Canadian Arab Federation

Group representing Arab Canadians

The Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) was formed in 1967 to represent the interests of Arab Canadians with respect to the formulation of public policy in Canada. It presently consists of over 40 member organizations. CAF's stated objectives include protecting civil liberties and human rights as well as combating racism and hate within Canada. It has been most vocal against anti Arab and anti Muslim activities in Canada, and has issued many position papers to the government with respect to its policies in the Southwest Asia and its domestic immigration policies. It discharges its political tasks by building media and government relations and grassroots support through various capacity building projects within the Canadian Arab community, and promoting Muslim and Arab culture. In 1982, the CAF commissioned a study on the depiction of Arabs in political cartoons published between 1972 and 1982 in Canadian dailies. Published in 1986, the study determined that Arabs were repeatedly portrayed in a stereotypical fashion as bloodthirsty terrorists, untrustworthy, ignorant, cruel, and backward. The researcher pointed to the danger of such pervasive negative imagery, recalling the role played by German caricaturists in their similar depictions of Jews as laying the basis for the Holocaust. In The Holocaust, Israel, and Canadian Protestant Churches (2002), Haim Genizi writes of the CAF's participation in a 1982–83 initiative of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) to launch a tripartite Southwest Asian discussion group for the CCC, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), and the CAF. When the CJC declined to dialogue with Arabs, meetings between the CAF and the CCC alone continued on for eight months, ending with agreement on the need to educate Canadians to dispel anti Arab stereotyping. During the Gulf War, CAF documented over 100 violent anti Arab incidents, calling the security roundup of more than 1,000 Arab Canadians the most encompassing security sweep in Canada's history. On June 14, 2004, the CAF, in cooperation with the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR CAN), presented before the Arar Commission, a Canadian special commission set up to investigate the extraordinary rendition and torture of Maher Arar. A Canadian citizen of Syrian origin, Arar was detained by American immigration officials at a New York airport on a stopover there between Geneva and Toronto. He was sent to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured for a year before being released. The CAF and CAIR CAN reminded the special commission that there need, "be no contradiction between security and the fundamental values we share as Canadians". The joint submission continued:

Democratic and legal rights and liberties, pluralism, respect for human dignity and the rule of law are the principles that define us as Canadians. These are the 'basic tenets' of our legal system that find their explicit affirmation in the Charter. They are what safeguard democracy. If, in the name of fighting terrorism, we sacrifice these values for the sake of security, we lose our character, our identity, the very essence of a free and democratic society. We lose the war on terrorism if we become that kind of state that represses democratic rights and freedoms. Israel Palestinian conflict activism

