Jewish Congress-paid trip to Israel has national chief on defensive

Wed Mar 8, 5:56 PM ET

OTTAWA (CP) - One of Canada's top native leaders is the target of angry protest after taking an all-expense-paid trip to Israel.

An open letter from 47 grassroots groups to Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says he was used by the Canadian Jewish Congress - which paid for the trip - as a cover for "Israeli atrocities committed against the Palestinian people."

Fontaine and 17 other assembly officials toured Israel from Feb. 17 to 22 at a cost of about $4,000 each or $72,000.

The visit, led by the Jewish congress, did not include the perilous West Bank or Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.

"We are sorry that we do not have the means to take you on similar tours to show you what is really happening in Palestine," says the latest draft of the letter, dated Monday.

"Perhaps you should ask the hundreds of international volunteers, including Canadians, who paid their own way to go there and bear witness to the continuous Israeli brutality against the indigenous people of Palestine."

The letter is endorsed by the Al-Huda Muslim Society, the Coalition for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine, the Free Palestine Alliance and other groups, many promoting human rights.

Several dozen more individual supporters signed on.

Fontaine describes the trip as "another step in our educational outreach and cultural exchange here in Canada and around the world.

"Israel and the First Nations share a common interest and goal in re-building from inflicted harms and commemorating catastrophic pasts," he says.

"Israel's resiliency and determination were inspiring and hopeful."

The Canadian Jewish Congress, which is funded through private donations, first discussed a cultural exchange with the assembly in 1998.

Talks sped up when remarks by former assembly head David Ahenakew made shocking headlines.

Ahenakew was convicted in July of wilfully promoting hatred against Jews for making "dehumanizing" comments in December 2002, long after he had stepped down as head of the assembly.

He told a conference that Jews were responsible for starting the Second World War. He later added that they were a "disease" and that's why Hitler "fried" six million of them.

Ahenakew was a catalyst for the Assembly of First Nations trip to Israel, said Ed Morgan, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

"I'm hoping this is the silver lining in the dark cloud of the Ahenakew case."

Still, Morgan said he is baffled and disturbed by concerns raised about what he called a purely cultural visit.

"To oppose an educational, historical trip to Israel is to oppose Jews and Israel for their own sake," he said Wednesday in an interview.

"Of course I can't agree with that letter. In fact, I can only recoil at that letter.

"We don't propagandize or say anything about the cause of Palestinian nationalism. We believe, I think like most Canadians believe . . . that there should be two states peacefully side by side for two nations and two peoples - each enjoying self determination."

Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, did not sign the letter. He said he wants to express his dismay to Fontaine in person.

"I think the First Nations leadership should listen to the grassroots. I speak to First Nations activists and they are sympathetic to the Palestinian struggle and they can relate to it."

Mitzi Brown, a Labrador Inuit who is now a Toronto-based student and journalist, has seen first-hand the squalor of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

"The (assembly) may want to paint it as a cultural exchange, but it sends the message that they represent the views of indigenous people in Canada and that they side with Israel in this conflict."

Fontaine does not speak for all aboriginal people and he should focus on problems at home, she said.

"Conditions on reserves, suicide rates, poverty, water conditions, overcrowding, housing and education."

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