***Accord sur la "Sécurité Publique" Canada-Israël

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***Accord sur la "Sécurité Publique" Canada-Israël

Chers lecteurs et lectrices, l'heure est grave. Le Canada vient de signer un accord avec Israël touchant la sécurité et d'autres aspects de notre vie au Canada. Les termes de l'accord vont loin et sont assez larges pour inclure beaucoup, comme la surveillance, les douanes, la police, les prisons, échange d'information sur les citoyens et plus. La nouvelle a été rapporté par Michel Chossudovsky de Global Research. Les médias de masse sont demeurés silencieux sur cet accord important.

Pourquoi est-ce important? C'est qu'on fait alliance avec un pays qui pratique la torture, qui oppresse les Palestiniens en leur faisant vivre des conditions d'apartheid terribles, en utilisant des techniques de punition collective en allant jusqu'à couper l'essence, les vivres et les médicaments et laissant les gens mourir dans les hôpitaux sans électricité et qui laisse ses rabbins réclamer publiquement le génocide de tous les Palestiniens; hommes, femmes, enfants et même leur bêtes.

Si nous Canadiens et Québécois ne réagissons pas, nous allons avoir nos mains tachées de sang et perdrons notre statut de pays neutre et pacifique aux yeux du reste du monde. Les Canadiens qui appuient la torture, l'apartheid israélien et des politiques d'extermination, ça vous dit comme réputation?

Genocide announced

"All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts." This was the religious opinion issued one week ago by Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of the Tsomet Institute, a long-established religious institute attended by students and soldiers in the Israeli settlements of the West Bank. In an article published by numerous religious Israeli newspapers two weeks ago and run by the liberal Haaretz on 26 March, Rosen asserted that there is evidence in the Torah to justify this stand.

The Canada-Israel "Public Security" Agreement

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, April 2, 2008

Canada and Israel have signed a far-reaching public security cooperation agreement.

The agreement, described as a "Partnership", involves a "Declaration of Intent" by the two governments. The Declaration was signed in Tel Aviv on March 23:

"Today, the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety Canada and Avi Dicter, Minister of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel, signed a Declaration of Intent to enhance cooperation in the area of public safety.

“The Government of Canada is committed to enhancing the security of Canadians – both through our actions at home and with our international partners.” said Minister Day. “Today’s declaration demonstrates the longstanding cooperation between Canada and Israel on public safety issues, and we welcome this increased cooperation in order to improve our countries’ capacity to protect our citizens.”

This declaration will allow Canada and Israel to better enhance cooperation in the areas of organized crime, emergency management, crime prevention, and other related public safety concerns. The declaration seeks to establish a more structured framework for the continued cooperation on public safety issues between CanadaIsrael. and

“The Declaration of Intent is an opportunity for Canada and Israel to strengthen their commitment to safeguarding their citizens and respective national interests from common threats,” said Minister Dicter." ( http://www.ps-sp.gc.ca/app_support/xml/ps_news_e.xml)

Cheney Mission to the Middle East Shrouded in Secrecy

Canada's Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day was in Israel on the same day as Vice Cheney Dick Cheney.

Coincidentally, a US mission led by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff was also in Israel on official business, as guest of Israel's Minister of Public Security, Avi Dicter. There are no reports on Canada-US-Israeli consultations during these official visits. In all likelihood, officials from the respective departments/ministries of US Homeland Security, Israel's Public Security and Canada's Public Safety had meetings behind closed doors.

Terms of Reference of the Partnership

Israel's Ministry of Public Security carries out public security, law enforcement activities. It is also in charge of the operation of Israel’s prisons, which are in large part used to detain Palestinians.

Canada's Ministry of Public Safety, established in 2003, is a copy and paste version of US Homeland Security. Public Safety Canada has a close bilateral relationship with US Homeland Security.

Public Safety Canada works closely with several government agencies including the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Correctional Service Canada (CSC) and The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Officials from these agencies have no doubt been consulted regarding the terms of reference of the Israel-Canada declaration.

The terms reference of the Canada-Israel Declaration are extremely broad. They include issues of immigration and ethnic profiling, the management of borders, intelligence and the exchange of information, emergency preparedness, correctional services, prisons, law enforcement and counter-terrorism.

The Declaration of Intent involves the setting up of a close bilateral cooperation arrangement at the ministerial level. A management committee has been set up under the helm of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada, and the Director General of Public Security of the State of Israel.

