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<h1><font size=4><b>Why was PA’s Canada envoy forced to resign over a
tweet?</b></font></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/dana-olwan">Dana Olwan</a>
<br>
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<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-was-pas-canada-envoy-forced-resign-over-tweet/10521#.Tqg70LLZdBk" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-was-pas-canada-envoy-forced-resign-over-tweet/10521#.Tqg70LLZdBk<br>
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<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/location/vancouver">Vancouver</a>
<br>
25 October 2011 <br><br>
<br><br>
A video featuring a Palestinian girl reciting a poem was at the center of
a diplomatic storm in Canada.<br><br>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/electronic-intifada">The
Electronic Intifada</a> <br><br>
<br>
On 17 October, the Canadian government subjected Linda Sobeh Ali, the
chargé d’affaires of the
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority">
Palestinian Authority’s</a> delegation in Ottawa, to what <i>The Globe
and Mail</i> described as a “high-level dressing down”
(“<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/palestinian-envoy-is-asked-to-leave-ottawa-after-controversial-tweet/article2204367/">
Palestinian envoy is asked to leave Ottawa after controversial
tweet</a>,” 18 October 2011).<br><br>
Ali’s transgression was her tweeting of a poetic recitation by a young
Palestinian girl on YouTube
(“<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edrxhuFysF4&feature=player_embedded">
Heartbreaking poem of young Palestinian girl</a>,” YouTube).
Nationalistic in its rhetoric, the poem invites Palestinians and Arabs to
work towards freedom, revolution and the liberation of
Palestine.<br><br>
Canadian government officials, under orders from
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/john-baird">John Baird</a>,
the foreign minister, have deemed this poem offensive. They falsely claim
it culminates with a call for “the death of Jews.”<br><br>
The officials who alerted Baird to the poem relied on an
English-subtitled version that mistranslated the final verse from a call
to “extinguish the soul of a Zionist” to an invocation “to war that raze
the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews [sic]”
(“<a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/18/feds-turf-palestinian-rep">
Feds turf Palestinian rep</a>,” <i>Toronto Sun</i>, 18 October 2011).
This was the version tweeted by Ali and subsequently used as pretext for
her dismissal from her capacity as representative of the Palestinian
Authority in Ottawa.<br><br>
The incident was set into motion when Baird was notified of the tweet by
Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Center for Israel and Jewish
Affairs, a
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-was-pas-canada-envoy-forced-resign-over-tweet/electronicintifada.net/tags/israel-lobby">
lobby organization</a> that actively works towards strengthening the
Israel-<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/canada">Canada</a>
relationship. Two weeks later, with the aid of Morris Rosenberg, Baird’s
deputy minister, the Palestinian representative was brought in for a
high-level “sit down.”<br><br>
Unsatisfied with simply making his own and by extension the federal
government’s opinions on Ali’s conduct known to her, Baird also
involved the Canadian representative in the West Bank, Chris
Greenshields, who then notified the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah of
its dissatisfaction with Ali’s retweet.<br><br>
<b>Gleeful reporting in media<br><br>
</b>In an email sent by Chris Day, a spokesman for Baird, Ali was
informed in no uncertain terms that her “serious transgression” has lead
the Canadian government to “have taken the decision to limit
communication with this official until a replacement is selected.” While
the media is adamant to point out that Ottawa did not order Ali’s
removal, the email circulated by Day amounted to a discharge, endorsed by
the highest level of the Canadian government. Or, as <i>The Ottawa
Sun</i> reported, “The federal government is sending the Palestinian
representative to Canada packing.”<br><br>
Linda Sobeh Ali has since shut down her Twitter account and, in response
to pressures from the Canadian government, she has resigned and will be
heading back to the West Bank or reassigned to a different location.
