Anonymous

US Aid to Israel: How Much is Your Share?

February 21, 2010 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

From: www.aidtoisrael.org

How Much Military Aid to Israel…

…Do You Provide?

How Much Military Aid to Israel…

…Do You Provide?

Between 2009-2018, the United States is scheduled to give Israel–the largest recipient of U.S. aid–$30 billion in military aid. Through its illegal 42-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, Israel misuses U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. law to kill and injure Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian civilian infrastructure, blockade the Gaza Strip, and build illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem.

How much of this total will your community provide? Is this a good use of your tax dollars? What else could your taxes be used for in your community? Find out on the interactive map below.

How much of this total will your community provide? Is this a good use of your tax dollars? What else could your taxes be used for in your community? Find out on thid interactive map:

Aid To Israel

Simply click on your state to find out how much it’s 2009-2018 budget is going directly to provide military aid to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
You can even search data for your county, congressional district, and city by clicking on “US Regions” on the left (next to the up arrow).

This may seem especially infuriating right now; it being tax season and all… Want to know how much the average tax payer will pay in military aid to Israel in 2010? Well, if we take Obama’s FY2011 budget request of $3 billion in military aid to Israel and divide it by the 156,297,000 individual tax filings reported to the IRS, the number is $19.19. That’s $19.19 in military aid that you will be paying to Israel this year. So get your checkbooks ready!

And this is just military aid; this doesn’t include economic grants, immigrant grants, schools and hospital grants, and other aid. That means, this year $19.19 of every American tax payer’s income will directly fund and aid in the brutal, deadly, military occupation of Palestine.

Now the question is…

…what are we going to do about it?

Resist 2010: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics (VIDEO)

February 18, 2010 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games officially kicking off this past weekend, it’s important to look past all the glitz and glamour being portrayed in the mainstream media and get right down to the behind-the-scenes corruption, deceit, and destruction taking place in Vancouver.

The Olympics are not about the human spirit and have little to do with athletic excellency; they are a multi-billion dollar industry backed by powerful elites, real estate, construction, hotel, tourism and television corporations, working hand in hand with their partners in crime: government officials & members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The video below is an excellent short film (appx. 15 mins.) focusing on the negative impacts of the 2010 Olympic Games being held in Vancouver, and the ongoing resistance by Indigenous, human rights, and other social movements. The film gives 10 reasons why we should all resist and oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics (and all Olympics for that matter):

Colonialism & Fascism
No Olympics on Stolen Land
Ecological Destruction
Homelessness
Criminalization of the Poor
Impact on Women
2010 Police State
Public Debt
Olympic Corruption
Corporate Invasion

[vimeo 4872922 “Resist 2010” on vimeo]

So there you have it! Eight reason why you should oppose the staged, glitzy, sensationalized show that is the 2010 Olympics. Even if you don’t turn off the TV because say, you really enjoy watching athletes compete on ice, at least keep in mind the information you learned from this video. Maybe the next time the Olympics roll around, you may have a change of heart.

N.B. Oh and try no to get too excited about all the “snow” you see in Vancouver. They actually had to ship the stuff in by the truck-load from nearby areas because there wasn’t enough snow in Vancouver! You see how they’re spending tax payer dollars!?!

For more information, please visit: no2010.com

“Killing the Indian in the Child”

February 13, 2010 By Anonymous 1 Comment

Last night we attended a REEL Activism event at Bloor St. United Church where we watched a short film and heard a talk/discussion with activist Margaret Sumadh, member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, about the impact of Canadian residential schools on Aboriginal survivors. Being an American-born citizen who only moved to Canada just over one year ago, there’s so much of this country’s history that I’m completely unaware of. I must say, having only recently learned about this dark legacy of Canada’s not-so-distant past, I was shocked, angered, and appalled at what I saw and heard last night; these feelings were multiplied by the fact that in the audience with us were survivors and children of survivors of these awful schools, meant to “kill the Indian in the child.”

The Canadian Indian residential school system, founded in the 19th century, was created for the sole purpose of forcing the assimilation of the Aboriginal (First Nations) peoples into western, “civilized” Canadian society. Basically, this system of schools, which was jointly-controlled by the churches and the federal government, believed that indigenous children needed to be “civilized” in order to assimilate into modern, western, Canadian society. They aimed to achieve this goal by forcibly taking young children (as young as 6 years old) from their homes and placing them in residential schools until they were at least 16 years of age; supposedly, they were to return to their homes during the summers, but many didn’t see their families for years at a time.