Senior Israeli and Canadian officials respectively from Israel's Ministry of Public Security and from various Canadian federal departments and agencies (including the RCMP, CSIS and CBSA), which are under the jurisdiction of Stockwell Day's ministry would carry out "an approved program of work".

The programme would be implemented by a Senior Coordinator from each country, namely, the Assistant Deputy Minister (Strategic Policy) for Canada's Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and the Deputy Director General of Israel's Ministry of Public Security of the State of Israel;

Nature of the Agreement

The agreement requires the two countries to "[b]uild on their shared commitment to facilitate and enhance cooperation to protect their respective countries' population, assets and interests from common threats".

What type of border security and control of immigrants is involved?

How does this impinge upon Canada's immigration procedures?

The agreement appears to be built upon a much broader agreement between Canada and the US in the area of Homeland Security. However, it also replicates the pattern of a February 2006 agreement reached between US Homeland Security and Israel's Ministry of Public Security

The Israel-Canada agreement has been in the pipeline since Israel's Public Security Minister Avi Dicter's October 2007 visit to the US and Canada. Avi Dicter met Stockwell Day last October in Toronto "with the intention on establishing cooperation on homeland security" and counter-terrorism.

Israel is not part of North America. Canada and Israel do not share a common border. So what is the underlying agenda?

Will Canada assist Israel in policing its border with Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories?

Conversely, will Israeli officials assist Canada in ethnic profiling of people (including biometric applications, which is mentioned in the agreement) who visit Canada from the Middle East?

Will Israeli officials have access to confidential files of Canadians?

What type of cooperation is envisaged in the areas of prisons and law enforcement? Interrogation techniques? Are Israeli consultants going to help us reorganize our correctional services?

The agreement would allow officials from the State of Israel, a country on record for its numerous human rights violations acts directed against the people of Palestine and Lebanon, to play a role in Canadian public security. In this regard, will Israeli officials assist the RCMP and CSIS in the profiling of Canadians citizens who are Muslims. This ethnic profiling is already applied at Canadian airports.

Will Israeli officials assist their Canadian counterparts in dealing with individuals and/or organizations in Canada involved in supporting the rights of Palestinians. Will Israeli officials assist their Canadian counterparts in the domestic "war on terrorism", which in the post 9/11 period has led to numerous arbitrary detentions on trumped-up charges.

At the same time, the Declaration establishes a de facto complicit relationship whereby Canadian officials (RCMP, etc) would contribute to assisting Israel in its domestic police and border activities (e.g. Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank), not under the auspices of the United Nations, but directly in cooperation with Israeli police and security officials.

In fact, Canada's "contribution" to the policing of Israel's borders with Gaza and the West Bank is already part of a 300 million dollar aid package in support of the "peace process". According to Public Safety Canada, "a significant component [of the 300 million will be] devoted to security, including policing and public order capacity-building. This five year commitment will go towards the creation of a democratic, accountable, and viable Palestinian state that lives in peace and security alongside Israel." (Marketwire, Ottawa, March 24, 2008)

Following his meeting with his counterpart Avi Dicter, Stockwell Day had meetings on the 24th of March in the West Bank with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, where issues pertaining to Canada's peace package, including police training and capacity building were discussed. "I was pleased to meet with Palestinian Authority President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad to discuss public safety issues of mutual interest," said Minister Day. Stockwell Day also visited a West Bank prison as well as a police training center in Jericho. (Ibid)

Under the Declaration of Intent, Canada cannot exercise "neutrality" with regard to the Palestinian process. Canada would act as a partner of Israel in all issues of public security in the occupied territories. Moreover, Canadian support channelled to the US-Israeli sponsored Palestinian regime of Mahmoud Abbas will be used to repress Hamas, which is the duly elected government. It will contribute to worsening the situation in the occupied territories.

Counter-terrorism and Homeland Security

The issue of "counter-terrorism" is not mentioned explicitly in the Declaration of Intent. The terms of reference, however, suggest that the "war on terrorism" is an integral part of the agreement.

