Less is more?
This just in...
My fifth letter to the PM's office, this one dated Jan 8, 2024:
Dear Prime Minister,
Sadly, after Canada’s belated decision to vote for ceasefire in Gaza in the UN General Assembly, you then soon oversaw Canada’s inclusion in the Prosperity Guardian maritime coalition and Canada’s vote in the UN against a resolution requiring Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 lines.
Such contradictory symbolic moves read as two-facedness, lack of integrity, or an attempt to placate through meaningless gesture both sides of a very divisive issue. They placate nobody.
The anti-Palestinian human rights diplomacy also again puts Canada on the wrong side of history. 80% of the people around the globe designated by the World Food Program as suffering extreme famine are now in Gaza. Through mealy-mouthed word and complicit deed we are supporting a genocidal regime that is blocking food, fuel, water, and electricity from 2 million civilians. I can’t even imagine one day of being unable to feed my child – let alone three months.
What right do you have, as our elected leader, to make all Canadians complicit in this horror?
For weeks now we have known and seen footage of Gazan children having limbs amputated without anesthetics. We are losing any soft power we may have had, any semblance of being ‘a medium power punching above its weight’ that upholds Canadian values.
There is no longer any doubt as to what is going on. From Jimmy Carter and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to Israeli historians and the statements of South African leaders, conclusive evidence establishes Israel as an apartheid state. 9 pages of the 84-page South African filing to the International Court of Justice lists the genocidal statements of Israeli leaders. The full document painstakingly and comprehensively sets out how multiple forms of genocide are being enacted in Gaza.
I am already deeply ashamed over Canada’s horrific history devastating the First Peoples of this land. If we can’t learn and stand up against genocide now, how can we claim any authenticity in Truth and Reconciliation work? Who will we be, as a nation? Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich recently stated that he wants to remove 90% of the Gazan population so Israelis could settle Gaza. Are we really, as Canadians, going to look away, abandoning any pretense of atoning for our part in colonial atrocities?
We are slow walking into a regional conflagration in West Asia because nobody is putting a stop to Israel’s longstanding impunity. Nobody can claim they are unaware of already recordbreaking numbers of children killed, journalists killed, UN workers killed, and indiscriminate bombing in three months that surpasses the WWII destruction of Dresden across years.
This is a defining moment requiring moral leadership. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has welcomed the South African filing. Türkiye, a NATO ally, has issued a statement in support of the application. Please have the courage of Canadians’ deep-rooted convictions. Support South Africa and file a similar ICJ application. We have a duty under international law to prevent genocide.
We, the electorate, are watching. We are waiting. We are hoping.
We are hoping that your grandchildren will look back at this moment with pride. Please do the right thing.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah
>> This formerly in...
Just so I am on the record: my October 29th, 2023, letter to Ambassador Robert (formerly Bob) Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations:
Dear Ambassador:
I am writing to express my disappointment over Canada's recent abstention at the UN General Assembly on A/ES-10/L.25, the resolution calling for a humanitarian truce and unhindered provision of of aid and rejection of forced transfer of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
[my work experience in forced displacement]. Consequently, I cannot even fathom the pain of Palestinian families who have been dispossessed of their land, been under blockade for 17 years, are undergoing their 6th war in that time, have 40% of their housing devastated, and have nowhere to flee while facing US-supplied bombs.
How is it that Canada, lauded for Lester B. Pearson's peacebuilding initiatives and for its instrumental role in developing the Responsibility to Protect and the Ottawa Landmine Ban Treaty, is now standing in silence in the face of collective punishment and ethnic cleansing in Gaza? In what way was Canada's failed effort to include language condemning violence by Hamas but not equally condemning violence by the Israeli state in that resolution reflective of a consistent application of Canadian values working for a just peace?
I thank you for your prior work calling for a coordinated foreign policy response to natural disaster infrastructure and forced displacement needs globally; however, I am appalled by your recent stance on Palestinian human rights. I am ashamed that Canada is now on the record as being on the wrong side of history, that we have not stood up for the 70% refugee, 50% child population in Gaza who are, like George Floyd, dying before the world's eyes. I do not think there is any justification for enabling war crimes, whatever the provocation.
I call on you to hold to the principles of equality and justice - that all lives are equal - in all your future positions as Canada's Permanent Representative to the UN. I call on you to firmly reject 'fighting terrorism' as a figleaf for war crimes. As you have stated in the past, there was no legal justification for the invasion of Iraq. Likewise, there is no legal justification now for Israel's bombardment and deadly blockade of over 2 million civilians. Please reply to this letter and affirm that you will promulgate Canadian values consistently from now on, so we can all sleep at night.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Kamal
[my address]
Dear Prime Minister,
Sadly, after Canada’s belated decision to vote for ceasefire in Gaza in the UN General Assembly, you then soon oversaw Canada’s inclusion in the Prosperity Guardian maritime coalition and Canada’s vote in the UN against a resolution requiring Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 lines.