The children in these schools were forced to learn English, dress like their Canadian counterparts, and convert to Christianity. They were prohibited from speaking their native languages and subjected to corporal punishment if they spoke anything other than English and French or were caught practicing non-Christian faiths; ultimately leading to the cultural genocide of an entire people. Students were also forced into manual labour in order to maintain the already severely underfunded facilities.

During the 1950’s there were 76 residential schools in all but three provinces in Canada. By 1969, the federal government had taken sole control of the residential school system, and by the 1990’s it was finally revealed that several students were subjected to severe physical, mental, and sexual abuse by teachers and other school officials. The last residential school in Canada was finally closed down in 1996. Several court cases led to monetary payments to survivors from the federal government, and in 2008 the Canadian government issued a formal apology to the survivors, their families, and the entire First Nations community. But was this apology too little too late?

Of course it was! An entire people’s culture, traditions, their very identity was stolen from them, wiped away from their mental history books! That doesn’t even include the hundreds of children who died while enrolled in these schools. When these young children were sent back home after they’d been “civilized” they were like strangers in their own homes. They had been changed into completely different people with no connections to their families, their culture, or their heritage. They had lost all ability to speak their native language, no doubt breaking the communication and traditional knowledge sharing between parents and their children. These residential schools had ultimately broken the very fabric of their society, and purposely so.

Thomas Moore before and after residential school

Tom Torlino before and after residential school

Furthermore, these schools also had grave psychological effects on the Native youth. At these schools, from a very tender age, children were taught that their native culture and identity was inferior and not worth preserving. They were told they were a dirty, uncivilized, backwards people and that in order to function in society they had to denounce everything they knew to be true about themselves and adopt a new, bright, forward-thinking identity, ie: European/Western way of life. Youth ultimately were taught to resent their culture and heritage and to embrace the European outlook, culture and belief system.

Today, Aboriginal people want recognition of what was done to their communities as a result of the residential school system. They have asked for and received official apologies from the Anglican, United, and Catholic churches in Canada, which operated the residential schools. But there is still a long and painful road ahead before the First Nations people receive the reparations and justice they deserve and so badly need. Unfortunately, this information (like much of North America’s dirty past) is not taught in public schools, so it’s completely absent from peoples’ consciousness. Nor is this given anywhere near the amount of necessary media attention it deserves; but then again, what important social and political topics are?

But the truth of the matter is that the issue of genocide of the Aboriginal people is not something that happened in the past and is now over; no, these people are still fighting and will continue to fight for their land rights, their sovereignty, and their natural resources which to this day, are still being stolen, polluted, or in one way or another, colonized for Euro-Canadian imperialistic gains.

To learn more about this untold story of the genocide of the Aboriginal peoples, please visit Hidden From History: The Canadian Holocaust.

Below is the trailer of a full-length award-winning documentary on the planned extermination and genocide of the Aboriginal people by the churches and state in Canada. The film is told through the eyes of survivors of this genocide, and a former minister who tried to hold his church accountable for its crimes. The full-length film can be seen here: Unrepentant.

[youtube j8HB5cbKHDU Unrepentant]

Tomorrow, February 14th in Toronto, we will be marching in the 5th Annual Rally for our Missing Sisters in solidarity with and to commemorate the over 500 Indigenous women who have been murdered or gone missing over the past 30 years. We’re demonstrating against the complicity of the state in the ongoing genocide of Indigenous women and the impunity of state institutions and actors (police, RCMP, coroners’ offices and the courts) that prevents justice for all Indigenous Peoples. Stay tuned for a report and pictures from that event!

Finally, the REEL Activism event that took place last night is a monthly event put on by the church. Next month’s REEL Activism will feature yours truly in a Report back from the Gaza Freedom March in Cairo. The event announcement can be seen here: Gaza Freedom March: A REEL Activism Event. I will be creating and showing a short film about the events that took place in Cairo and give a talk about the political implications of the movement. Stay tuned for more info on that as well!