In early February 2007, Minister Avi Dicter addressed the public security committee of the Canadian House of Commons: "Iran is the largest terrorist state in the world" Dichter said. In his discussion with Canadian MPs, Dichter "laid out what he believes to be the guidelines for Canadian-Israeli security cooperation in the future, possibly similar to the agreement that the minister signed a day later in Washington DC." (Jerusalem Post, 7 February 2007)

"The Canadian MPs echoed their American compatriots in addressing the former Shin Bet head as a world expert in the field of terror rather than as a visiting minister of a foreign government, asking him at one point what specific steps the parliament could take to prevent terror attacks on Canadian soil. In his answer, Dichter reiterated the importance of strengthening border security and use of proper investigative methods with suspects." (ibid)

During a followup official visit of Israel's Minister of Public Security Avi Dicter to Canada in late October 2007, meetings of Israeli and Canadian officials were held behind closed doors to discuss a blueprint for cooperation in the areas of homeland security and counter-terrorism. The meetings chaired by Stockwell Day were held in Toronto on October 29, 2007. A so-called "Arrangement Paper" was to be drafted with a view to defining "the actions of the competent structures at ministerial, central and subordinate/local levels for preventing and fighting home land securities issues":

"The parties have agreed to intensify future cooperation by identifying ways of direct communication in order to maximize the exchange of information, technology and operational activity. For the same reason it has been agreed to accelerate negotiations for the signing of an Arrangement Paper between the two Ministries on cooperation in home land security and counter terrorism issues which falls within the responsibility of the respective Ministries.
...
Negotiations on the arrangement paper mentioned above will take place as necessary. The signing of the arrangement paper will be held on an occasion and place coordinated in advance between the Ministries.

The two Ministers agreed that by early November three work teams will be established in order to promote the cooperation between the two ministries on the following subjects: • Counterterrorism and Crime • Emergency preparedness • Border crossing security, focusing on biometric identification"

(Official communique of Israel's Ministry of Public Security,
http://www.mops.gov.il/BPEng/MOPS+News/DicterWithCanadianMinister_30_10_07.htm )

The "Arrangement paper" refers to the draft text of The Declaration of Intent, which was signed in Tel Aviv on March 23, 2008. The two governments chose to sign the agreement during a week of intense diplomatic activity in Tel Aviv, involving the concurrent visits of the Vice President of the US, the US Secretary of the Department Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and other senior officials.

The final text of the Declaration of Intent remains vague. "Counter-terroism" and the "Homeland" are not explicitly mentioned in the final text of the Declaration signed on March 23.

Legal Implications

The text of the Declaration of Intent states that ":{it] is not intended to create legally binding obligations, under either domestic or international law. Yet, at the outset, it violates several fundamental principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

The Canada-Israel Public Security agreement has barely been mentioned by the Canadian media.

It has not been the object of a debate in parliament. Why has this issue not been brought to the forefront of public debate? Why has the parliamentary opposition remained mum on the subject?

It should be forcefully challenged in Canada's courts.

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Annexe

Déclaration d'intention entre le ministère de la Sécurité publique et de la Protection civile du Canada et le ministère de la Sécurité publique du gouvernement de l'État d'Israël

Le ministère de la Sécurité publique et de la Protection civile du Canada et le ministère de la Sécurité publique du gouvernement de l’État d’Israël déclarent leur intention :

1. D’établir un ordre de priorité et de gérer la collaboration dans les domaines de responsabilité suivants de leur ministère :

   1. gestion et sécurité des frontières; y compris les applications biométriques;
   2. services et établissements correctionnels;
   3. prévention de la criminalité;
   4. protection des infrastructures essentielles;
   5. gestion des urgences;
   6. immigration illégale;
   7. application de la loi;
   8. blanchiment d’argent;
   9. crime organisé;
   10. financement du terrorisme;
   11. trafic de personnes.
   
   
2. D’atteindre les objectifs suivants :
   1. miser sur leur engagement commun pour faciliter et accroître la collaboration en vue de protéger la population de leur pays, leurs biens et leurs intérêts respectifs contre les menaces communes;
   2. intégrer et coordonner les efforts communs de détermination, d’établissement des priorités et de mise en œuvre entre les deux parties dans le domaine de la sécurité publique;
   3. gérer la mise en œuvre des activités conjointes approuvées dans le cadre de la présente déclaration;
   4. établir des lignes de communication et des points de contact clairs entre les deux parties dans le cadre d’un processus permanent de dialogue et de partenariat visant à atteindre des buts communs;
   5. partager ou faire part des connaissances, de l’expérience, de l’expertise, de l’information, des recherches et des pratiques exemplaires;
   6. déterminer et mettre en commun les préoccupations en matière de sécurité publique en fonction des menaces, des évaluations du risque, des priorités, des vulnérabilités et des conséquences;
   7. favoriser les échanges techniques, notamment dans les domaines de l’éducation, de la formation et des exercices.
   
