On November 13, 2019 Hammam Farah, a board member of the Palestine House, posted a “statement from the board of the Palestinian Canadian Community Centre – Palestine House – البيت الفلسطيني”:
As we remain committed to standing in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners, we would like to salute Ontario MPP Joel Harden for his support of Khalida Jarrar, a Palestinian parliamentarian being held under administrative detention by Israel.
Harden tweeted last Wednesday that he was “saddened, sickened and disgusted by the continued abuse of Khalida Jarrar,” and called on the Justin Trudeau government to demand her immediate release.
As expected, the right-wing Israel-lobby group B’nai Brith Canada then proceeded to viciously attack him. Harden is well-known as an anti-war activist and a staunch advocate for human rights and peace and justice internationally. He is also a friend to the Palestinian community. We urge the Ontario NDP and its leader Andrea Horwath to stand by Harden and not to succumb to the pressure.
Jarrar was abducted from her home in the occupied West Bank in the middle of the night last week by dozens of armed Israeli soldiers and has been detained without charges. Earlier this year she was held by Israel for 20 months without charges or trial.
We join Harden in calling on the Trudeau government to demand Jarrar’s immediate release. And we call on Palestinian Canadians and supporters of freedom, justice and equality to contact their Members of Parliament to do the same.
The official website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) describes Khalida Jarrar (خالدة جرار) as a person who holds a leadership position within the PFLP.
In 2003 Canada designated PFLP as a terrorist organization. According to Public Safety Canada:
Formed in 1967, the goals of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a communist government in Palestine. During the 1970s, the group took part in some of the boldest terrorist attacks of the period, such as hijacking three civilian airliners in one day and storming the Vienna headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Since 2000, the PFLP has turned increasingly to the use of suicide bombers, guerilla tactics, car bombings, and mortar strikes. The PFLP was also responsible for the first assassination of a cabinet minister in Israel’s history, killing Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. In 2014, the PFLP claimed responsibility for a November gun and knife attack at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in West Jerusalem that killed 6 people. More recently, on June 16, 2017, two coordinated attacks targeting Israeli police officers were carried out near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s walled old city.
B’nai brith Canada’s statements:
Sign Our Petition – Politician Doubles Down on Support for Terror Leader