Obama on Palestine: A Tale of Two Speeches (VIDEO)

January 31, 2010 By Anonymous 2 Comments

This is a ~~brief~~ somewhat lengthy synopsis of how Barack Obama handled the issue of Palestine during two speeches he gave last week: The State of the Union address on Jan. 27 and a town-hall meeting in Tampa on Jan. 28.

The State of the Union address

The energy was in the air once again on Wednesday night, as America’s first black president gave yet another historic speech: the State of the Union address, his first one ever (honestly, last year’s doesn’t count; he was barely president for less than a month!). Tensions were high as many Americans were reminded once again of where exactly the country stands in regards to the issues that affect them and their families the most: the economy, health care, ~~one two~~ three full-fledged wars in the middle-east. So I sat down to watch the State of the Union, for the first time on the other side of the border, in Canada. I caught it on the White House’s website, which had a convenient little Facebook app right on the page so users could send out instant updates about their reactions to the speech…I don’t have to tell you that I used that thing to it’s full capacity 🙂

So what was in this oh-so-historic, can’t-be-missed address? Well, aside from the redundant references to the mess that he inherited when getting into office, the wonderful job he’s done in killing more “terrorists” than Bush did in 2008 (his words, not mine), and the fact that he’s not really interested in punishing the banks but more interested in “protecting the economy” (whatever that means), Obama and his two wingmen, Biden and Pelosi, made it very clear that this entire sham of a speech was just one big performance for the masses. If you watched the 70-minute speech, it was very hard to ignore the obviously staged laughter, applause, laughter, applause, applause, applause, laughter…it was like clock-work. Honestly, it felt like everything was one big inside joke for all those in attendance; well, except for the supreme court justices seated right up at the front. They didn’t laugh at or clap for anything; probably because they’re under a lot of heat for their recent decision to overturn a ban on direct corporate spending on campaigns….yep, as of now, corporations officially have the same freedoms afforded to individual persons in that sense. So say hello to the new sponsor of Candidate A’s 2012 election campaign: Lockheed Martin and Candidate B’s election campaign: The Rand Coporation!

All I got from the speech was more wars, America has to be #1 (at what, we don’t really know), and a cruel reminder of all the broken campaign promises made by Obama in the run-up to his election:

Repeal the Patriot Act? Nope
Close Guantanamo? Nope
Post all new legislation online for 5 days before its acted upon? Nope
Pull all soldiers out of Iraq? Note even close.

There’s many more, but I don’t want to ~~bore~~ anger you even more. Now let’s get to the good stuff: Palestine! What did Mr. Commander-in-Chief have to say about the most blatantly neglected issue over this past year? First, let me explain why exactly I’m interested in hearing his input on this issue. Last year when Israel was bombing the hell out of Gaza for over three weeks straight, newly elected president, Barack Obama, surprisingly had NOTHING to say on the matter! Surprising because if any one is going to say something about anything, it’s his eloquent majesty himself. So this was infuriating as is. In his own defence, he claimed that since technically he hadn’t taken office yet, he didn’t feel it was appropriate to make an official statement on the issue so as not to “confuse” the country…uhh yeah, ok?!?!

So Wednesday night was like a movie premier for me, with popcorn and all! He ran through the usual (or expected) suspects: Iran? – check… Haiti? – check… “Terrorists”? – check… even “Don’t ask, don’t tell” – check…. Palestine? ***silence***. Absolutely nothing! Not even a single breath about Palestine, Gaza, or any of the atrocities being committed in the region for not just the past year, but decades and decades. He didn’t even talk about Afghanistan! or even Pakistan! That can only mean one of two things: 1) either he’s afraid to talk about them because of how obviously wrong his policies are in regards to those issues, or 2) he’s failing so badly in all three areas, he deemed it better not to even mention them, hoping the American people would just magically think they don’t exist anymore. And I don’t doubt that a major chunk of the public actually did fall into that group.

So there you have it, Obama’s first and historic State of the Union was just a large farce meant to satiate the appetite of the public by telling them what they wanted to hear, while at the same time sparing them the details of the not-so-honorable actions committed in their name around the world. Cindy Sheehan’s synopsis of the night explains it perfectly:

It’s not the real state of the union–it’s another 75 MINUTE INFO-MERCIAL FOR THE EMPIRE–APPLAUSE–APPLAUSE–APPLAUSE—Nancy wear your lavender–Joe you wear a blue-striped tie and Barry, you wear a red striped tie—pretend that we’re one with the Robbed Class.

