The
following is the full transcript of remarks made by Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper to Israel's Knesset on January 20th, 2014.
"Shalom"
"And thank you for inviting me to visit this remarkable country, and
especially for this opportunity to address the
Knesset.
"It is truly a great honour.
"And if I may, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my wife Laureen and the entire
Canadian delegation, let me begin by thanking the government and people of
Israel for the warmth of your hospitality.
"You have made us feel extremely welcome.
"We have felt immediately at home.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Canada and Israel are the greatest of friends, and
the most natural of allies.
"And, with your indulgence, I would like to offer a reflection upon what
makes the relationship between Canada and Israel special and important because
the relationship between us is very strong.
"The friendship between us is rooted in history, nourished by shared
values, and it is intentionally reinforced at the highest levels of commerce and
government as an outward expression of strongly held inner
convictions.
"There has, for example, been a free trade agreement in place between
Canada and Israel for many years an agreement that has already proved its
worth.
"The elimination of tariffs on industrial products, and some foodstuffs,
has led to a doubling in the value of trade between our
countries.
"But this only scratches the surface of the economic potential of this
relationship and I look forward to soon deepening and broadening our mutual
trade and investment goals.
"As well, our military establishments share information and
technology.
"This has also been to our mutual benefit.
"For example, during Canada's mission to Afghanistan, our use of
Israeli-built reconnaissance equipment saved the lives of Canadian
soldiers.
"All such connections are important, and build strong bridges between
us.
"However, to truly understand the special relationship between Israel and
Canada, one must look beyond trade and institutions to the personal ties of
friendship and kinship.
"Jews have been present in Canada for more than 250
years.
"In generation after generation, by hard work and perseverance, Jewish
immigrants, often starting with nothing, have prospered
greatly.
"Today, there are nearly 350,000 Canadians who share with you their
heritage and their faith.
"They are proud Canadians.
"But having met literally thousands of members of this community, I can
tell you this:
"They are also immensely proud of what the people of Israel have
accomplished here of your courage in war, of your generosity in peace, and of
the bloom that the desert has yielded, under your
stewardship.
"Laureen and I share that pride, the pride and the understanding that
what has been achieved here has occurred in the shadow of the horrors of the
Holocaust;
"the understanding that it is right to support Israel because, after
generations of persecution, the Jewish people deserve their own homeland and
deserve to live safely and peacefully in that
homeland.
"Let me repeat that: Canada supports Israel because it is right to do
so.
"This is a very Canadian trait, to do something for no reason other than
it is right even when no immediate reward for, or threat to, ourselves is
evident.
"On many occasions, Canadians have even gone so far as to bleed and die
to defend the freedom of others in far-off lands.
"To be clear, we have also periodically made terrible mistakes as in the
refusal of our government in the 1930s to ease the plight of Jewish refugees
but, as a country, at the turning points of history, Canada has consistently
chosen, often to our great cost, to stand with others who oppose injustice, and
to confront the dark forces of the world.
"It is, thus, a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and
just, regardless of whether it is convenient or
popular.
"But, I would argue, support today for the Jewish state of Israel is more
than a moral imperative it is also of strategic importance, also a matter of our
own, long-term interests.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I said a moment ago, that the special friendship
between Canada and Israel is rooted in shared
values.
"Indeed, Israel is the only country in the Middle East, which has long
anchored itself in the ideals of freedom, democracy and the rule of
law.
"These are not mere notions.
"They are the things that, over time and against all odds, have proven to
be the only ground in which human rights, political stability, and economic
prosperity, may flourish.
"These values are not proprietary; they do not belong to one nation or
one people.
"Nor are they a finite resource; on the contrary, the wider they are
spread, the stronger they grow.
"Likewise, when they are threatened anywhere, they are threatened
everywhere.
"And what threatens them, or more precisely, what today threatens the
societies that embrace such values and the progress they
nurture?
"Those who scorn modernity, who loathe the liberty of others, and who
hold the differences of peoples and cultures in contempt. Those who, often begin
by hating the Jews, but, history shows us, end up hating anyone who is not them.
Those forces, which have threatened the state of Israel every single day of its
existence, and which, today, as 9/11 graphically showed us, threaten us
all.
"And so, either we stand up for our values and our interests, here, in
Israel, stand up for the existence of a free, democratic and distinctively
Jewish state or the retreat of our values and our interests in the world will
begin.
"Ladies and gentlemen, just as we refuse to retreat from our values, so
we must also uphold the duty to advance them.
"And our commitment as Canadians to what is right, fair and just is a
universal one.
"It applies no less to the Palestinian people, than it does to the people
of Israel.
"Just as we unequivocally support Israel's right of self-defence, so too
Canada has long-supported a just and secure future for the Palestinian
people.
"And, I believe, we share with Israel a sincere hope that the Palestinian
people and their leaders. will choose a viable, democratic, Palestinian state,
committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish state of
Israel.
"As you, Prime Minister [Netanyahu], have said, when Palestinians make
peace with Israel, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian
state as a new member of the United Nations - it will be the
first.
"Sadly, we have yet to reach that point.
"But, when that day comes, and come it must, I can tell you that Israel
may be the first to welcome a sovereign Palestinian state, but Canada will be
right behind you.
"Ladies and gentlemen, support - even firm support - doesn't mean that
allies and friends will agree on all issues all of the
time.
