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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, May 19, 1983 -Page 7
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Finestone caiitionis against
'potential power play^^
JANICE ARNOLD
MONTREAL^
It's about 25 years since Bernard J. Finestone-was last actively associated with; Can^adian Jewish Congress^ and eveii then it was only for a short time. But as a fifth-generation Quebecer, whose falmily's roots in this province go back to 1850, he believes he can more than adequately handle his new position of chairriian of Canadian Jewish Congress Quebec Region.
Finestone, 62, succeeds Frank Schlesinger whose 3-year term of office expired following the recent Plenary Assembly.
At that time, in the 50s, CJC was concerned with promoting understanding between the Jewish community and the francophone majority in Quebec, and called in Finestone because he was one of the few people then who were fluently bilingual and comfortable in Quebec society.
Finestone's first priority today has more to do with internal than external relations. Like CJC at the national lievel and in the other regions, the "redefinition of roles and relationships" among Jewish organizations is the most immediate task at hand, says Finestone.
In the Quebec Region, dialogue has mainly been with Allied Jewish Community Services. As AJCS representative on CJC's Joint Community Relations Committee for the past three years, Finestone says "he can understand both sides" of the issue.
^4t doesn't seeni merger [with AJCS] is in the works/ but I don*t role it out," said Finestonie. Whatever decision is reached between the two organizations, it won't be a hasty one, he feels. Certain principles cannot be compounded in these diiscnssions, as far as CJC is concerned.
"I don't think AJCS will, can or should use its fund raising mandate^ entrusted to it by the community, as a justification for stamping out the rights and existence of significant pockets of the community who relate to* Congress and not to AJCS.
"Any redefinition of roles and structures will have io take into account the legitimate cpncems of those groups which traditipnally look to Congress . . .those whose interests and needs are not on the AJCS agenda," he ■said. ..;
CJC may be at a disadvantage in this "potential power play "because AJ CS is part of the National Budgeting Cohference, the body Which decides how community funds raised across the country will be allocated, including CJC.
"A situation could develop wherein the Quebec Region is left short of funds and >yill have to abandon programs AJCS wishes to take over," he said.
But, he empl;iasized, "to do so would be immoral and I doubt any responsible community leaders would do that."
One area that has traditionally been in CJC's domain and will remain inviolate, is political representation, Finestone said. ^*It would be highly inappropriate for AJCS to assume this responsibility. The interests of the monied members of the community ^ and I guess I'm one of them —^ are not necessarily parallel to those of the larger community."
CJC, he pointed out, has a democratic structure that is designed to allow input from the widest possible cross-section of the community, which is especially important before political representation is made.
"In the 15 years I sat on AJCS' board of trustees, I remember only six occasions when decisions by the officers were questioned — three of the times by me ^ and came down to a vote.'*
At the last Plenary Assembly, a resolution was passed making it mandatory for anyone wishing to officially take part in the proceedings to be "in good standing" with their local federation. A resolution was put before this year's Assembly from the Quebec Region calling for a change in that regulation. Serving the Jewish community in a voluntary capacity should be considered equivalent to a monetary contribution, it said.
How to generate more interest in the Quebec Region's activities is the next problem on Finestone's agenda. To streamline operations^he intends to cut the regional executive back to^ 60 members (ideally 10 from outside Montreal) from about 150 and to schedule meetings only four times a year instead of eight. In between, the regional officers will j^n^JC business. ~^In reducing quantity, Ffaiestone hopes to
improve quality./'Matters of substiance have to be presented for discussion, not just PR. People have to be there to do somethings not to be lectured. Iliese meetings should be a place for comniujdty members to stand up and be heard;" ^ ^
Finestone is convinced that the Quebec Jewish community should hot be afraid to make its feelings known to the Parti Quebecois government. "We are not out to overturn the PQ; CJC cannot be partisan,'' he saidj "but we must make the govemment aware of the community's concerns. If in the pursuit of these interests, we run opposite to government policy, so be it. This is all part of the political process."