The Town-Hall meeting in Tampa, FL

The very next day at the University of Tampa in Florida, Obama and VP Biden hosted a town-hall meeting in which they announced a new recovery act for the building of a nationwide high-speed rail system, meant to “create jobs and transform travel in America.” So you can understand why it was so shocking and unexpected when University of South Florida student, Laila Abdelaziz (who actually volunteered for Obama during his campaign) stood up and asked him a question on the US’ stance on human rights. Obama was most likely expecting questions about job creation or even the health-care bill, but instead what he got was:

Last night you spoke in your State of the Union address you spoke of America’s support for human rights. Then, why have we not condemned Israel and Egypt’s human rights violations against the occupied Palestinian people? And yet we continue supporting them financially with billions of dollars from our tax dollars?

Wow! Excellent question, Laila! I couldn’t even imagine what B.O. would have to say to this. He surely must have had a perfectly pre-planned answer to this that he keeps in his mind’s back pocket for when the need arises, right? Check for yourself:

[youtube DJ3rqAoahAw Obama town hall human rights question]

Let me allow you to digest that a little before getting into this…First of all, did you see how long it took him to finally begin to answer the question? He’s here talking about being courteous and pointing out someone’s Mardi Gras beads??? Are you kidding me? That’s the oldest trick in the book, invented by 6 year olds…Just stall the questioner by diverting his attention away from the issue, so you can collect your thoughts and formulate the perfect lie. I’ve never ever seen him stumble like that before; so much so that I thought it was impossible to catch Barry off his game for even a second. Laila clearly proved me wrong!

Then when he actually starts to answer the question, he comes up with an absurd statement like this:

The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries…

What?!? The Middle East is an issue that has plagued the Middle East (the region)? Does this even make sense? And for centuries?!? Does this man even hear what he’s saying? This absolute nonsense is what you get when Barry is kept away from his teleprompter for too long.

He then goes on to provide the same, polished, formulated statement on the US’ unwavering support for “Israel’s security, and helping them secure themselves in what is a really hostile region.”

But the best part is when he “acknowledges” the plight of the Palestinians in his answer. Apparently, the reason that it is important for us to pay attention to the plight of the Palestinians is “…because it is not good for our security, and it is not good for Israel’s security if you’ve got millions of individuals who feel hopeless, who don’t have an opportunity to get an education, or get a job…” That’s why it’s important to pay attention to Palestine! Man, why didn’t I think of that? Here I am thinking we should pay attention to their plight because they are an oppressed, occupied people with no home, no land, no shelter, or a single iota of basic human rights for the past 61 years, at least (not centuries, Mr. President).

Of course he then had to make a half-hearted mention of the “two-state solution” and how he’s working tirelessly on that. FYI: this so-called “solution” is a complete mockery of Palestinians’ rights and freedoms…but that’s a whole other issue.

Now, onto the “compromises” that both sides have to make in order to make this “solution” work:

Palestine: renounce violence AND recognize Israel
Israel: acknowledge…legitimate…grievances…and interests of the Palestinians

Ok sure, I see now. So basically Palestinians (who apparently live in “territories” by the way…see the effective use of language?) have “grievances” which should be filed with their occupier. You know, like when you have an issue at your job, you file a complaint or a grievance! That’s what he has reduced their plight, their human rights concerns, their very existence to: just mere grievances!

How unbelievably grotesque and undermining of an answer! Wait, was that even an answer? Let’s look at Laila’s question one more time: “Then, why have we not condemned Israel and Egypt’s human rights violations against the occupied Palestinian people?”

Oh I get it. It’s because they haven’t filed a “grievance”…

An Open Letter to Pres. Obama from the Gaza Freedom March delegates

January 22, 2010 By Anonymous 2 Comments

January 14, 2009

Dear Mr. President Barak H. Obama,

We, citizens of 43 countries, gathered in Cairo in December 2009, to travel to the occupied Gaza Strip to show solidarity with Palestinians who endured a massive and inhuman Israeli assault one year ago. We wanted to show them that we, citizens of the world, remember what our governments want us to forget: we remember that human beings live in the Gaza Strip. Men, women and children: mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, grandmothers and grandfathers: people like you and I.

