The forthcoming visit of Mr. Chaim Herzog, President of Israel, to Canada
offers an excellent opportunity to impress upon the Government of Israel
the need to consider seriously the return of Palestinian lands to their
rightful owners.
This could be accomplished through logical argument and friendly persuasion,
or, should this fail, the threat of comprehensive sanctions for which there
is a conspicuous precendent in the case of South Africa.
Since the confrontation in the Middle East is much more urgent and much
more authentic than the "apartheid" issue in South Africa, it
would be advisable for the Canadian Government, in consultation with other
members of the International Community, to ensure that they engendered
compliance. This could be accomplished by incorporating in the proposed
sanctions program the following measures and impressing upon the President
that they would be rigorously enforced:
1. Revocation of Canadian passports held by Israeli citizens 2. Cessation
of trade except for essential food & medicines 3. Moratorium on monetary
transfers 4. Dismissal of Israelis from Canadian public institutions 5.
Cessation of all military, scientific and cultural contacts 6. Prohibition
of Israeli political intervention in Canada 7. Investigation of Israeli
subversion of the political process and media in Canada and publication
of the findings 8. Establishment of an international judicial inqiry based
on the Nuremberg model to examine allegations of Israeli war crimes and
human rights violations since 1948.
Imposition of these proposed sanctions would upset politicians and media
moguls with a vested interest in the Israeli connection, but this would
be a very small price to pay to resolve the Palestinian problem and thus
eliminate a serious threat to world peace.
Sincerely,
Ian Macdonald
June 10, 1989