Among specific issues CJC Quebec Region will continue to pursue are Sunday openings for businesses closed on Saturday, and Education Minister Camille Laurin's school restructuring plan.
As past president of the Jewish General Hospital, Finestone has had much experience in dealing with the Quebec government and its agencies.
Finestone says CJC's door will be open to co-operation with B'nai B'rith on issues of common interest during his administration, as well as to the Sephardic community. In the latter case, he had this to say: "The problems of acculturation are acute in any society, and take alriiost a generation to overcome. That
Bernard Finestone
the Sephardic community has suffered a severe trauma is obvious in its internal discord and external relationships.
''It behooves the estabUshed community, that is the anglo-Ashkenazim, to have some understanding, sympathy and warmth while the Sephardim are working out their problems. But we_cannot forcefeed; all we can do is create an opportunity and people will do what they do. Our doors are openrbut they will have to solve their own problems.''
Finestone is optimistic about the future of the Quebec Jewish community. "We are going to adapt and our children are going to comeback... not all but some."
Two of Bernard and Rita (nee Shuchat) Finestone's three sons have left Quebec; Brian is in Edmonton and Neil in California. Paul is a. partner with his father in the chartered insurance brokerage firm Abbey, Finestone Inc.
Other notes from Finestone's extensive curriculum, vitae are that he twice ran (unsuccessfully) for the Progressive Conservatives in St. Henri - Westmouht, and remains active with the party as president of that riding's PC association; is past-president of the Montreal Board of Trade and Jewish Vocational Service; and past vice-chairman of Combined Jewish Appeal and Congregation Shaar Hashomayim.
Last year, he chaired the community's celebration of the 150th anniversary of the political emancipation of the Jews of Quebec.
: By MARCIA KRETZMER
JERUSALEM —
The unseasonable rains and low temperatures on the 35th Independence Day did nothing to alleviate a national mood already dampened by the 500 dead and thousands wounded in the war in Lebanon ^— numbers continually swelled by new, almost daily casualties.
But torrential downpours, hail and mud did not deter 7,000 Peace Now supporters from turning up to protest a ceremony billed as a central Independence Day event: the granting of civilian status to an army outpost on Mount Gerizim overlooking Shechem, the West Bank's most populous city. The ceremony at Bracha, scheduled to become Shechem Illit-, was preceded by an Opposition campaign to stop the govemment choosing Independence Day for a ceremony "which symbolizes its policy of annexation of the West Bank," a policy on which Israelis are deeply divided.'
As things turned out, the ceremony was something of a non-event from the government 's point of view. The thousands of Peace Now demonstrators who converged on the site outnumbered the official participants to such an embarrassing degree that the ceremony took place two hours late in one of the resident's apartments and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Housing David Levy cancelled his address.
However the ceremony, whatever temporary discomfort it may have caused the organizers, underlines the fact that the Israeli govemment rejects any kind of territorial compromise on the West Bank^ a fact which many Israelis as weU as Jews abroad have been slow to digest.
In the decade following the Six Day War, the signals coming ft-om the Labor Alignment government regarding the future of the West Bank and Gaza were often confused. On one hand they permitted and even encouraged settlement over the Green Line, occasionally under pressure from militant religious groups. On the other hand they continued to preserve the^ concept of territories administered by an occupier according to intematignallaw and to hold out the hope of an eventual territorial compromise. As former Foreign Minister Abba Eban once put it: "What we are prepared to do about territories depends on what they are prepared to do about peace.''
That the overwhelming majority of Israelis backed this stand was proven when the Likud government was able, over considerable internal oppostion, to hand over the Sinai Egypt in return for peapeT
In contrast, the^Likud govemment has neve^ been in two minds about the future of the West Bank. But despite all the declarations that t\ie Land of Israel belongs to the State of Israel in perpetuity, to settle as
she alone sees fit, only 22,000 Jews have answered the call and gone to settle in the West Bank among an Arab population of over 700,000, and the problem still remained: how to get the people there.