We, citizens of democratic countries from 6 continents, who were forcibly stopped by the puppet Egyptian state from travelling to the Gaza Strip want to tell you that we remember the horror that was unleashed on the Gaza Strip a year ago. This week marks one year since US-ally Israel ended its lethal attack on the Gaza Strip: a year since phosphorus bombs, DIME bombs and other weapons of death and destruction deliberately targeted the defenseless civilian population of Gaza.

In your much quoted Cairo speech, you said,

“Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.”

And yet, Palestinians have seen nothing but more death and destruction since then. Your fine words in Cairo did not even result in Palestinians getting cement to rebuild their homes, mosques and schools.

The siege of occupied Gaza is collective punishment of the entire population, in violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention. As a lawyer, you must know this Convention is binding on all its signatories, including the United States, who are required to ensure the Convention is upheld. Yet, over the last few weeks, the infamy of the Israeli siege has been compounded by the construction of a new wall which will inevitably tighten still further the siege of Gaza and the humanitarian crisis which the siege was always designed to inflict. This new wall is being constructed by the Egyptian government with technical assistance from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Last month, the US authorised $1,040,000,000 in Foreign Military Assistance to Egypt including “border security programs and activities in the Sinai”.

Mr. President,

The collective punishment of occupied Gaza in the name of “border security” – in direct violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention – is the policy of your government.

You must also be aware that in Israel’s war of aggression on the occupied Gaza Strip, many civilians were massacred by Israel’s indiscriminate bombing – an act condemned by UN experts, including the respected South African, Judge Richard Goldstone – and leading human rights organizations, as war crimes and crimes against humanity. And yet you, a lawyer, ignore this incontrovertible evidence and continue to prop up the apartheid Israeli state. The assault in December 2008-January 2009 left over 1,440 Palestinians dead, predominantly civilians, of whom 431 were children. Another 5380 Palestinians were injured. These are not facts that we will forget, as we have not forgotten Deir Yassin, Sabra and Shatila, Jenin, Nablus, Beit Hanoun and over 60 years of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.

In your Cairo speech, you acknowledge the Palestinians’ right to nonviolent resistance. You even gave them advice to pursue it like African Americans, Indians, and South Africans:

For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia.

And that is precisely what we wanted to do in the Gaza Strip, Mr. President: We wanted to walk together with the people of Gaza to register our abhorrence of the collective punishment that has been imposed on them; We wanted to demand an end to the hermetic siege that has been imposed on them since the democratic elections of 2006. And yes, we were also citizens from South Asia, from Eastern Europe and from South Africa, all gathered together in Cairo, so we do know both the humiliation of segregation and the power of collective action. And we intend to use that power to support our Palestinian brothers and sisters as they fight to regain their stolen homeland.

We, the undersigned, call upon you to end the siege, Mr. President. It is an ethical and moral responsibility that you cannot avoid. We, 1400 international activists from 43 countries planned to be in Gaza on December 31 to march with the Palestinians of Gaza and demand that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately and permanently. We could not do so because the Government of Egypt, an ally of the US, refused to allow us to cross into the Gaza Strip even as they began construction of a new wall to tighten the siege. We were denied the right to show Palestinians that we support their right to their homeland as guaranteed under international law. We were denied the right to show Palestinians that we remember their pain and suffering.

We were denied our right to show Israel and the United States that we will not watch what it does to the Palestinians and remain silent. But we refused to be denied the right to walk in solidarity with the oppressed, even if from afar: and we did. We chose to walk and protest in solidarity with the people of Gaza in Cairo.

You, President Barak Obama, choose to walk in solidarity with the oppressor. You choose to ignore the pain and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Like your predecessors, Reagan and Thatcher, who said in 1987 that Nelson Mandela would never be the President of a democratic South Africa, you too, choose to ignore the will of the people.

You are on the wrong side of history, President Obama, because we, citizens of the world, will not accept a Palestine that is occupied.

You are on the wrong side of history, President Obama, because our collective action, together with the action of Palestinians inside and outside Palestine and millions of people who recognise their just cause, will ensure a free Palestine in our lifetime. Of this we are certain.

