the civil infrastructure of Gaza have been just leveled. So between Israel and Gaza, there was a wide scrubby no man's land with a chain link fenced in corridor.
At one end was Israel, the era's checkpoint, which is like a mammoth concrete structure that was built to process At least 10,000 Palestinian workers a day, except that Gaza was put under siege and the cheap labor was mostly locked on the other side of the wall. At the other And was the Gaza side where the border was a shipping container, empty except for a battered desk with the 2 guys behind it And a metal chair where I sat for about 45 minutes as they questioned me. It was tense and it was scary. Mostly, they were stuck on the fact I had a Canadian passport but an Israeli name, and they were utterly uninterested in the 2 women that I was traveling with. And eventually they kinda let us through.
My experience with the Israeli border was as Asymmetric as the 2 structures themselves. And I won't tell you the long version, but after many many hours of waiting in a concrete maze Outside an elevator with no call button, we were let in to be processed. It was like being the only travelers in a giant empty airport. Once again, the officials showed almost no interest in Naomi and Sesile. The casual misogyny was the thread that connected The 2 very different experiences.
I was taken up to the very top floor of the facility, down corridor after corridor to a corner office Where I was introduced to the commander of the entire checkpoint is a brigadier general, if I recall correctly, who took me to the window And pointed out at a squadron of tanks that was moving around in formation. And he said, we know you don't like us. You're against what we do. But do you have any idea how much danger you are in going in there? We were mobilizing a whole army division To go into Gaza and rescue you.
Yeah. Even though you hate us, we would still save your life because you are a Jew. Because you are a Jew. And I've been processing those 4 words for about 14 years. It didn't help when he added, And keep your woman under control.
She's gonna get herself in trouble one of these days. A whole worldview Was transmitted in that short exchange. Patriarchy? Check. The victim become victimizer?
Check. The power of Those with the biggest guns to rank human life who matters and who doesn't. Check. The message to me has become clearer and clearer over the years. He was telling me that my life had intrinsic value.
That I was special. That I was worth a huge amount. That I would be protected. Resources would be mobilized. Lives would be risked because my life, my Jewish life, was so precious.
Even as a dissident who denied my birthright, I was among the chosen. And that's the same message that Israel has been sending in response to those gruesome attacks And murders of civilians on October 7th. The apocalyptic fury of retribution and collective punishment. On one level, it's just to send that message that Israel will take 10 Palestinian lives for every Israeli life taken. That's the exchange rate.
This is not just exceptionalism. The only word for it is supremacy. A worldview that sees some human beings as inherently valuable while others are less than human. Human animals as Israel's defense minister said. Children of light versus children of darkness as its prime minister said.
It's the violent logic of colonialism. It's the logic that leads to genocide. Massive demonstration. We're a fight for life, for the right of all beings to live a life of decency. Those are the existential stakes of our struggle.
And the current violence and its ripples around the world Have to reground us in that basic truth.
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
We've also tried to take readers inside the organizing of right-wing Israel lobby group CIJA, which has never been more brazen about trying to use false charges of antisemitism as a battering ram against the movement for Palestinian liberation.
https://breachmedia.ca/anti-zionism-semitism-canada-lobbying/
Lobby group pushes Canada to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism ā The BreachPro-Israel conference in Ottawa aired racist tropes about Palestinians and aimed to delegitimize criticism of Israeli state policybreachmedia.ca
@Martin_Lukacs - Martin Lukacs
Weāre a tiny team with few resources (last I checked, the salary of the Globeās publisher was double our entire annual budget).
Itās a big help if you sign up to our free newsletter to receive our journalism (and the odd pitch to throw us a few dollars): https://breachmedia.ca/subscribe/
