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SVEND ROBINSON TO TRAVEL TO ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED TERRITORIES ON URGENT SOLIDARITY MISSION TO JOIN ARAFAT IN RAMALLAH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE , APRIL 3, 2002


Betreff:  [AL-AWDA-News] Canadian Parliamentarian to visit Ramallah
Datum: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 22:11:12
Von: "Dan Fredrick" <danfredrick@hotmail.com>
An: Al-Awda-News@yahoogroups.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 3, 2002

SVEND ROBINSON TO TRAVEL TO ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED TERRITORIES ON URGENT SOLIDARITY MISSION TO JOIN ARAFAT IN RAMALLAH

OTTAWA - NDP Foreign Affairs spokesperson Svend Robinson will travel to the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Friday, April 5th. Robinson will seek to enter Ramallah and meet with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian leaders.
    While Israeli authorities have sealed off the city from all foreign visitors, diplomats, and journalists, Robinson will seek to enter Ramallah to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people. The MP plans to meet with President Arafat shortly after his arrival in Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon.
    "Like many Canadians, I am deeply concerned and alarmed about the illegal, violent actions of the Israeli government in the occupied territories, particularly sealing off Ramallah and President Arafat from the eyes of the world," Robinson said. "The Israeli government is demonstrating total contempt for international humanitarian law and the 4th Geneva Convention.
    "The Red Crescent has issued a desperate plea to stop the Israelis from cutting off water, food, medicines, and medical supplies including oxygen and blood, and from blocking ambulances," the NDP MP said. "Tragically, in responding to terrorist suicide bombers who have killed innocent civilians and whose actions must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, Israel is itself guilty of acts of state terrorism."
    Robinson is calling on the international community to speak out against the Israeli siege of the occupied territories. The MP has criticized the decision of the Canadian delegation at the UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday to oppose a special sitting of the Commission to debate the current events in the Occupied Territories.
    Robinson has also called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss the deployment of an international protection force in the occupied territories.
    "The dehumanizing and illegal occupation must end, and both Israel and Palestine must live in peaceful coexistence as viable independent states, free of all threats from neighbouring countries," the MP for Burnaby-Douglas said.
    Svend Robinson is the longest serving member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, and is also the elected Rapporteur of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on human rights and democracy. He has informed the Department of Foreign Affairs of his plans, and is seeking their assistance to facilitate the visit.

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Svend Robinson will be available for comment. Please contact his assistant Dan Fredrick in Ottawa by e-mail at robins@parl.gc.ca or at (613) 996-5599.



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