Signed

1,361 international citizens from 43 countries

“Eyes In Gaza”: A presentation by Dr. Mads Gilbert in Toronto

January 20, 2010 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, SPHR-Ryerson hosted Dr. Mads Gilbert, MD, PhD for his presentation, “Eye in Gaza”. Dr. Mads Gilbert is an internationally-acclaimed doctor, professor, local politician, and Head of the Dept. of Emergency at the University of North Norway. During the 3-week brutal assault on Gaza last year, Dr. Mads Gilbert and his colleague Dr. Erik Fosse were the only two foreign doctors allowed into the region. They spent their entire time there embedded in the overcrowded and understaffed Al-Shifaa hospital. Dr. Mads Gilbert became the world’s window into the prison known as Gaza, providing regular updates on the atrocities taking place there. He has been seen on Al-Jazeera, BBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and more.

Dr. Mads Gilbert has described his time in the region as the most horrific and terrible thing he had ever witnessed. He co-authored the book “Eyes in Gaza” with his colleague, Dr. Erik Fosse, and embarked on a 16-campus North American tour in January and February of 2010. Here in Toronto, he spoke at Ryerson University to a packed room of eagerly attentive eyes and ears.

He began by introducing himself and giving us some background on his history, qualifications, and professional life. He’s a very interesting man; having spent over 30 years doing solidarity work with Palestinians, he has served as a doctor during numerous periods in Occupied Palestine and Lebanon. He is also quite a controversial figure in the medical profession due to his strong position on merging medical and political issues. On being a doctor as well as a politician, Gilbert has said the two roles are indistinguishable, and that “there is little in medicine that isn’t politics”.

Gilbert’s presentation was unlike any I’ve ever seen either on the Gaza assault in particular, or on Palestine in general. He warned us beforehand of the graphic images he would be displaying; but unlike other presentations where graphic images are used purely for shock value, Dr. Gilbert uses them to tell a story, making sure to provide us with background on the victims’ lives, “introducing” us to them, giving them a name and human value. This took away the shock value; all eyes were glued on the screen, no matter how horrific or appalling the scenes. These were people, young and old, with lives, families, futures, aspirations…All taken away in an instant, most times at the simple press of a button.

However, this presentation was not just another “horrible scenes of war” lecture. Gilbert’s political activism was clearly woven into his entire talk; never dismissing an opportunity to clarify his stance on the Palestine/Israel issue. At times, his words were shocking; not because of what he said, but because I’ve never heard a medical professional speak his mind so freely about anything political, let alone a topic as controversial (and for some, career-ending) as that of Palestine. It was quite refreshing to say the least.

He ended his presentation with a message to all of us to get involved with Palestine, and particularly to drive the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement to the forefront of the struggle for Palestinian liberation. This was exciting to hear because that is exactly the direction we are moving with regards to the newly-drafted Cairo Declaration which came out of our time in Cairo with the Gaza Freedom March. We will be contacting him with information on this, and asking for his endorsement in the near future.

Of course, no discussion on Palestine or Gaza is complete without some good old-fashioned debate (if you can call it that) in the audience. During the Q&A session, which was still surprisingly civil, an Israeli IDF medical professional who was deployed to the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead stood up and voiced his dissatisfaction and frustration with many of the statements Dr. Gilbert expressed during his lecture, especially in regards to Israeli doctors during the assault. Gilbert was shedding light on the discrimination that takes place in Israeli hospitals when doctors give preference to Israeli patients over Palestinians, but the IDF doctor took it personally and insisted that he always did his duty on the ground and treated all casualties as is morally required of any medical professional.

When someone brought up the fact that those “casualties” need not exist in the first place and raised the issue of the blatantly disproportionate figures, including civilian casualties, this IDF doctor’s response was that, “there’s always a large difference between Israeli and Palestinian deaths” during wars and the numbers are usually at least 100 to 1. I don’t need to tell you what happened after that, but let’s just say that after the talk was over, our little IDF friend was bombarded with questions, arguments, and debates for probably another 30-40 minutes. I didn’t stay and watch…

All in all, it was the best lecture/presentation I’ve seen in a very long time and I can’t stop telling people to go see it if he’s coming to a city near you. Most locations are across Canada, but Chicago, New York, and New Jersey are also hosting him in the coming weeks. For more information on dates and locations, visit: SPHR’s Event Page.