Larry’s Letters: Canada Condemns Israel’s Presence in Jerusalem and Characterizes it as Occupied Palestinian Territory

House of Commons
Ottawa, ON

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,

The Canadian government has just co-signed a UN resolution condemning Israel’s presence in Jerusalem, and that characterizes Jerusalem as ‘occupied Palestinian territory’. Anyone with historical, biblical and archeological knowledge knows that for 3000 years, Jerusalem was the capital city of the Jewish people. A thousand years before the birth of Christ, there was the ancient country of Judah from which the word Jew was derived. Jerusalem was the location of Judaism’s holy Temple.

Of course Jerusalem was occupied many times by the Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Romans, the Ottoman Empire and in the 20th Century the Kingdom of Jordan. It is this latter occupation that should interest Canadian policymakers.

In 1948, Jordan attacked the new state of Israel and occupied what is now called the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This was the first time in recorded history that Jerusalem was partitioned. The partition of Jerusalem into East and West Jerusalem lasted until 1967 when Israel defeated the combined armies of Syria, Egypt and Jordan and took back its ancestral home.

Do you really think that a UN resolution will get Israel to give up the city that is mentioned over a thousand times in Jewish holy books but not once in the Koran?

Mr. Prime Minister, there never was a country called Palestine. Palestine only existed as a British mandated territory. Ironically Jews living there called themselves Palestinians. A Palestinian regiment made up of Jews fought for the British in WWII. The local Arabs allied themselves with Nazi Germany because as Former Jordanian Health Minister Dr. Zaid Hamzeh stated, Germany hated the Jews.

Condemning Israel for Jews living in East Jerusalem is a racist attack on the Jewish people. With policies like this, it’s no wonder that antisemitism is on the rise in Canada. Do you feel proud that your government’s policies are enabling incidents of Jew hatred in Canada? Do you even know this is happening?

Ethnically cleansing Jews from Jerusalem is right out the Hamas playbook. Has Canada subcontracted its Mideast foreign policy to Hamas?

Respectfully yours,

Lawrence C. Shapiro,

Formerly A Calgarian and still a proud Canadian

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