Emotional, apologetic and regretful is how Ali is being represented to
Canadians. She is sorry to have retweeted a poem she had not seen nor
heard. She has no interest in spreading “hate” and she “regrets” the
poem’s “controversial” and political content, she has told the media
(“<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/18/palestinian-tweet.html">
Palestinian envoy apologizes for controversial retweet</a>,” CBC News, 18
October 2011). The Palestinian Authority has asked her to submit her
resignation because it has no wish to “offend” Ottawa.<br><br>
But what exactly is Ali apologetic about? Why doesn’t the PA wish to take
a stand against the Canadian government, a government that has repeatedly
declared and acted upon its unwavering commitment to the Israeli state
even in the face of illegal settlement expansion, continued land
expropriation and theft, and mass population removal and
displacement?<br><br>
What part of the poem’s call for Palestinian liberation and struggle
against Zionism offends the Canadian government’s sensibilities? Or does
this recent attempt merely replicate the strategies used in the US to
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-childrens-images-war-censored-under-pressure-us-israel-lobby/">
stifle the expressions of Palestinian children</a> who live under Israeli
occupation and experience its transgressions on a daily basis? Does the
Ottawa government take issue with the poem’s strong invocations against
the settler-colonial project of Zionism? Perhaps this designation of
Zionism as a settler-colonial project is too close for comfort for Baird,
an important figurehead for the settler colonial state of
Canada?<br><br>
<b>An undignified “recall”<br><br>
</b>Linda Sobhi Ali’s apology and the PA’s “recall” of its representative
embolden the Canadian government’s lie that the poem spreads hate. This
affair renders apparent the national and international politics of public
shaming and deception being played out against Palestinian representation
in Canada and by extension Palestinian Canadians and the Canadian public
at large.<br><br>
It lays bare how the Palestinian struggle against Zionism is being
scripted as unjust, hateful, and deserving of state censorship and
control. This latest act of surveillance and discipline needs to be
understood as a national spectacle of racial, national, political and
gendered significations.<br><br>
<b>Sexist stereotypes<br><br>
</b>Through her apology, Ali is painted as a weak female official, an
inept representative of a loathed non-state entity, whose foolishness and
recklessness cost her an important job. Relying on the tired gendered
stereotypes of the hysterical, emotional and irrational woman, Miranda
Stephenson described Ali to CTV as “very emotional, very regretful, [and]
in tears at points.”<br><br>
Compelled to disavow her tweet and distance herself from the political
content and message of the poem, a humiliated Ali has said: “I am against
hate. I am pro-peace. I’m a person who is advocating for the dialogue
between Jews and Palestinians because that is the only way that will lead
us to a just, lasting peace”
(“<a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Ousted+envoy+regrets+anti+Israel+retweet/5570655/story.html">
Ousted envoy ‘regrets’ anti-Israel ‘retweet’</a>,” <i>Ottawa Citizen</i>,
19 October 2011).<br><br>
But these apologies, concessions and disavowals are insufficient for a
federal government that has proven eager to stifle legitimate critique of
Israel, punish Palestinian representation and demonize Palestinians and
their allies in Canada. Because, like Shimon Fogel, this government
ascribes to the politics of obfuscation and distortion that would have
Canadians believe that there is no difference between a poem that calls
for a struggle against Zionism and one that spreads anti-Semitism through
calling for “a war that … destroy[s] the Jews”
(“<a href="http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/10/19/3089887/canada-rebukes-palestinian-official-for-offensive-tweet">
Palestinian official in Canada apologizes for offensive tweet</a>,”
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 19 October 2011).<br><br>
<b>Complicit media<br><br>
</b>What does this reprimand signify in broader political terms? It
displays the Canadian government’s uncritical support for Israel and its
allies in Canada. In this political climate, and in accordance with the
new and all-encompassing definition of anti-Semitism provided by the
federal government and signed by Baird, speaking out against Zionism and
Israel is an act of racism
(“<a href="http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2011/2011-09-19.asp">
Canada becomes the first country to sign the Ottawa Protocol</a>,” press
release, Citizen and Immigration Canada, 19 September 2011).<br><br>
Meanwhile, the Canadian public is encouraged to accept a mistranslation
for a fact, showcasing, at best, a failure of journalistic integrity, and
at worst, a willful act of public deception. Baird has fired a shot
warning the Canadian public and the international community at large that
this government will not tolerate opposition to Israel in any form.
Expect Ali’s reprimand to be one of many pro-Israel performances in the
year ahead by Canada’s Conservative government.<br><br>
<i>Dana Olwan is former National Chair of Solidarity for Palestinian
Human Rights. She resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.<br><br>
<br><br>
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