The withdrawal from Sinai and Yamit and then the Reagan peace plan hastened the introduction of a new phase: channeling the lion's share of resources into a massive wave of heavily subsidized settlement in towns and suburbs over the Green Line.
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This plan, which could result in a further 80,000 Israelis making their homes on the West Bank in theneiU five years. Is seen by Peace Now and the minority of the Labor Opposition as a serious threat to any prospect of peace. At this rate, they say, there wiU be a significant Israeli public who have, settled down with their families on the West Bank and would fight any territorial compromise tooth and nail.
One of the people who have been saying for some time that the debate on the future of the West Bank has been overtaken by events is Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and presently senior researcher of the West Bank Data Base Project. His team, funded by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, carries out research and analyzes trends on the West Bank.
^^Look bow difficult it was to evacuate Yamit with only 8,000 residents," said Benvenisti recently in an interview in his Jerusalem office. **With present trends continuing, there could be 100,000 Jewish residents in 130 towns and settlements on the West Bank by 1987. What future govemment, whether Labor or Likud could afford to alienate so many voters by declaring itself ready for a territorial compromise?"
Until now, explained Benvenisti, development on the West Bank was based on the classic pioneering model: villages with an economic base, often agricultural. " Now what the government is offering are apart- ■ ments and bungalows with all the 'quality of life' and recreational facilities that go with/^^ them, in what, are essentially bedroom omrtrunities."
AH ^his, says Benevenisti, comes at ridiculous prices people can't afford to turn\ down. "With the money saved they can buy extra cars and videos and live pretty much as people would in Willowdale orDownsview— there*s certainly no pionejfering involved,'■ he added.
Still, there are signs of resentment that people, especially young families are being channeled into Maale Adumim, Efrat and Ariel. They ask: " What happened to Project Renewal? Why aren't we being, offered similar deals within the Green Line? "
Recently a group of people in Musrara, a poor area of Jerusalem scheduled for renewal, set up a mock "settlement" there to draw attention to their plight. But, says. Benvenisti, in the majority of cases, people will probably go where the best deals are being offered.
He continued: "Another thing to remember is that these settlements have separate local authorities, are linked by separate roads, serviced by separate health services, schools, mails, electricity and telephones. ^ Everything is based on separation.'' ^
Doesn't this strengthen the! government's claim that they are not interfering with the Arabs on the West Bank? Responded Benvenisti: * * Absolutely not .It's based on segregation and unequal treatment as in the Transkei in South Africa. All the resources go to develop one section of the population only. And it goes further: Jews are under one authority, Arabs under another."
In other words, democracy stops short at the West Bank? "Not at all," replied Benvenist?. "It depends which ethnic group you belong to. If you are a Jew you enjoy all the rights and privileges conferred upon you by Israeli society. If you are an Arab you are under military government.''
Emphasizes Benvenisti: "It is important to understand that de facto annexation has already taken place. We proclaim daily that we are there to stay and now we.are seeing the consequences: the Arabs are going to resist — often violently — and the resistance will be countered with increasingly harsh measures. There are already over 1,000 military orders, a policy of harassing Arab residents, 1,000 banned books — the possession of which is an offence.
"There are prison camps, heavy fines, night trials, curfews, schools and universities are periodically closed down......"
Benvenisti is pessimistic about the chances of a way out. Without any realistic -peace proposal by Jordan and the Palestinians, many, perhaps most, Israelis see no reason whatever not to settle historic Eretz Yisrael. The danger, claims Benvenisti, is that this policy is undermining Israeli ^democracy and brutalizing Israeli society, whilosplosing off all peace options.
Benvenisti compares the problems the occupation creates for Israel to the spreading . of cance^r. "If we could have cut the occupation out at an early stage we could have stopped the disease; At this stage, it may already have gone too far and now, when we call for a curfew to be lifted or for die release of a newspaper editor who Is under arrest, aU we are doing is treating the symptoms."
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