told. community said. Monday. the meeting was told. defenders of the Israeli actions, the speakers said. clear Palestinians want peace. And that peace can be attained if Israeli recognizes the Palestine Liberation Organ- ization and the right to establish an inde- pendent state in the West Bank and Gaza, three members of Vancouver’s Jewish Henry Rosenthal, Dr. Gabor Mate and professor Norman Epstein addressed an audience that ranged from a supportive majority to some hostile anti-PLO hard- liners at the Vancouver Planetarium It was necessary to book the planetari- um’s auditorium because the group, Jews for a Just Peace, could not obtain space at the Vancouver Jewish Resource Centre, And Jews opposed to the brutal occu- pation of the territories and the constant incursions into Lebanon been rebuffed in attempts to hold public discussions with government Rosenthal, who recently journeyed to the middle East as the sole Canadian member of a delegation sent by the Inter- national Jewish Peace Union, said it is The editor of Canadian Jewish Outlook ‘Iron fist’ stirring Jewish Many Jews in both North America and Israel oppose the “‘iron fist” actions of the Israeli government and are calling for a negotiated peace to end the decades of war in the Middle East, a forum on peace was said it was hard not to assume that with the violence and displacement they had suffered at the hands of Israeli army and security forces, Palestinians would be hos- tile to any group of Jews, no matter how well intentioned. But upon visiting a Palestinian refugee camp, “We were literally astounded by the human warmth and _ the hope they expressed that our visit could do some- _ thing for peace,” Rosenthal said. There are strong peace sentiments within Israel as well, he noted, citing the Peace Now demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of people when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, and the posi- tions taken by the socialist Mapam Party and the Communist Party. Service men and women also refused to serve in that war, and “hundreds” of members of the armed forces have said they'll go to prison rather than serve as an army of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, Rosenthal noted. Rosenthal said stereotypical ideas of Arabs as “one nation” and those who are “blinded by Israeli nationalism” are among the key obstacles to peace in the Middle East. Mate, who said he was a former Zionist, listed several Jewish leaders who since the late 19th Century acknowledged that to found the state of Israel meant displacing the residents who had lived for centuries in the British-ruled region of Palestine. For some leaders, it was a matter of moral concern. For others “it was a Zion- ist problem: how do you create a Jewish state in a country already occupied?” he said. The result was the “quite deliberate pol- icy” of expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from their homeland that took place after 1948, the founding of the state of Israel, Mate said. The United Nations resolution that defines Zionism as racism had some “hypocritical” support by regimes which are themselves racist, but that doesn’t invalidate the resolution, he stated. During question period Mate acknowl- edged that Palestinian leaders, including PLO representatives, have not. stated clearly that they recognize Israel’s claim to secure borders. The 1964 PLO Covenant in fact calls for a Palestinian state in all of the region, including that now constituting the state of Israel. _ On the other hand, the “covenant” of right-wingers like Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir claims the entire region, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza seized during the 1967 Six Day War and held in violation of.a UN resolution, as Jews’ historical homeland, he noted. But leaders like PLO chairman Yasser Arafat have stated their willingness to negotiate on the basis of recognizing the right of “all states in the region” to secure borders. The chairman has acknowledged that this includes Israel, and the position Opposition accords with UN resolutions on the Issue, Mate pointed out in answer to a question. Epstein, a professor of engineering at the University of B.C., cited several instances where Jews in the United States and Canada made public declarations of their opposition to Israeli policy and their call for a negotiated solution that includes a Palestinian homeland in the occupi¢ territories. Those statements, many made through media advertisements, contradict the claims of such “mainstream” groups a5 the Canadian Jewish Congress and the umbrella Canada-Israel Committee that they speak for all Jews in supporting the government’s policies, he stated. Saying that there is nothing wrong with negotiating with one’s “enemies, he stated: “Part of the irrationality thats entered our minds is that we’ll be annihi- lated by sitting down and talking (with the Palestinians).” A statement issued by the meeting's organizers said, ‘“‘We believe that one aim of such negotiations should be mutual recognition between the government 0 Israel and the chosen representative of the Palestinians, the PLO. : “There is no such thing as a benign occupation,” the statement read, quoting professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who wrote: “We must free ourselves from the territories, from the curse of dominating another people.” ‘Botha cannot regain On June 6, 7 and 8, millions of South African workers struck in an unprecedented action in face of the total might of the racist apartheid system. On the final day of the three-day strike, the Tribune spoke with - Yusuf Saloojee, chief representative of the African National Congress in Canada. This strike, called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), is already a tremendous success. But its significance goes far beyond the millions of workers who stayed away from work, added to by students, Black business people and others. More important and symbolic is the fact that, despite the national State of emergency imposed in 1986, and every repressive measure imaginable, the regime is unable to regain the strategic initi- ative it lost for the first time in the history of . our struggle. Imagine: Botha introduced a state of emergency, banned organizations, widened detentions, increased killings, blacked out the media — and still failed to gain the initiative,’ says ANC initiative. So he decided to pose a challenge to the mass democratic movement. “We're going to crush you,” he said. He then banned 17 organizations. Now he will try and impose further severe restrictions on the labour movement, particularly against COSATU, bringing in new laws to further restrict democratic trade union activity. COSATU took up that challenge. It’s the state versus the workers and the people. It called this general strike. This is a tremendous achievement given The presence of six South African players at the B.C. Open Golf tournament prompted a demonstration by the Anti- Apartheid Network and the Southern Africa Action Coalition outside the Point Grey Golf and Country Club in Vancouver Saturday. Some 50 demonstrators criticized the South African participation which contradicts a Canadian government ban on sports contacts with the racist regime, and violates several United Nations resolutions. In-hand delivered letters SAAC Zayed Gamiet asked both the B.C. Professional Golfers Association and the club to refuse participation by the South Africans. “Even as at the date of this letter ... newspapers contain grim reports of the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of black school children by South African authorities,’ he wrote. Club owners refused comment on the issue. TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON ' SS 8 « Pacific Tribune, June 15, 1988 the restrictions under which it was organ- ized. For a trade union movement to organ- ize millions into action under conditions where the slightest protest or sign of activity brings instant arrest is tremendous. Using quasi-underground methods, three days of protest involving almost six to seven million people were organized. The state is in trouble. It doesn’t know how to react. What can it do? i It can’t introduce a national state of emergency because it’s there. It can’t lock up the leaders, it has done that. It can’t ban organizations, it has done so. It can’t arrest children, it has done so. It can’t threaten to shoot people in the streets, it has done so. What else is left? Our people have met the challenge. We are further steeled in battle for the struggles ahead. The people this time were threatened not only by the state, but also by monopoly capital, both domestic and foreign. Com- panies threatened workers with loss of jobs should they support the strikes. “Big busl- ness is doing the government’s dirty work, charged COSATU. Our people met this challenge. They told the companies to “go to hell,” saying their freedom, dignity and justice is more impor- tant than a few dollars and cents. The strike is a tremendous achievement. It certainly will make the transnationals with their headquarters in Washington, Bonn, London and Tokyo re-think their South Africa investments. They must understand that Botha can no longer pro- tect their interests. They must understand that power is shifting to the people. And this three days is not the end. The ANC has called on the people to use the entire month to send a message to the regime that all the repression will not crush us. ; The message is: guns, detentions and repression will not solve South Africa’s problems. The answer lies in work and dis- cussion toward the establishment of a uni- ted, democratic South Africa.