"No state is beyond legitimate questioning or
criticism.
"But our support does mean at least three
things.
"First, Canada finds it deplorable that some in the international
community still question the legitimacy of the existence of the state of
Israel.
"Our view on Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and
non-negotiable.
"Second, Canada believes that Israel should be able to exercise its full
rights as a UN member-state and to enjoy the full measure of its
sovereignty.
"For this reason, Canada has spoken on numerous occasions in support of
Israel's engagement and equal treatment in multilateral
fora.
"And, in this regard, I should mention that we welcome Israel's induction
this month into the western, democratic group of states at the United
Nations.
"Third, we refuse to single out Israel for criticism on the international
stage.
"Now I understand, in the world of diplomacy, with one, solitary, Jewish
state and scores of others, it is all too easy "to go along to get along" and
single out Israel.
"But such "going along to get along," is not a "balanced" approach, nor a
"sophisticated" one; it is, quite simply, weak and
wrong.
"Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where that kind
of moral relativism runs rampant.
"And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of much more
sinister notions can be easily planted.
"And so we have witnessed, in recent years, the mutation of the old
disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new
strain.
"We all know about the old anti-Semitism.
"It was crude and ignorant, and it led to the horrors of the death
camps.
"Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with
us.
"But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated
into more sophisticated language for use in polite
society.
"People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own
failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel
and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle
East.
"As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders
today call for a boycott of Israel.
"On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies
thinly mask the underlying realities, such as the shunning of Israeli academics
and the harassment of Jewish students.
"Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid
state.
"Think about that.
"Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that: a state,
based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was founded so Jews can
flourish, as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist
experiment in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is masked in the
language of anti-racism.
"It is nothing short of sickening.
"But this is the face of the new
anti-Semitism.
"It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to
make the old bigotry acceptable for a new
generation.
"Of course, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of
itself necessarily anti-semitic.
"But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the
Jewish state and effectively denies its right to defend itself while
systematically ignoring - or excusing - the violence and oppression all around
it?
"What else can we call it when, Israel is routinely targeted at the
United Nations, and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a
permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its human rights
council?
"Ladies and gentlemen, any assessment - any judgment - of Israel's
actions must start with this understanding:
"In the sixty-five years that modern Israel has been a nation, Israelis
have endured attacks and slanders beyond counting and have never known a day of
true peace.
"And we understand that Israelis live with this, impossible
calculus:
"If you act to defend yourselves, you will suffer widespread
condemnation, over and over again.
"But, should you fail to act, you alone will suffer the consequence of
your inaction, and that consequence will be final, your
destruction.
"The truth, that Canada understands, is that many of the hostile forces
Israel faces, are faced by all western nations.
"And Israel faces them for many of the same reasons we face
them.
"You just happen to be a lot closer to them.
"Of course, no nation is perfect.
"But neither Israel's existence nor its policies are responsible for the
instability in the Middle East today.
"One must look beyond Israel's borders to find the causes of the
relentless oppression, poverty and violence in much of the region, of the
heartbreaking suffering of syrian refugees, of sectarian violence and the fears
of religious minorities, especially christians, and of the current domestic
turmoil in so many states.
"So what are we to do?
"Most importantly, we must deal with the world as we find
it.
"The threats in this region are real, deeply rooted, and deadly and the
forces of progress, often anaemically weak.
"For too many nations, it is still easier to scapegoat Israel than to
emulate your success.
"It is easier to foster resentment and hatred of Israel's democracy than
it is to provide the same rights and freedoms to their own
people.
"I believe that a Palestinian state will come, and one thing that will
make it come is when the regimes that bankroll terrorism realise that the path
to peace is accommodation, not violence.
"Which brings me to the government of iran.
"Late last year, the world announced a new approach to diplomacy with the
government in tehran.
"Canada has long held the view that every diplomatic measure should be
taken to ensure that regime never obtains a nuclear
weapon.
"We therefore appreciate the earnest efforts of the five permanent
members of the security council and germany.
"Canada will evaluate the success of this approach not on the merits of
its words, but on the implementation and verification of its promised
actions.
"We truly hope that it is possible to walk the iranian government back
from taking the irreversible step of manufacturing nuclear
weapons.
"But, for now, Canada's own sanctions will remain fully in
place.
"And should our hopes not be realized, should the present agreement prove
ephemeral Canada will be a strong voice for renewed
sanctions.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude with this
thought.
"Je crois que l'histoire d'israel est UN tres bel exemple pour le monde
entier.
"I believe the story of Israel is a great example to the world. "It is a
story, essentially, of a people whose response to suffering has been to move
beyond resentment and build a most extraordinary society a vibrant democracy a
freedom-loving country. with an independent and rights-affirming judiciary, an
innovative, world-leading "start-up" nation.
"You have taken the collective memory of death and persecution to build
an optimistic, forward-looking land one that so values life, you will sometimes
release a thousand criminals and terrorists, to save one of your
own.
"In the democratic family of nations, Israel represents values which our
government takes as articles of faith, and principles to drive our national
life.
"And therefore, through fire and water, Canada will stand with
you.
"My friends, you have been generous with your time and
attention.
"Once more, Laureen and I and our entire delegation thank you for your
generous hospitality, and look forward to continuing our visit to your
country.
"Merci beaucoup.
"Thank you for having us, and may peace be upon
Israel."
No comments:
Post a Comment