MONTREAL — Irwin Cotler, the Liberal Opposition’s special counsel on Human Rights and International Justice, tabled a historic petition to Parliament calling on the government to do more on behalf of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit.
At a press briefing last week, Cotler said it was the first time such a petition has been filed in Parliament.
The petition coincided with the 1,000th day of captivity of Schalit, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists on June 25, 2006, in a cross-border raid from Gaza into Israel territory.
Speaking in Parliament last week, Cotler said Schalit, who is believed to be still alive, “is being held in complete isolation.”
“The petitioners note that he has been denied any kinds of rights afforded to him under humanitarian law, including the Geneva Convention to which Canada is a state party and which rights Canadians have a commitment to respect.”
The petition calls on the Canadian government to insist that bodies such as the Red Cross, the United Nations and other agencies be granted access to Schalit – including family members – as a bare minimum, in addition to being provided firm proof that he is alive.
The government should also insist on Shalit’s repatriation to Canada as a “matter of fundamental decency and justice.”
“No one even knows where he is being held,” Cotler told reporters.
Cotler considered it tantamount to a “standing war crime” that Schalit continued to be held captive.
Cotler also tabled another petition in Parliament on behalf of his Mount Royal constituents and other Quebecers that voiced alarm over an escalating level of state-backed anti-Semitism in Venezuela.
The petition, Cotler told media, was not unrelated to the declaration that emerged from the recent international conference on anti-Semitism in London.
Cotler said Venezuela has seen a “deligitimization from the president [Hugo Chavez] on down of the Jewish people and Israel.”
Cotler told Parliament that the events in Venezuela have included “attacks on Jewish persons, property and religious institutions, such as the firebombing of a synagogue in Caracas.
He said members of the Venezuelan Jewish community “fear for their safety and their denial of religious freedom.”
