Firas
Al Najim is a Co-Manager of Canadian Defenders For Human Rights
(CD4HR)
is a pro Palestinian Canadian registered non for profit organization
(NO.1067715-9).
On May 19, 2019 CD4HR issued the following statement:
#CD4HR manager Firas Al Najim Hussaini Al Najim declares an important statement! The anti Semitic attacks and accusations on him and the organization are STRONGLY CONDEMNED & they won’t be accepted or tolerated! We call on all the organizations and individuals to retract the statements and revise all the false accusations from all statements and articles! #OccupiedPalestine
CD4HR’s statement is accompanied with a video message by Firas Al Najim that was taped in front of a street sign for the Walk with Israel on Bathurst Street in Vaughan, On.
Here is the transcript of Firas Al Najim’s video massage:
May 19, 2019. Firas Al Najim, manager of Canadian Defenders for Human Rights [CD4HR]. I’m here on Bathurst [Street] and I was driving by because I’m a North York resident. Being a North York resident for a while and nobody can evict me from this area because this is a diverse area. This is not just a Jewish area. This is not just a Muslim area. This is not just a Christian area. This is not just an atheist area. This is an area for everybody to live in, all the Canadian citizens from whatever background they are, what religion they are, because I do see a lot of attacks.
As you see the Walk with Israel is moving north now. I think they have changed the location. It is also very painful for me to be always seeing this sign [Walk with Israel] everywhere, you know. As a human rights defender as we see that the Palestinians have been suffering for over 71 years now, or we will almost going to 71 years in a couple days.
So these attacks that we see on the Palestinian people especially when they started the first day of Ramadan but being bombarded, and we saw pictures and videos of dead children. You know, this is a very painful thing and then when we see these promotions of Walk with Israel everywhere obviously we gonna express our opinions. Obviously we have the right to speak out. Obviously we have the right to oppose this illegitimate state [Israel].
And if we don’t, then really what human rights can I promote? What human rights can I speak about, you know. It is just unbelievable. You see? I have to see this [the sign Walk with Israel] in front of me. It’s painful to be honest with you. They haven’t only aggressed [sic] against the Palestinian people, they’ve aggressed [sic] also against the Lebanese people, they occupied that place for some time. There was a civil war over. They supported certain factions and armed them up, and then they also now are always, you know, launching air strikes in Syria, you know.
And they’re justifying whatever way they want, just like right now they’re trying to justify their attack on me, calling me an anti-Semite. This is a very strong and big attack on me as a person, okay, because I love Jews, especially the Jews that are righteous, that stand for the right, for the right things. I love Rabbi [Yisroel Dovid] Weiss [Neturei Karta], he’s my good friend. Rabbi [Dovid] Feldman [Neturei Karta] he is my good friend, and you’ll see, I’ve not met them just this time. We met several times before different Rabbis and we have coordinated and I’m close to these people, and we pray beside each other. We respect each other. I respect their kosher meals I respect their religious holidays. I respect everything that they stand for, because the people that are righteous, that believe in their faith, and this is what we stand for too, okay. That’s what I stand for. I respect diversity. I respect people’s religions. I respect people’s rituals and rights. So this attack on me, it’s trying to defame me and my organization [CD4HR], and I take this severely severely as a strong attack on my identity and my organization and I will not sit silent about this [unintelligible].