TOP CANADIAN ZIONAZIS DEMAND SUPPRESSION OF AL-JAZEERAH

Apr 24, 2003 - The Montreal Gazette
By: KEITH M. LANDY and JOSEPH GABAY
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Hate, lies and videotape:
The CRTC should ban Al-Jazeera from Canada because it offers programming that is virulently anti-Semitic and racist and is likely to contravene Canadian law

Canadian cable companies have applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a licence to broadcast Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arabic-language TV network. The Canadian Jewish Congress strongly opposes these applications, because Al-Jazeera offers programming that is virulently anti-Semitic and racist, and likely to contravene Canadian law.

Perhaps the licence applicants either don't know of the network's very troubling underside or are ignoring it. But let's be clear: Al-Jazeera's programming characterizes Jews in repugnant and gutter-like language (''apes and pigs'' is a favoured reference), threatens Jewish rights and physical security, affirms Holocaust-denial and supports and glorifies suicide bombings.

Al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden's bullhorn to the world, has served as virtually the exclusive source for his statements, including expressions of abhorrence for Jews and Judaism. The goal of his umbrella terrorist group is the International Islamic Front is ''to confront Jews and crusaders'' (1998 interview); American reaction to 9/11 is a ''new Jewish crusade;'' (on-air letter, Sept. 23, 2001); U.S. government officials are ''agents of the Jews'' (audiotape, October 2002), who are ''murderers of the prophets ... usurers and whoremongers....'' (sermon carried March 2003).

The Opposite Direction, a two-hour weekly show moderated by Al-Jazeera's Faisal Al-Qassam, on Jan. 22, 2002, wondered whether Bin Laden was good or bad for Islam. A Saudi cleric, arguing in the affirmative, described Jews as ''the most despicable people ... worms ... all evil,'' blaming them for 9/11 and calling on the U.S. to ''get rid'' of them.

Al-Qassam himself, on July 10, 2001, asked: ''Who hurt Israel and achieved the first victory in modern Arab history if not the Islamic Jihad movement? The heroic Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is a popular movement. 'Hezbollah' is a beautiful, mighty name, and as many have said, it succeeded in expelling the Zionists from southern (Lebanon) like dogs - my apologies to the dogs.'' An episode on May 15, 2001 asked ''Is Zionism worse than Nazism?'' An e-mail read on-air noted that ''God - will not be deterred unless there is a true holocaust that will exterminate all of them (the Jews) at once'' while the infamous French Holocaust-denier Robert Faurisson, who twice testified in Canada on behalf of Ernst Zundel, participated via telephone. Not incidentally, another Al-Jazeera show, Without Borders last November interviewed the notorious American white supremacist David Duke.

Sheikh Yousif Al-Karadawi, host of the weekly program Sharia and Life, is the suicide bombers' champion. A close disciple denied in a CBC interview that the sheikh ''incites'' young people to suicide terrorism. Rather, he stated, the sheikh ''motivates them'' to perpetrate these acts (CBC's Disclosure, April 1).

In Canada, individuals identified by such characteristics as race, religion and ethnic origin are protected by the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations from ''any abusive comment ... that tends to or is likely to expose'' them to ''hatred or contempt.''

The Criminal Code also protects them from any communication that ''wilfully promotes hatred.''

The Criminal Code also prohibits advocating genocide. In fact, provisions of the recent Anti-terrorism Act might well be contravened by Al-Jazeera coverage (when news reporting and analysis give way to support and unfiltered messaging) of Al Qa'ida, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad - all organizations that the government of Canada has placed on its list of banned terrorist entities. Allowing Al-Jazeera on Canadian airwaves will ensure regular breaches of these statutes.

Canadians are defined by a set of core values, among them the inherent dignity and security of the person, pluralism, social harmony and cohesion and civility in public discourse. Al-Jazeera programming runs afoul of precisely these values and the body of jurisprudence that Canada has developed to safeguard them.

As a long-standing policy, CJC has supported the promotion of ethnic television stations that, in their own languages, serve our country's various communities and reflect Canada's commitment to multicultural diversity. Our opposition to Al-Jazeera, therefore, has nothing to do with conflicting points of view or ''undesirable'' material. It has everything to do with opposing anti-semitic hatred, affirming Canadian values, respecting Canadian law and upholding the Canadian public interest.

Keith M. Landy is national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress and Joseph Gabay is chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec Region.

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