the members comes home is the time his con-
stituents can meet him. They forget when they
get up there on the hill that it’s the folks at
home that will in the final analysis decide wheth-
er they can spend more years in the hallowed
chamber of parliament.

They'll find out that the folks back home want
them to end the ‘quiet diplomacy’ kick and start
telling the Yanks what Canadians really feel about
the war in Vietnam. .

They’ll find out that the folks back home want
less celebrating of the centennial and more done
to ensure the indpendence of their country from
the United States.

They’ll find out that people want the Carter
Commission Report implemented, something done
to stop rising prices; an end to the use of injunc-
tions in labor disputes.

And the more people go to see their MP while
he is holidaying, the more guarantee we will have
that when the session opens in September there
will be action, not just talk.

but somehow on this hot July day the only thing
that comes to mind is the integration of the arm-
ed forces and the great debate over the new uni-
form. Of course, there were a number of special
committees and royal commissions who made re-
ports and a number more of these bodies which
have been established. We certainly are going to
be the best researched country in the world if
the Pearson administration has its way.
We have had the centennial celebrations and
the Queen and Queen Mother and... but are
these accomplishments of the parliamentarians?
We have had lots of talk about ‘quiet diplomacy’
which is a new term meaning if you can’t say
anything good, don’t say anything: or, where
there’s money to be made why bother with honor.
But why go on? It’s quite obvious that what
the MPs stand badly in need of is some time in
their constituencies to discover the real world of
today. And we’re not thinking about time spent
in quiet contemplation, or lolling on the banks of
their favorite stream in splendid isolation. When

_ All talk,
no action

bee? Principle of holiday with pay has
ee fought for in the trade union
if it eae there are times when one won-
mind d apply to every one. This thought
Miament When realizing that the members
Septemh ave just taken off for a vacation

© should ae |
Mk at what be able to look back and say, well
Was accomplished in the last session

Vilner in Knesset

"My heart is full
Of pain and shame"

the
.) my pet (Israeli Parlia-
‘ of 1, Meir Vilner,

§POke on «nr, COMMunist
othe an. The behaviour
*cupieg “og Population in
of a titories and the
threateni
I People in the Sinei

§
a follows:

Of Boyt) tens of thou-
He ian Soldiers nie
out rat and particular-
bree €r. In the local
any S there were pub-
ony eg about the
- jpousands of

n the desert.
inte “id Passed. Public
a but noth; th the §0v-

Pressur
lo) : e and
“Oss thes a ternational

accordance
ri
iyle ae committee,

e Tetu
W re
d, OUNded, who he

as
Press 8 Published in

Oy Nd gi 2DK he Will be

Nh, 8iv
Tae) an en “the
ey ys PeCial ‘ acilities
h Ne, Is m Ocedure,
stl Pe
acs mean, !aving the
to «dent the Presure. It
a at a call was
Ot Side thettion from

Started a res.

In Davar, June 13, was pulish-
ed: “Many amongst the refugees
claim that the Israelis are forc-
ing the people of the western
bank who are living in strategic
places like Jenin, Kalkilya, Tul-
Karm to leave their houses. They
also state that they are allowed
to take only their clothes with
them.”

In Ha’Aretz, June 20, was pub-
lished that “those who crossed
the lines are not allowed to re-
turn back to the western bank.”

Regarding -civiliaris in the Si-
nai peninsula and in the Gaza
strip Davar of June 13 writes:
“Rav-sere (captain) Yusef said
moreover, that the Israeli forces
are trying to convince the civi-
lians and the Egyptian soldiers
who give themselves up, to-cross
the canal and go to the west.
But many of them are afraid and
they do not want to leave their
houses.”

Concerning the situation in
the occupied territories in the
Western bank, in the Latroun
region, I have in my hand an
eye-witness report, an eyewit-
ness who is — contrary to my
opinion — a supporter of the
war. I refer to the journalist of
Yedioth Abronoth, Amos Kenan,
and I think he also writes in
Ha’Aretz. He writes in a report
he sent to many people the fol-
lowing:

“The platoon commander said
that the three villages of Beit-
Nuba, Yalu, Amwas, in the Lat-
roun sector should be demolish-
ed because of strategic, tactical
and security reasons. First in
order to straighten the Latroun
Wedge, second to punish the
nests of murderers, third to deny
a base for infiltrators in the fu-
ture. It is possible to contend
against this idiotic conception
that calls for collective punish-
ment ‘and which thinks that if
an infiltrator loses a house, he
cannot find another. It is pos-
sible to argue the good that
would come out of increasing

vou
«nada

OF eve wo milli

ie 83 On w,
Sespite t

prosperous?

COnsi.