Such contradictory symbolic moves read as two-facedness, lack of integrity, or an attempt to placate through meaningless gesture both sides of a very divisive issue. They placate nobody.
The anti-Palestinian human rights diplomacy also again puts Canada on the wrong side of history. 80% of the people around the globe designated by the World Food Program as suffering extreme famine are now in Gaza. Through mealy-mouthed word and complicit deed we are supporting a genocidal regime that is blocking food, fuel, water, and electricity from 2 million civilians. I can’t even imagine one day of being unable to feed my child – let alone three months.
What right do you have, as our elected leader, to make all Canadians complicit in this horror?
For weeks now we have known and seen footage of Gazan children having limbs amputated without anesthetics. We are losing any soft power we may have had, any semblance of being ‘a medium power punching above its weight’ that upholds Canadian values.
There is no longer any doubt as to what is going on. From Jimmy Carter and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to Israeli historians and the statements of South African leaders, conclusive evidence establishes Israel as an apartheid state. 9 pages of the 84-page South African filing to the International Court of Justice lists the genocidal statements of Israeli leaders. The full document painstakingly and comprehensively sets out how multiple forms of genocide are being enacted in Gaza.
I am already deeply ashamed over Canada’s horrific history devastating the First Peoples of this land. If we can’t learn and stand up against genocide now, how can we claim any authenticity in Truth and Reconciliation work? Who will we be, as a nation? Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich recently stated that he wants to remove 90% of the Gazan population so Israelis could settle Gaza. Are we really, as Canadians, going to look away, abandoning any pretense of atoning for our part in colonial atrocities?
We are slow walking into a regional conflagration in West Asia because nobody is putting a stop to Israel’s longstanding impunity. Nobody can claim they are unaware of already recordbreaking numbers of children killed, journalists killed, UN workers killed, and indiscriminate bombing in three months that surpasses the WWII destruction of Dresden across years.
This is a defining moment requiring moral leadership. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has welcomed the South African filing. Türkiye, a NATO ally, has issued a statement in support of the application. Please have the courage of Canadians’ deep-rooted convictions. Support South Africa and file a similar ICJ application. We have a duty under international law to prevent genocide.
We, the electorate, are watching. We are waiting. We are hoping.
We are hoping that your grandchildren will look back at this moment with pride. Please do the right thing.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah
>> This formerly in...
Just so I am on the record: my October 29th, 2023, letter to Ambassador Robert (formerly Bob) Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations:
Dear Ambassador:
I am writing to express my disappointment over Canada's recent abstention at the UN General Assembly on A/ES-10/L.25, the resolution calling for a humanitarian truce and unhindered provision of of aid and rejection of forced transfer of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
[my work experience in forced displacement]. Consequently, I cannot even fathom the pain of Palestinian families who have been dispossessed of their land, been under blockade for 17 years, are undergoing their 6th war in that time, have 40% of their housing devastated, and have nowhere to flee while facing US-supplied bombs.
How is it that Canada, lauded for Lester B. Pearson's peacebuilding initiatives and for its instrumental role in developing the Responsibility to Protect and the Ottawa Landmine Ban Treaty, is now standing in silence in the face of collective punishment and ethnic cleansing in Gaza? In what way was Canada's failed effort to include language condemning violence by Hamas but not equally condemning violence by the Israeli state in that resolution reflective of a consistent application of Canadian values working for a just peace?
I thank you for your prior work calling for a coordinated foreign policy response to natural disaster infrastructure and forced displacement needs globally; however, I am appalled by your recent stance on Palestinian human rights. I am ashamed that Canada is now on the record as being on the wrong side of history, that we have not stood up for the 70% refugee, 50% child population in Gaza who are, like George Floyd, dying before the world's eyes. I do not think there is any justification for enabling war crimes, whatever the provocation.
I call on you to hold to the principles of equality and justice - that all lives are equal - in all your future positions as Canada's Permanent Representative to the UN. I call on you to firmly reject 'fighting terrorism' as a figleaf for war crimes. As you have stated in the past, there was no legal justification for the invasion of Iraq. Likewise, there is no legal justification now for Israel's bombardment and deadly blockade of over 2 million civilians. Please reply to this letter and affirm that you will promulgate Canadian values consistently from now on, so we can all sleep at night.
Yours Sincerely,
Sarah Kamal
[my address]
Contact
home (at) sarahkamal (dot) com
www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmaykamal
home (at) sarahkamal (dot) com
www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmaykamal