Reconvene the Geneva Mid-East Conference By TIM WHEELER WASHINGTON — Arab lead- ers of the-Israeli-occupied West Bank, testifying last week at Con- gressional hearings, charged that President Carter’s concessions to Israel had sabotaged the earlier — joint U.S.-USSR statement. The joint statement called for the reconvening of the Geneva Conference on the Mid-East. Dr. Salim Taman, professor of sociology at Birzeit University on the West Bank, said the joint U.S.-USSR statement, which also recognized the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, ““was a very positive change that opened the way for breaking the Middle East stalemate, but Car- ter’s concessions on continued Is- raeli occupation of Arab terri- tories in his meeting with Dayan has sabotaged this positive statement. Dr. Tamari told a Senate hear- ing that Israel is using the oppres- sed Arab masses in the occupied territory as a ‘‘pool of cheap labor”’ committing torture, arbit- rary arrest and seizure of property as it pushes to annex the territory. Tamari was one of three Arab witnesses, the first Palestinians to testify before a Congressional hearing here. Dr. Israeli Shakak, chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, accused the Israeli government of ‘“‘racist discrimination’’ in establishing ali-Jewish: settle- ments on the occupied lands in its annexation drive. Fawzi Al-Asmar, an Israeli citizen who is an Arab poet and journalist, told the hearings of the oppression of Israeli Arabs. The ‘‘Defense Emergency Regulations established by the British in 1945 and used at that time against both Jews and Arabs are now the legal tool for admin- istratively detaining people with- out charge and placing people under house arrest,”’ he said. He added, ‘‘My family’s land was confiscated under these regu- lations. I was detained for 15 months and was house-arrested for an additional 12 months with- out ever being charged with wrongdoing. ‘*No Israeli citizen who is not a Jew ... is allowed to ‘settle’ in those settlements, while Jews from all over the world are invited to settle there, merely .because they are Jews. Such behavior usually has a name — which is racist discrimination.”’ The Palestinian witnesses con- firmed these charges. Dr. Tamari said, ‘‘Arabs who have been pushed off their own land by Is- raeli settlers have been forced to find employment as agricultural wage earners on the very land they own.’ Arabs laboring on farms and factories or as construction work- ers, he said, are paid wages 40% lower than Israelis of Jewish background. Taxes are deducted from their wages for health care, unemployment insurance and other benefits ‘‘none of which is remunerated in services.”’ _ Dr. Ibrahim Dakkar, an en- gineer who resides in Jerusalem, said that bulldozers of the Israeli occupation forces had destroyed schools, hospitals, and landmark buildings in the historic. Arab quarter of Jerusalem. He said the occupation forces had ringed the city with exclu- sively Jewish settlements in an at- tempt to reduce the Arab popula- tion to one third. Photo — Edva Weir PROTEST REPRESSION IN SOUTH AFRICA TORONTO — A demonstration was held outside the South African trade commission to protest the banning by the Vorster regime of practically all channels of legal opposition. The protest was organized by Canadians Concerned about Southern Africa. Toronto demonstrators demand halt to neutron bomb development - By STAN DALTON TORONTO — More than 200. people turned out here Oct. 22 to protest the Carter administra- tion’s decision to develop and de- ploy the neutron bomb. Men, women and children, young and old marched down Toronto’s Yonge St. bearing signs and ban- ners proclaiming their indignation while shouting slogans and pass- ing out leaflets to passers-by. The Street-shoppers gaye an en- thusiastic response indicating their support for the marchers and Mac-Pap reunion demands Canadian government allow veteran status TORONTO — For the 50 men and women who gathered here ” Sunday Oct. 23, the fight against fascism did not end 40 years ago in Spain. These people, yeterans of the Mac-Paps of the Canadian Inter- national Brigade, came to this’ meeting not to tell the sad story of the Spanish republic, but to con- tinue the struggle against fascism in Chile, and against the danger of a new imperialist war. . At the same time they de- manded recognition as war veter- ans from the Canadian gov- ernment. Such recognition will aid the men who are invalids and ill as a result of the war against Franco. During the meeting two impor- tant decisions were approved. That the ‘“‘Mac-Paps,”’ long time staunch anti-fascists, appeal to all Canadians including our govern- ments