St de

og 8tdaras Se to be a prosperous nation, with high
aN ee ge number So it is, on the surface. But poverty

= Dai on citizens stil live in slums.
‘ One lege Tent of 4nadians earns less than $3,000 a year.
Y ge than young Canadians between 14 and 2¢-
Mhilli Tade VIII education.
‘ae Spent on low-cost housing in Canada
£ urgent need for adequate housing.

the number of our future ene-
mies. But what for is the dis-
cussion...”

The eye-witness continues:

“We were told that our task
is to comb the houses of the vil-
lage and if we find armed men
to capture them. Unarmed peo-
ple should be given time to col-
lect their belongings and tell
them to go to a neighbouring vil-
lage, to Beit-Sira. We were also
told, to stand by the entrance of
the village and prevent the en-
trance of villagers returning
from their hiding places, after
they heard our call to them over
the radio that they can return in
peace to their villages. We were
ordered to shoot over their
heads and to tell them not to
enter the village.” s

“With a strike of one bull-
dozer the cypress and olive trees
were uprooted; in ten minutes
the house became debris to-
gether with the belongings and
the little furniture therein. After
the demolishing of three houses,
the first caravan of refugees ar-
rived from the direction of Ra-
mallah. We did not shoot in the
air. Thos who speak Arabic
amongst us came near them to
pass the order. There were old
people who walked with difficul-
ty, wailing old women, infants
in the arms of their mothers,
youngsters and children who
cried and begged for water. The
caravan raised white flags.”

We told them to go to Beit-
Sira. They told us that from
every place they are expelled
and to no place they are allow-
ed to enter. Four days they have
already been moving without
food, without water and some
of them already died.”

Hereafter, Amos Kenan, re-
lates what happened and says
that there were official an-
nouncements but the actual or-
ders were the opposite. He then
says: . . . “The children who
went on the roads crying will
be the Fedaeyyoun (comman-
does after 19 years in the next
round. In this way we lost on
this day the victory.” These were
the words of Amos Kenan.

We all live within our people.
Soldiers are returning. Every one
heard about outrageous things
that happened and that should
not have happened to a civilian
population after military opera-
tions. Whole villages were eras-
ed, not only in the Latroun dis-
trict, but also in other places,

“Are you sure you're ready fo govern yourself?”
Fred Wright in U.E. News Service

and all this after the military
operations were Over...

Few words concerning the de-
portation of the Arab inhabi-
tants of the ex-Jewish quarter in
the old city of Jerusalem. I am
not dealing now with the politi-
cal aims of the war, but even
the press that supports the war
wrote yesterday and the day be-
fore with anger against the
transfer by force of these inha-
bitants from their houses. Child-
ren, old men, women carrying
remnants of their belongings had
to leave their houses. within few
hours without any preparation,
without any alternative lodging,
and all this after all the military
‘operations were over. Is this not
cruelty towards the civilian pop-
ulation.

The daily Ha’Aretz of yester-
day, reports about organization-
al chaos that ruled during the
last days concerning the demo-
lition of houses near the Wailing
Wall. All the newspapers ask:
what is happening here? What
for is all this destruction?

There is another problem. To
the villages in the triangle, hun-
gry and thirsty people are com-
ing from the newly occupied ter-
ritory and here they are expell-
ed, although the same Israeli
rule exists over both sides.

The Security Council unani-
mously called upon Israel to ex-
ercise a humanitarian attitude
towards the inhabitants of the
occupied territories and to allow
those expelled or fled from the
occupied territories to return to
their homes. The Security Coun-
cil as well demanded from all
states concerned to behave hu-
manely towards prisoners of war.

These cruel acts that were car-
ried out lately raised protests
from various public and cultural
figures of various circles in the
country. I received a petition ad-
dressed to the President of the
State of Israel, to the Prime
Minister, to the Presidium of the
Knevset and the Chief Rabbin-
ate, signed by University lec-
turers, teachers, architects, doc-
tors and others. The petition
says: “After reading reports in
the Israeli press concerning the
behaviour towards the Arab
population in the occupied ter-
ritories, and also after reading a
report by an eye-witness, I join
hereby my voice to the call to
stop all acts of oppression, ex-
pulsion, destruction of houses
and property in the occupied ter-
ritories and to extend humane
aid to the civilian population in
these regions.” We join this cal]
raived by these intellectuals.

I want to point out that a
large number of soldiers refused
to take part in these acts against
the civilian population and there
were even such people who pre-
vented such acts by endanger-
ing themselves.

This behavior of the author-
ities in the occupied territories,
over and above the very fact of
opening war brought immeasur-
able damage to Israel. As a Jew
who lost during the last world
war all his family, my heart is
full of pain and shame that it
is the Government of Israel that
launched a war which endangers
world peace and that carries out
shameful acts in the occupied
territories against the civilian
population.

July 21, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3

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