1970s–80s
The CAF opposed Prime Minister Joe Clark's 1979 pledge to move the Canadian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and welcomed Clark's eventual retreat on the issue. CAF President Khaled Mouammar said that moving the embassy would have meant recognizing territory that was taken by force. In 1980, Mouammar said he would call for a boycott of stores selling Dedy Toys, which imported materials from a settlement in the occupied West Bank. In 1981, the CAF hosted a press conference for two Palestinian mayors who had been deported by Israel from the West Bank. The mayors called for Canada to put pressure on the government of Israel to permit them to return. Khaled Mouammar condemned Israel's attack on Iraq's Osirik nuclear reactor later in the year, and described Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as an "unrepentant terrorist" who was a constant threat to the region. In September 1982, the CAF led a non violent demonstration in Toronto against the massacre of between 762 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, in Sabra and the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. The organization later partnered with the Arab Palestine Association to find sponsors for children who had been orphaned in the attacks. When Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau recognized the right of Palestinians to a homeland in 1983, his statement was supported by the Canadian Arab Federation. Rashad Saleh, Mouammar's successor as CAF president, said that Canada's Arab community would strongly support any peace efforts brought forward by the prime minister. Prominent members of the Canadian Arab Federation criticized the Very Rev. Canon Borden Purcell in 1984, for comments that he made about anti Semitism and anti Zionism. Purcell, who was chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission at the time, had remarked that "public expressions of anti Zionism have now replaced public expressions of anti Semitism". Saleh responded that most Arabs oppose Zionism because of its pivotal role in the foundation of the State of Israel and of the "present plight of the Palestinians", adding that it was "not directed at Jews or their religion." Purcell later clarified that he did not believe "being anti Zionist is necessarily anti Semitic". In March 1984, the Canadian Arab Federation reported that a Montreal company hiring aircraft technicians to work in Israel was using discriminatory practices against Muslims. According to the CAF, LPL Engineering Services Ltd. informed an applicant that he was disqualified for the position because of his religion. A spokesperson for the company subsequently said, "There's a war going on out there, so why should the Israelis employ Arabs to work on secret projects. Would the Americans employ Russians?" The CAF indicated that it would consider filing an application before the Canadian Human Rights Commission or the Quebec Provincial Human Rights Commission. In the same year, the CAF criticized the Canadian government for its refusal to allow into Canada the Most Rev. Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, titular archbishop of Caesarea for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, who served several years in prison in Israel in the 1970s for using his diplomatic status to smuggle arms to the Palestine Liberation Army. The federation argued that his exclusion was part of "a strategy to keep articulate and informed spokesmen for the Palestinian cause out of the public eye." Also in 1984, the CAF undertook a fundraising campaign to build a cultural centre in the Israeli Arab community of Nazareth. Saleh asserted that the Israeli government was not providing the city with adequate infrastructure. Support for boycott of Israeli goods
In a press release responding to the recent stepped up Israeli attacks on Gaza known as Operation Summer Rains, the CAF urged the Canadian government to "join Canadian churches and unions by boycotting Israeli goods, divesting from Israeli companies, and imposing sanctions until Israel withdraws from all the occupied Arab territories, dismantles all settlements and tears down the Apartheid Wall." CAF's president, Khaled Mouammar, has referred to Israel as "the Israeli apartheid regime". In "Impressions of Palestine – 1948 Today", he wrote of a "racist ideology that guides the Apartheid State of Israel" and of his conviction "that one day the nightmare brought about by Zionism and colonialism will come to an end." Mouammar criticized Toronto Mayor David Miller for participating in Toronto's "Walk for Israel," stating that Israel is "a pariah state," and that Israel "systematically violates international law and practices racism". In a letter published in The Globe and Mail, Mouammar clarified that the CAF's stance on anyone who supports Israel is that "we [the CAF] assert that any support for Israel is support for apartheid, occupation and war crimes."" In his capacity as president of the Canadian Arab Federation, Mouammar has condemned Zionist organizations in Canada for their support of Israel. In January 2007, he wrote that Bnai Brith Canada and the Jewish Defence League were using "bullying and intimidation tactics to silence criticism of Israel" and had launched "a vicious campaign of intimidation" against movements that call for boycotts of Israel within the Canadian political landscape. He also wrote that as more people support boycotts of Israel, "the more difficult it becomes for pro Israel groups such as B'nai Brith and the JDL to spew their propaganda." In January 2008, the CAF and the Canadian Islamic Congress stated that "[the] Apartheid regime of the Jewish state escalated its genocidal crimes against the indigenous people of Palestine" and that "Palestinians continue to endure death, deprivation and destruction under more than 40 years of brutal Israeli occupation that has become an insidious and unremitting genocide." In March 2008, the CAF and the Canadian Islamic Congress stated that "Israel was founded upon the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Between 1947 and 1948, nearly 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and lands and over 500 Palestinian villages and neighborhoods were destroyed, and their inhabitants prevented from ever returning to their homeland."

In January 2009, Ali Mallah, a CAF Vice President, sharply criticized the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper for its position on the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. At a protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Toronto, Mallah stated, in a speech to the crowd, that:

[Canadian Minister of Transport] John Baird was quoted as saying the resisters in Palestine are cowards. Well I have news for you John Baird and Stephen Harper, the only coward we know is Stephen Harper and his government.

Ali Mallah, a CAF Vice President stated Hezbollah "is seen as a symbol of the struggle against Israeli oppression, injustice and occupation." During the 2006 Israel/Hezbollah conflict, CAF President Khaled Mouammar criticized the Canadian Government stance on Hezbollah, stating that:

By refusing to deal with Hezbollah, a political party represented in the Lebanese government whose resistance to Israel's aggression is supported by 87 per cent of Lebanese citizens, Peter MacKay is parroting the Bush administration's stand and is emboldening Israel to launch further wars against its neighbours.

