MONTREAL — Plans for Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to visit Canada in the near future to meet with Canadian Jewish leaders are still on, even though the visit has been put on hold because of upheaval in the Arab world.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
“For now, nothing has changed” regarding the plans, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler told The CJN last week. He and Abbas privately arranged for the visit when they met in Ramallah last December.
In Canada, the meeting is slated to be hosted by the bipartisan joint House-Senate Committee on the Middle East Peace and Reconciliation that includes fellow Liberal MP Bob Rae and Tory senators Linda Frum and Hugh Segal.
A cross-section of the Jewish community is supposed to meet with Abbas.
Cotler told The CJN in late January that Abbas’ visit would take place “within the next six months.” Soon after, he said in off-the-record remarks (which have since been reported in another publication) that the original date for the visit was February, but was rescheduled to April due to the unexpected turmoil in the Arab world – timing that still fell within the “six months.”
Unless the trip is delayed again or cancelled, however, the six-month time frame – which would lapse during the summer – remains in effect, he said.
Cotler, contrary to a report in the other publication, did confirm that Canada-Israel Committee head Shimon Fogel, as The CJN reported Feb. 10, was the first Canadian Jewish leader to be made aware of Abbas’ planned visit, even though other Jewish community figures were subsequently notified.
However, Cotler said that one quote in the Feb. 10 report – attributed to Abbas, suggesting that Israel was responsible for “incitement” against the Palestinians – was erroneous.