to help restore democracy in Chile by breaking off all com- mercial, financial, cultural and technological relations with the Chilean fascist junta. The second resolution en- dorsed the declaration of the International Brigade’s repre- sentatives who gathered in Berlin, GDR, last year. The declaration reads: ‘In this Thousands of men from around the world fons in the international Brigades in Spain. Fifty veterans of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion gathered in Toronto, October 23, for a reunion. hour we send our greeting to the Spanish people and all their democratic and anti-fascist forces. We assure them that we will always stand loyally at their side in friendship and solidarity in their struggle for freedom, inde- pendence and true democracy.” At the end of the meeting a new executive committee consisting of ten veterans was elected. This PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 4, 1977—Page 8 committee will serve until the next annual meeting on the third week of October next year. At the conclusion of the meet- ing a supper was served and entertainment including a group of Chilean singers performed. Se- venty dollars was collected and sent to Chile to assist persons who are black listed by the Fas- cist Pinochet government. their call to ban ‘the neutron bomb! The parade included an impres- sive on-going skit by the pro- gressive. arts group: Partisan. Dressed in black. and wearing skull masks they toppled-about an impressive caricature: of the neutron bomb; They also dis- played a large-version of the American flag substituting the stars for skulls. There were signs in German, Russian, Polish, French, Lithua- nian, and other languages. Youngsters had the signs as well: “I want to grow up, not blow up!”’ .The march ended at the U.S. Consulate where a rally was held featuring a number of speakers representing a broad section of the Canadian people. Jean Vautour, Executive Sec- retary of the Canadian Peace Congress, pointed out that the neutron bomb was “‘an indication of a change in the U.S. attitude to detente by contravening the non-proliferation treaty signed tri- laterly with the Soviet Union and London in 1968’’. -Ray Stevenson of the United Steelworkers, said that unem- ployment is escalating along with arms expenditures, thereby dis- pelling the myth that arms are a. solution to unemployment. Jeannie McGuire, of the Cana- dians Concerned about Southern Africa; pointed out that the neut- ron bomb poses a_ particular threat to the peoples of South Af- rica. who could very well fall vic- tim to it at the hands of the fascist Vorster regime. William Stewart, said that at the current rate, the Canadian arms expenditure, by 1980 would amount to the total Gross Provincial ' ‘Budget for Ontario. The Ad Hoc Committee, which organized the demonstration at the initiative of the Toronto As- sociation for. Peace, has been carrying on a peace vigil each week-day at. noon-hour at the U.S. Consulate with excellent re- sults. It will cease at the end of. Ontario’ leader of the Communist Party - peace week — Oct. 30th. Well over 5,000 leaflets were distri- buted in the last two weeks con- — demning the neutron bomb. Kingston holds 24-hour vigil against N-bomb — By LOUISE ANDREWS KINGSTON — A 24-hour vigil outside City Hall ended with a — ‘spirited rally in Confederation — Park, Oct. 21-22.-Mary Fleming, chairperson of the Ad-Hoc Com- mitte to Ban the Neutron Bomb — and also a member of the NDP expressed pleasure at the sym- pathetic response of Kings- — tonians. Cooperating in the demonstra- tion were members of the NDP, Communist Party of Canada, Green Peace, Quakers, and the Canadian Committee for Nuclear Responsibility. The local federal — Member of Parliament, Flora MacDonald also expressed her — support for banning nuclear. pro- liferation. Matthew Gventer, one of the organizers, made a moving speech on the devaluation of — human life implicit in a bomb which destroyed people but not property. Dr. Peter Lane, of Hotel Dieu Hospital, described | how the survivors of neutron sradiation would be afflicted by sterility and cancer. Janet Nichols of the NDP predicted that work- ers’ living standards would con- tinue to fall while their labor went — towards more weapons. In the discussion that followed the fear was expressed that the technological - breakthrough in- -volved in mass-producing neu- tron bombs could encourage — other governments to follow suit. A petition signed by concerned citizens will be sent to Ottawa asking the Federal government to take a stand against the neutron bomb. The Kingston campaign, to awaken awareness ‘and indig- nation about this terror weapon will continue.