In a policy paper released in November 2006, the CAF defended Hezbollah and Hamas, stating that "Both of these groups are legitimate political parties, with grassroots support, and are represented in the legislature and the cabinets of Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority respectively. Both groups are resisting the illegal Israeli occupation of Lebanon and Palestine respectively which right is guaranteed under international law" and called on the Canadian Government to "remove Hezbollah and Hamas from the list of banned organizations."

In January 2008, the Canadian government announced it was planning to boycott the 2009 World Conference against Racism (referred to commonly as "Durban II"). The Government justified its decision by stating that the first Durban Conference of 2001 "turned into an embarrassing promotion of racist attitudes" and became "a bit of a circus for intolerance and bigotry, particularly but not exclusively directed at the Jewish people." The Canadian Arab Federation strongly opposed this decision, stating in a news release that "Canada's outright rejection of the conference sends a clear message to the Canadian public that the current government is disinterested [sic] in promoting human rights and anti racism." As for the activities of the first Durban conference in 2001 in relation to Israel, the CAF argued that this "indicates that the international community and human rights organizations are in agreement that the occupation of Arab lands, the mistreatment and killing of Palestinians, and the denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return is in violation of international law and will be condemned and no longer accepted" and that "It is ironic that the Canadian government is so outspoken about shunning the conference due to the fear of hearing criticisms against the Israeli occupation, given its own past with hate and bigotry".

In January 2007, CAF President Khaled Mouammar wrote in the Toronto Star that: "for the Jewish president of Israel to believe that he is being targeted because of his Middle Eastern origin speaks volumes about the racism permeating Israeli society. This does not come as a surprise to the 1.2 million Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel who are Christians and Muslims. The racism they face is a result of official racist policies by the Israeli government." Mouammar concluded that "Racism in Israel is becoming mainstream. "</blockquote>

In February 2009, Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) sharply criticized the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) in an article published in the National Post. Fatah, who received the CAF's highest award in December 2001, stated that the CAF's current leadership has turned the organization "into a mouthpiece for Hamas and Hezbollah in Canada." Fatah stated that the CAF used to sponsor debates on the pros and cons of the Oslo peace accord but today labels "any backer of the two state solution [as] a traitor to the Muslim cause." Fatah claimed that CAF's vice president in Ontario, Ali Mallah, referred to the Muslim Canadian Congress in an online forum as "house negros" and had stated that Fatah himself has "no shred of decency of integrity left" and that he serves "Zionist masters." In response to Fatah's article, CAF Vice President Ali Mallah subsequently emailed a response to a large group of recipients. In the email, which was later republished by the National Post, Mallah wrote that:

In September 2010, CAF President Khaled Mouammar released a statement (which was later published by Al Jazeerah), calling for "all Arab and Muslim Missions at the United Nations to vote against Canada's bid to have a seat at the UN Security Council." Mouammar stated that "The evidence has been accumulating about the anti Arab and anti Islamic Canadian government [of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper] to the extent it is feared that if Canada gains a seat in the UN Security Council, it may be used against Arabs and Muslims around the world." Mouammar concluded by stating "granting Canada a seat on the UN Security Council would be tantamount to rewarding Canada for discriminating against Arab and Muslim Canadians, and for its unconditional and blatant support for Israel’s war crimes and violations of international law." In addition, Mouammar also circulated an email which linked to an article in The Tyee by author Murray Dobbin, which accused Canada, among other things, of working closely with Colombia, which is "virtually a U. S. military base," and that Canadian rescue efforts in Haiti following the 2010 Haiti earthquake are in fact a "neo colonial effort." Matt Gurney, writing in the National Post, criticised the CAF endorsing Dobbin's "anti Canadian position" and wrote that "Dobbin’s anti Canadian views are music to their [the CAF's] ears." B'nai Brith Canada also criticized Mouammar, stating that "Despite purporting to be advocates of Canadian values, the Canadian Arab Federation actively lobbied against their country thereby attempting to shame and divide Canada."