Yves is
an author, political analyst, and activist from Montreal. His previous
books include Canada in Haiti: Waging War on The Poor Majority (with
Anthony Fenton) and The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, which
was nominated 2009 Mavis Gallant Award.
University of Victoria
105 Harry Hickman Building
7:30 pm
Canadian foreign policy the most pro-Israel in the world, book argues.
Despite most Canadians' strong desire for this country to be an honest broker and peacekeeper in conflicts around the world, Canada's foreign policy has become the most pro-Israel in the world, says Yves Engler, author of the new book Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid, available now from Fernwood Publishing.
"Our government has taken Canada's foreign policy, which was always at least 80 per cent pro-Israel and moved it to 99.9 per cent pro-Israel at a time when the most right-wing government in the history of Israel is in power," said Engler. "I believe most Canadians will be shocked to read how one-sidedly pro-Israel Canada has been and is today."
Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid is the first critical primer about Canada's ties to Israel. It is a revealing account of Canadian complicity in 20th and 21st century colonialism, dispossession and war crimes. The book documents the history of Canadian Christian Zionism, Lester Pearson's important role in the United Nations negotiations to create a Jewish state on Palestinian land and the millions of dollars in tax-deductible donations used to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It argues that while both Liberal and Conservative governments have taken one-sided pro-Israel foreign policy stances, Canada's current foreign policy is the most pro-Israel in the world.
"Our foreign policy towards Israel flouts both the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and international law," said Engler, author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, which was nominated for the 2009 Mavis Gallant Award for non-fiction.
"Canadians of good conscience need to, first, understand and then act to change what is being done in our name."
"Yves Engler's meticulously researched volume refutes, for anyone who still believes it, the myth that Canada is or ever has been an honest broker in the Middle East. Reading Engler's work leaves one with the inescapable and sad conclusion that the essence of Canadian policy has always been support for the establishment and continued dominance of an expansionist Zionist state in the territories that now comprise Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. As a former Zionist youth leader, I thank Engler for setting the record straight and can only lament our country's historical and ongoing contribution to the tragedy enveloping the long-suffering peoples of the Promised Land, Arab and Jewish."
Yves Engler's meticulously researched book Canada and Israel:
Building Apartheid studies the question: "How did Canada become the
most pro-Israel country in the world?"
