Canada Bill Recognizes Jewish Refugees’ Plight
Image by getty images
A Canadian lawmaker has proposed a motion in the country’s Parliament calling for formal government recognition of some 850,000 Jews forcibly displaced from Arab lands since Israel’s creation in 1948.
In his Nov. 8 motion, Liberal Parly lawmaker Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister, noted that by rejecting the United Nation’s Partition Resolution of 1947-1948, Arab states “launched their double aggression of a war against the nascent Jewish state and assaults on their own Jewish nationals, resulting in two refugee populations, Palestinian refugees and Jewish refugees from Arab countries.”
The time has come, said Cotler, “to restore the pain and plight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries to the international peace and justice narrative from which it has been eclipsed these past 60 years.”
The motion calls on Canada to recognize that since 1948, there have been more than 170 U.N. resolutions on Palestinian refugees, “yet not one resolution that makes any reference to, nor is there any expression of concern for, the plight of the 850,000 Jews displaced from Arab countries.”
It also asks that the annual Nov. 29 commemoration by the U.N. of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People “should be transformed into an International Day of Solidarity for a Two-People, Two-State Solution – as the initial 1947 Partition Resolution intended.”
Cotler wants Ottawa to recognize “that any comprehensive Middle East peace agreement must address and resolve all outstanding issues relating to the legitimate rights of all refugees, including Jews, Christians, and other populations, displaced from countries in the Middle East.”
He expressed hope that the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs will hold hearings on this matter similar to ones in the U.S. Congress, the Italian parliament, and the British Parliament, before which Cotler testified as an expert witness.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
