Let your conscience guide you. Try not to let fear and hate propaganda determine your opinion. Put yourself in the shoes of a Palestinian and an Israeli civilian and consider that if you were treated as they've been treated, would you believe you were treated fairly or justly?
How would you feel if you were a Palestinian refugee who was forcibly removed from their home, so it could be demolished to make way for a Jewish only colony? How would you feel if you were Israeli and Jewish, living in one of those new homes for Jews only?
Israel collects taxes on all commerce entering or leaving Palestinian territories. That tax money is supposed to pay the salaries of Palestinian civil servants, including police, fireman, teachers, doctors... Tens of thousands of Palestinians aren't getting paid right now. They have families with hungry children and bills to pay. The taxes Israel collects and then withholds has a ripple affect across the entire Palestinian economy. FYI: Israel uses this money like a loan to finance Jewish only colony building in the West Bank.
If you were a Palestinian doctor, how would you feel knowing that you didn't get a pay check so that Israel could finance building the wall that keeps you imprisoned, demolish your neighbor's homes (one day yours too) and build Jewish only homes on what used to be a Palestinian village?
Taxation without representation isn't just unfair, its also one of the main causes of the American revolution.
Also Goober is wrong. Israel has never paid back all the money they've collected from Palestinians in the form of taxes. They still owe money to the PA going back as far as 2006, when Hamas won democratic elections:
Hamas and the Shrinking PA Budget - Council on Foreign Relations
IMO, Canada is on the wrong side of history. Not that long ago Canada's leaders were on the wrong side of history regarding Jews just like we are now regarding Palestinians:
The MS St. Louis was a German ocean liner most notable for a single voyage in 1939, in which her captain, Gustav Schröder, tried to find homes for 937 German Jewish refugees after they were denied entry to Cuba, the United States and Canada, until finally accepted to various countries of Europe. Historians have estimated that, after their return to Europe, approximately a quarter of the ship's passengers died in Concentration Camps.
MS St. Louis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canada has made a clear statement in support of never ending negotiations which allow Israel a free hand to build Jewish only colonies over the final remnants of land supposedly reserved for a future Palestinian state.
Apparently what really pisses off our government is when Palestinians go to the UN and ask for their fundamental human rights. The nerve of those uppity Palestinians. Don't they know their station in life? They are destined to live out their lives in cruel subservience to their Zionist overlords.
Can anyone quote any Harper government representative condemning Israel's decision to accelerate their ethnic cleansing in violation of international laws? As far as I can determine, not a single member of the Harper government has ever spoken up in support of Palestinian Freedom and Justice or condemned a single cruelty or injustice suffered by Palestinians. Instead they've expressed unshakable support for every Israeli cruelty and injustice against the Palestinian people and made historically incorrect statements regarding Palestine based on discredited old pro-Israel propaganda:
Baird condemns Israel's critics in speech at Jewish gala - Politics - CBC News
Jews should not trust politicians who selll themselves to the highest bidder, like Baird was doing at that fundraiser. Politicians which sell themselves to the highest bidder can switch allegiances as quickly the next highest bid. For a price they can quickly become as antisemitic as they are currently pro-Zionist. Only politicians who base their policy on a respect for fundamental human rights can be trusted to ensure that Jews never again face institutionalized discrimination and oppression.
The rest of the world must have a pretty low opinion of Canadians right now.
You claim you want debate, but you clearly don't. If you did, you wouldn't make snide insulting remarks.
You are entitled to your opinion, which IMO seeks to justify the unjustifiable. Good luck with that. You seem to have a problem accepting the obvious truth that awarding and withdrawing rights based on religion and race is wrong even when Israelis do these things. IMO, its always been wrong. Its wrong now and it was wrong when the Nazis did it in the 1930's and 40's. If you truly believe in freedom and justice, then you cannot support Palestinian injustice and oppression, no matter how sympathetic you are to historical Jewish suffering.
Historical injustice, oppression and cruelty suffered by one group of people cannot be remedied by subjecting another group of people to injustice, oppression and cruelty. The cycle of injustice, oppression and cruelty can only be broken by truth, freedom and justice.