   
3. D’établir un comité de gestion qui :
   1. sera composé du sous-ministre du ministère de la Sécurité publique et de la Protection civile du Canada et du directeur général de la Sécurité publique du gouvernement de l’État d’Israël;
   2. se réunira une fois par année et au besoin pour élaborer et approuver un programme de travail compatible avec la portée et les objectifs de la présente déclaration, pour l’année à venir;
   3. évaluera et approuvera les progrès et les résultats des activités mises en œuvre au cours de l’année précédente dans le cadre de la présente déclaration;
   4. désignera les responsables du ministère de la Sécurité publique du gouvernement de l’État d’Israël et des ministères et organismes qui relèvent du ministère de la Sécurité publique et de la Protection civile du Canada pour mettre en œuvre, dans des délais précis, toutes les mesures énoncées dans le programme de travail approuvé;
   5. sera appuyé par un coordonnateur principal, à savoir le sous-ministre adjoint (Politiques stratégiques) pour le ministère de la Sécurité publique et de la Protection civile du Canada et le sous-directeur général pour le ministère de la Sécurité publique du gouvernement de l’État d’Israël;
   6. confiera à des coordonnateurs principaux la tâche d’exécuter le programme de travail approuvé et de soumettre de nouvelles activités à l’approbation du comité.
   
   
4. D’assumer respectivement les coûts engagés par chaque partie pour exécuter, gérer et administrer les activités mises en œuvre dans le cadre de la présente déclaration.
   
   
5. D’assurer la protection appropriée de l’ensemble des renseignements, connaissances, expertise, etc., mis en commun entre les parties contre tout accès, modification, publication ou diffusion non autorisé.


6. De protéger l’ensemble des renseignements, connaissances, expertise, etc., mis en commun entre les deux parties contre toute divulgation à une tierce partie avec le même soin que chaque partie accorde à ses renseignements, connaissances, expertise, etc., de nature similaire.

Il est entendu que :

la présente déclaration n’est pas destinée à reproduire ou à remplacer les autres ententes conclues entre d’autres ministères ou organismes du gouvernement du Canada et du gouvernement d’Israël;

la présente déclaration n'est pas destinée à créer des obligations juridiquement contraignantes en vertu du droit national ou international.

Signée en double exemplaire à Tel Aviv, ce 23e jour du mois de mars 2008, qui correspond au 16e jour du mois Adar b'5768, en français, en anglais et en hébreu, les trois versions faisant également foi.

Pour le ministère de la Sécurité publique et de la Protection civile du Canada

Pour le ministère de la Sécurité publique du gouvernement de l’État d’Israël

© Copyright Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2008

The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8530

A window on interrogationt

Imad Khotri says he is a clerk in the Qalqilyah municipality and serves as a volunteer imam in the city's Saladdin Mosque. He is 23 years old, and was arrested in his home late at night on October 17, 2007 by Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The next day he was transferred to a Shin Bet security service interrogation facility in the Kishon detention camp. That was the start of a prolonged series of interrogations involving torture. His hands have remained partially paralyzed as a result of the torture, and the tight and prolonged binding of his hands to a chair with iron handcuffs.

Shin Bet engages in this kind of behavior all the time: they just hate like hell getting caught at it.

The Israeli Human Rights Committee Public Committee Against Torture in Israel deserves a great deal of credit for bringing this out in the open.

Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza | Jerusalem Post

Israel to seize Arab land near Jerusalem

Israel has ordered the confiscation of Arab land outside east Jerusalem, a newspaper and Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, reviving fears that the occupied West Bank could be split in two.

Issued late September, the order covers 110 hectares (272 acres) in four Palestinian villages between east Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, said Hassan Abed Rabbo, a senior official at the Palestinian local government ministry.

Egypt condemns Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem

Egypt on Tuesday strongly criticized an Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem and called on the world community to stop Israel from spoiling peace efforts in the region.

Strip-Searching Children

The Israeli policy appears to target only Christian and Muslim children, and is equally applied to those with Israeli citizenship and citizenship in other countries, including native-born Americans. There are no reports of Jewish children being strip-searched.

I seem to recall a country and culture doing precisely these sorts of ugly things - and worse - in the middle of the 20th century to people they despised as "different".

