MONTREAL – The Bloc Quebecois has infuriated Montreal’s Jewish community after three of its candidates attended a press conference last week organized by the Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), which champions itself as a human rights organization that condemns all violations of human rights.

PAJU officials called the hastily convened press conference to explicitly endorse six Bloc candidates. However, it was essentially an exercise in Israel bashing.

They said in a statement: “Canada flouts international law in what has become, under Prime Minister Paul Martin and Pierre Pettigrew, his Foreign Affairs Minister, a singularly biased foreign policy in favour of Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories, and the still increasing number of new Israeli colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. We have seen, with the advent of Paul Martin as Prime Minister of Canada, the total renunciation of a balanced and just approach to the Middle East, to the question of Palestinian human rights, and to the Palestinians’ legitimate wish for statehood. Under Paul Martin and Pierre Pettigrew and a number of influential members of the Liberal caucus in Ottawa known as the Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel, Canadian foreign policy vis-a-vis the Middle East has been made a platform for decisions taken in Washington and Tel Aviv and parroted by a complacent and unquestioning Minister of Foreign Affairs. As such, the role of the Canadian government is to l

end blind support to the continued illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, and to lend tacit support to the illegal occupation of Iraq by the Washington-led military alliance.

“The result has been an openly biased voting pattern at the United Nations: Minister Pettigrew votes in one of two ways, either abstaining from voting in any way that might censure Israel’s continued disregard of international law, or voting obediently along with Israel and the United States against the rest of the community of nations.”

The three Bloc members on hand were Vivian Bardot, running in a tight race against Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew in Papineau; Aphraham Niziblian, facing vulernable MP and former Liberal cabinet minister Denis Coderre in Bourassa; and Thierry St-Cyr, threatening to upend Heritage Minister Liza Frulla in Jeanne Le Ber. PAJU is also endorsing Marcel Lussier in Brossard-LaPrairie, the riding held by Jewish cabinet minister Jacques Saada; Jacques Léonard in Transport Minister Jean Lapierre’s Outremont constituency; and Maria Morani in Ahuntsic. Each are heavily ethnic ridings where the Bloc is focusing a lot its energy.

In a letter to Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, B’nai Brith Canada called on Duceppe to clarify the Bloc’s official Middle East positions, and outlined some of the concerns raised by PAJU’s statement.

B’nai Brith took great exception to the seeming endorsement by Bloc candidates of the position that “Canadian values are not those of Israeli values.” This contradicts Canada’s long-standing foreign policy, which is predicated on the two countries’ strong bonds of friendship, their shared democratic traditions and values, and the strong partnership that exists between Israel – a country on the frontlines in the global war on terror – and all Western democratic nations engaged in this same fight.

As for PAJU’s claim that an “influential” Liberal caucus known as the “Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel,” which is allegedly in cahoots with “Washington and Tel Aviv” to create a Canadian foreign policy that is “singularly biased” in favour of Israel, implies that “influential” Jews are effectively pulling the strings and effectively controlling American and Canadian foreign policy. B’nai Brith in its letter said this is offensive, barrowing from age-old antisemitic conspiracy theories that suggest an international Jewish cabal seeking world domination.

PAJU’s press release cited Canadian UN voting on Middle East issues as so-called evidence of Canada’s biased support for Israel. Rather, to the contrary, Canada’s UN voting history shows that in a clear majority of cases Canada voted in favour of resolutions that negatively targeted Israel, B’nai Brith noted.

PAJU has also been at the forefront of a campaign, which calls for a boycott against Israeli products and companies that it considers lend support to the Jewish State’s so-called “apartheid” regime. In advocating disinvestment from Israel, PAJU has aligned itself with enemies of Israel that deliberately perpetuate dangerous and erroneous mythology that has no basis in fact, B’nai Brith said, asking that the Bloc categorically reject such a policy, which does nothing to advance the cause of peace and which in fact is injurious to Palestinian economic aspirations, which are linked closely with Israel’s own.

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem told the Jewish Tribune that in his eyes the PAJU supports Palestinian acts of terror, and refuses to accept Israel as a Jewish state.

“No responsible voice on foreign affairs would stand hand in hand with PAJU, a group that does not accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state,” he said. “In particular, at a time when there is a fair amount of hope for peace, to stand hand in hand with a radical group that legitimizes Palestinian terror is to stand against peace and stability in the region.

“In addition, it is a mockery to consider the Jews who are involved in PAJU as being in any way representative of the Jewish community. They represent no more than a faint handful of Jews. Imagine Jean Chretien being used as an example of public opinion in the francophone community!

“These PAJU guys are a hundred times less popular in the Jewish community than Chretien is in the francophone community. I would expect these members of the Bloc, who are supposed to represent all Quebecers, to create partnerships with mainstream groups, and take a mainstream view on the Middle East. Unfortunately, this press conference strikes me as political pandering of the worst sort.”

PAJU was co-founded in Montreal by Bruce Katz, a Jewish Canadian, and Rezeq Faraj, a Palestinian Canadian, who have been friends for more than 25 years.

Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko said that PAJU is virtually unrecognized within the Jewish community.

“There are more midget albino vegetarians in Montreal than Jewish supporters of PAJU,” he said. “Members of the Bloc who attended the press conference exposed themselves as either willing dupes or grossly naive. They are certainly unaware that the entire membership of PAJU was sitting at that table. When it comes to groups like PAJU, all they merit from us is ridicule.”

With the Bloc candidates looking on, PAJU began talking about the Israeli ‘annexation’ wall, which they say was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2004. “Canada abstained from the UN vote condemning Israel’s construction of the ‘illegal’ wall, and insisted that the decision of the International Court of Justice not be binding,” the PAJU complained. “As a result of this pattern of voting, Canada has isolated itself from the international community and has discredited itself within diplomatic circles. Paul Martin’s Liberal government has virtually destroyed the reputation, which Canadian foreign policy built for itself in the decades of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. In the process, the Martin government has snubbed and alienated more than 600,000 Muslim and Arab Canadians, subjecting them at the same time to the type of racial-profiling seen in the United States subsequent to the passing of the Patriot Act.”

On the Bloc, PAJU says “in our eyes, it is the Bloc Québécois, and not the Liberal Party of Canada, that carries with it into this election those values of democracy, pluralism, and tolerance, which have reflected Canadian attitudes over the past decades. It is the Bloc Québécois’ policies which best represent our hopes as citizens of all faiths and all ethnicities for a foreign policy which endorses international law and justice. It is the Bloc Québécois which best represents the immigration policy and social policy which will protect our civil liberties and the rights of immigrants and refugees in Canada.”

The Bloc head office did not return the Jewish Tribune’s calls.