Canadian Government ends funding for extremist Palestine House.

Canadian Government ends funding for extremist Palestine House.(Mississauga).Government ends funding for Palestine House.Mississauga-based Palestine House has had government funding for its newcomer settlement and language instruction services cancelled because of what Ottawa calls the cultural centre's "pattern of support for extremism."
Palestine House officials say Citizenship and Immigration Canada's recent decision to pull the plug on funding — money that's been coming annually for the past 18 years or so — is part of a campaign by the Conservative government to target organizations that support the human rights of Palestinians.
The educational and cultural centre, located on Erindale Station Rd., received about $950,000 in funding last year.
The absence of that money means it will no longer be able to provide settlement services and language programs to newcomers, officials say, adding about 20 people - instructors, settlement and childcare workers, and administrative staff - will lose their jobs as well.
Palestine House officials say they received a letter in late January from Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney indicating the funding agreement wouldn't be renewed.
Kenney spokesperson Kasra Nejatian told The News today via e-mail that the minister has expressed concern that Palestine House has aligned itself with extremist causes.
Nejatian pointed to several events as cause for concern, most recently a gathering hosted by Palestine House that, according to the minister, celebrated the release of hundreds of terrorists. Additionally, a 2008 event at the cultural centre honouring Dr. George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), caught the government's attention.
The PFLP is the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization and, in the 1960s and '70s, was responsible for numerous armed attacks and aircraft hijackings.
"We repeatedly raised, with Palestine House, our concerns about this pattern of support for extremism," said Nejatian. "But, unfortunately, the organization has continued to promote extreme positions that undermine, rather than advance, social cohesion. We can no longer justify subsidizing such an organization with tax dollars, particularly to provide integration services for newcomers to Canada."Palestine House spokesperson Samir Jabbour said, "It was made clear in correspondence to Minister Kenney that Palestine House categorically denounces all forms of terrorism or extremism.Hmmmm......Blazing Cat Fur has a long list of examples of their 'Denouncements'here are a few examples:

Examples of Anti-Semitic Advocacy Associated with Palestine House

1. Rashad Saleh, former President of Palestine House, compared former
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Hitler as he urged on a crowd of protesters chanting “death to Jews” at a 2000 rally. In 2002, Rashed Saleh seemed to dispute the historical validity of the Holocaust. While speaking to CFRB radio he referred to a “so-called” Holocaust. He also compared Israeli government to the Nazi regime by saying “Israelis are engaging in atrocities similar to the one that Hitler has made.”
http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=131860

2. Adam Hanieh and Rafeef Ziadah, both former Palestine House board members, are members of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) and CUPE, and were instrumental in advocating in favour of CUPE Ontario's May 2006 anti-Israel boycott resolutions. Ziadah accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and calls for the full return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel. See: http://www.thestar.com/article/591429, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mivJjLE7e8, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i3NFNsX11w

3. Addressing a 2006 Rally in Toronto condemning Israeli self-defense against Hezbollah attacks, former Palestine House President and current board member Elias Hazineh saluted Hezbollah and Hamas, both listed as terrorist entities in Canada.

4. Following a successful “Land Day” in March 2007, Palestine House published this statement supporting the actions of “martyrs” against “the Israeli Apartheid regime” on their website:
“As the Israeli Apartheid regime continues to steal the lands, properties and lives of the Palestinian people, and intensifies its aggression against neighboring Arab states, it is increasingly imperative that Palestinian and Arab people all over the world hold remain steadfast in demanding the liberation of the Palestinian people, the return of the Palestinian refugees, and the return of stolen Arab land to its rightful owners. The success of events like this year’s land day celebration shows that these demands are not mere utopian dreams, and that the lives of our martyrs have not been given in vain.”
[See WayBackMachine of PalestineHouse.com on April 2007]

4. In June 2007, Palestine House began calling for a boycott/picket campaign against Chapters Indigo “to demand an end to Canadian ties with Israeli apartheid”.

http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/2007/june-9-2007-national-day-of-action-to-boycott-chaptersindigo/

5. A Palestine House event in October 2007 titled “Palestine: The Canadian Connection in the Current Crisis”, was promoted on their website with the following statement in support of Hamas, a listed terrorist entity in Canada: “Stephen Harper's Tory government shamefully led the international
community in imposing a siege on the Palestinian people for exercising their democracy under Israeli occupation, the first time in human history that sanctions have been imposed on a people under occupation. Since then, the US,EU, Canada and Israel have worked to bolster the regime of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as he works to negotiate away the historic rights of the Palestinian people to the delight of the Israeli apartheid regime.”
http://www.palestinehouse.com/oct4-07.html
And the list just go's on!

Read the full story here.And HT: BlazingCatFur.