Now, let me think: oh, yes, it was in 20th century Germany under the Nazis.

Israel doesn't have an "image problem" because it's Israel: Israel has an image problem because of what they are doing to people they despise as "different".

True national security doesn't come from these kinds of activities: true national - and international - security comes from sane, reasonable, just, and far-sighted policies that respects the human rights of all individuals.

Israeli Occupation kills baby in Gaza Strip ‎

It appears that this policy of denying desperately needed medical help until death is Israel's "final solution" for sick Gazan kids.

Take a good look at this child, surrounded by a maze of tubes and monitors.

There's medical treatment that can save her, but Israel won't let her travel to get it.

Now imagine, just for one moment, that this was YOUR kid.

Sealed off by Israel, Gaza reduced to beggary

"Essentially, it's the ordinary people, caught up in the conflict, paying the price for this political failure," said John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, which serves the majority refugee population. "The humanitarian situation is atrocious, and it is easy to understand why -- 1.2 million Gazans now relying on U.N. food aid, 80,000 people who have lost jobs and the dignity of work. And the list goes on."

Israeli military and political leaders say the restrictions are prompted by near-constant rocket and small-arms attacks and concerns over what uses Palestinian gunmen might have for some materials entering Gaza, particularly fuel and batteries

Report: “360 Palestinian children are imprisoned by Israel, facing harsh conditions”

The Wa’ed Society for political prisoners and ex-prisoner, reported on Monday that the Israeli army continued its violations against the Palestinian people, continued the arrest campaign, and that currently there are 360 Palestinian children still imprisoned in several Israeli prisons and detention facilities.

The number of Palestinian children currently imprisoned by Israel is 360, the society said, and added that the imprisoned children are facing harsh conditions, mistreatment and repeated attacks.

So let me get this straight: our wonderful "beacon of democracy/only true friend in the region", Israel, is jailing.....kids?

Take a good hard look at the picture at the top of this article, and imagine, for one second, that this was your little girl.

One has to wonder if this is retribution for not being able to legitimately charge their parents or family members, so the IDF takes that out on their children, and parents are powerless to stop them.

Lisa Hajjar: Inside Israel's Military Courts

Long before the first suicide bombing by Palestinians in 1994, Israel had resorted to extrajudicial killings, home demolitions, deportations, curfews and other forms of collective punishment barred by international law.

Most convictions are based on coerced confessions, and for decades Israeli interrogation tactics have entailed the use of torture and ill-treatment. Tens of thousands more Palestinians were never prosecuted, but were instead held in administrative detention for months or years.

And this is the country the US holds up as the example of "freedom and democracy" in the Middle East, and to which billions of our tax dollars are funneled?

Cabinet likely to back 'punishing' Gaza civilians over Qassams

The call to cut off water, electricity, gas and fuel to the Strip is seen as an alternative - or, if unsuccessful, a prelude - to a broad IDF incursion into northern Gaza. Government sources, however, said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was unlikely to authorize an escalation in Israel's military actions in the region.

Collective punishment isn't going to stop the kassams: what it will do, by the withholding of these services, is to horrendously affect the lives of pregnant Palestinian women, children, the old, and the medically infirm.

Kasrils says Israel's behaviour worse than apartheid

Kasrils says Israel's behaviour worse than apartheid

PRETORIA – South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils Thursday accused Israel of conducting a policy against the Palestinians that was worse than apartheid.

Israel shaken by troops' tales of brutality against Palestinians

A study by an Israeli psychologist into the violent behaviour of the country's soldiers is provoking bitter controversy and has awakened urgent questions about the way the army conducts itself in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians, aggravated by poor training and discipline. In her recently published report, co-authored by Professor Yoel Elizur, Yishai-Karin details a series of violent incidents, including the beating of a four-year-old boy by an officer.

When you dehumanize a group of people in order to consider them the enemy and take away everything they have (including their lives), it gives you ever more license to treat these people with monstrous, unthinking brutality.

The Israeli people really shouldn't be quite so shocked: they are simply reaping what they have sown, now manifesting as the behavior of the IDF, from the very inception of the Israeli state.

Israeli troops use Palestinians as shields - video

The Israeli army said on Friday it had suspended one of its commanders after an amateur video showed his men using two Palestinians as shields against rock-throwing youths.

If Americans Knew - what every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine