Page 4 - The Canadian Jewish News! Friday, May 26, I'^TS
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Editorial
TheCainadian news
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: . vol: XVIV, no. 15 (1,004) . :
I'liMislK-J b\ I liv C'.iir;idi;iii Ji-wjsli News
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Yuri Orlov sentenced
Justice, Soviet style
.A loft\ eiMi-iitution was Jrattai. A .vigna-tiire s\as .itf;\ed to a shallow document in Bcljirade Atid now. ihrce vears after the o\crhlowii oraior\ m support of human rights-..ii ihe Helsinki eonfereiice, the Soviets are yetting down to the business of the da\: dissident eriishiiio. Round one, in an expected series of th.ree eircus matches took plaee last week when Yuri Orlov 'eo-.toiinder wuh .Mexaiuier Gin/burtj and AnatoK Seiuiransks of .Moscow's Helsinki monitoring eoniniittee. was sentenced to 12 \ears of hari! labo'r jiul exile.
It was a elas,sic ilhisiration of the Soviet , judw.iars .1 si.iic-app.oinied and controlled deteiue ^cr. a pre-sciecicd public ijroup ot hostile spcct.itor-. the absence of journalists ,iiui. iiiosi ir.iuicallv. a predetermmed \erdici. Ihe crime: "antiSoMei agitation and propaganda." kno\Mi in the West as freedom »it speech
An appeal jirnbabK will not overturn the sentence ot sc\en \ears' labor .md t'uc \ears' "inieriial i.'\iie" for the ,s.V\(_.;ir-old
physicist. ..And the Soviet judicial system will similarl> bulldoze its way through the life of Ginzburg and Scharansky. both held incommunicado for more than a year. The intent is clear — no organized public criticism of the government. The suppression tactics are far from subtle. Disturbingly, all three of the leading activists are Jews.
Despite the ominous tone set by the kangaroo court. Soviet Jews are still leaving the country at a pace of some 500 a week, higher than the past several years. Concerned about acquiring Western technology, the Soviet Union is unlikely to jeopardize its already shaky relationship with the U.S. bv curtailing emigration. Nevertheless, the dissident trial is a brutal slap in the face for Western democracies who drafted the Helsinki accord's human rights provisions and stood idly by. watching those safeguards flow down the drain, in the name of a higher "ideal"' called detente.
Cultural renaissance
F.>r 111.1 n\ c.ii - ( .iiKuia h.is hi.", i; .i ^ iiliur-.il. b.ick\\aie; .is tar as serious .Jewish le.irning is ^■'j.^i. riu u Our sni.i!! .Icwish jiopulair'I'l sp;i.-,ii! .i^ioss this v.is; i.uu! has not liclped-ii: pruiioiing .i cre.ilivv .hwish spirit.
^Ve h.ivc alwavs h.id .i ir.iduioii o\ sending our biulding r.ibbis and te.ichcrs to seminaries .uui \i.'sh;voi in the L'nited States .md Isr.iel \\'hile there is nothing wrong will-: iiiis m principle, the exodus of so m.inv t^ilicil people t-wer the vears h.is drained Caii.idi.iri .!ewr\ ot some of its best puieniial li.'ack-rs
There are now signs on the hori/on that this situation nia.v be rectified m the vears to ■ conie. .Aliliotmh '.!>ere IS still no ni.ijor rabbinical semm.irv m Canada several small veshivot have been touiuied vvilhm the last tieeade wl'.icli shMiw proniise ot helping; to develop cadres ot \oung lews who .ire know ledgeable- about .Iiidaisn on i.he highest lev el.
Partieulurlv-nieniofh.'Us ;n the latter caie-gorv is.Toronto'sOr Ch.aim Veshiv.i and its distaff counterpart ..the .L'lpana. .A uiiiqiie .ediicaiional institution, ihjs sctiool blends, the traditional curriculum, of the veshiv.i with emphasis on tliecentralitv of Israel tor the .lewish people. The dynamism ot the Or ■ Clniim progj-anihas attracted acciaim from
Jewish, educators across North .America.
.Another manifestation of the quickening of Canada's, Jewish cultural and religious renaiss.mce is the recent publication of new journals devoted to the study of Judaism. The Canadian .lew ish Historical Socictv has alreadv issued two interesting volumes of essavs on various aspects of the Jewish experience in this laiui.
In this regard we note with pleasure the new scholarlv review. The Journal of I'svchologv and Judaism. Hditcd by Oita-w.rs Rabbi Reuben Bulka. this periodical publishes learned articles on various aspects ot [5syeliologv and psychiatry — as ihev relate to Jewish iss"ues. past and present. h IS mteresting to note that- the American Jewish community, vyith a population 20 times larger than'that of Canada's, h.is no comparable publication.
AN'hile *v e applaud these several adv ances on the Cana'dian Jewish scene it should he p.ointed out at the same time that with rare exceptiiMi, virtually no scholarly books on Jewish themes are published . in this country. This community i^ still largely dependent on .New York firms for such works.
Our record as a Jewish comniiinityin this respect /therefore, is improving but there is still some'distance to so.
There was an ominously faniiliar sound to' the argument. used by the Republican leader in the L'nited StaiesSenare.. Howard
.Baker.'to drum up' support-for'-President
., Jimmy Carter's, package arms deal for the Middle East, with its oO'F-l5 Eagles for Saudi ..Arabia.. • . .'
■ "Saudi pride and Saudi'modcraiion .will. r.eeeive a stunning blow' if a■cpmmitmei.it. made publicly by .the President of the United States is publicly repudiated by- the Uiiited States. Congress.". Senator. Baker ,intoned.- ;
It :vvas. with-..appro.ximately the same argument thai'ihe United States Senate," including Senator WillianvFulbrighi voting againsChis own b.cst-'judgriient.was gulled.-
• inio'supportiiig ihe Tonkin Gulf resolution-, that gave .President Lyndon Johnson a free hand.iirVietnani. .'■..'.-.
.. It .is an 'argument that, taken seri'oLisly:. \< o u i d t u r n t h e o ce u p a n t o f t h e W h i t c H o u s c
into an all-powerful autocrat and reduce the United States Congress to the functions of a rubber starnp.
But the cynical opportunism of Senator
. Baker's argument made it a perfect match fpr the deal it was advanced to support, a deal that increases, substantially, the dangers of war in the Middle East by adding Saudi .Arabia to the ranks of cdnffontation,
, states-within immediate and threatening range of Israel's heartland; .
President Carter talks of restoring' balance to American dealings with the .Middle East; But the real balance that is the glial vin this transaction is. that of the-American balance of payments. And the "pride" and. "'moderation" used in...Washington in talking about Saudi Arabia are just new and more diplomatic ways of spelling the old threedetterword, "oil". - >
An editorial in The Globe & Mail, {Toronto
Many have spoken of Israel's-benevolent occupationof the West Bank and some havis.'
; charged the Israelis with terror tactics to repress the local Arab population. ^
■ Military occupation is never a pleasant'. business and. xonsidering everything, the
. Israeli occupation has not been a harsh one in the majority of cases. Viewed in historical pcrspeetive, the occupation has neither been ajlorious page in Israel's history; nor a particularly black one. Like an albatross, it has bedeviled the Israelis for the last 11
years..
Receiit evcnisin the Middle East availed the vvorld oFan.opportunity to vvitncss the good, the ba"d and the ugly of the Israeli occupation. During Israel's, plunge into southern Lebahpn last March, a ripple of. discontent surfaced on the West Bank. The Israelis are no strangers to Arab dcmonstra- ■ tions, protests haying occurred on a fairly regular basis since 1967. In this instance, however, the jittery Israelis took no chances in their attempt to discourage unrest on the . West Bank.. ./A
In a tovxn called'Beit Jala (pppuiation 8,000), 50 Israeli troops rolled up in trucks and surrounded a school. According to Time magazine, vvhich exposed the incident; the spldiers ordered .the pupils rr all in their early teens — to close the windows, then hurled anti-riot gas into the packed class-
rooms. The students were so frightened that they leaped 18 feet to the rocky ground belpw. Ten 'were hospitalized with frac-
. tures, and.severalwill apparently have lifelong limps. ; . -the incident Avas4nitially disinissed by . the j^rmyas a minor miishap that had beei exaggerated by Time. But a subsequent.investigation.' ordered by Defence Minister Ezer Weizman. proved the validity of the charges. As a direct result, the. commanding officer ofthe West Bank, Brig.-Qen. David Hagoel, was removed from his post, while the-military governor of Bethlehem and his deputy were piit on trial and repriimanded for their part In the affair.
The dismissals reflected the two sides of Israel'socciipation — the repressiyeone and the humane one. The sacking of Hagoel and his over-zealous assistants . showed that justice can prevail over injustice. By the same token. however; the incident-brings into play the whole question of ^Israel's occupation of an area containing one million mainly hostile, highly nationalistic Pales-
. tihians who detest foreign rule and who vyill never sit still untiLthey are in charge of their oxyn affairs.
Israelis who dream of a^Greater Israel should consider that facrt and draw the appropriate lessons from the regrettahlein--cident in Beit Jala...
Vigil kept over Israeli society
By MARCIA KRETZMER
JERUSALEM -
Civil liberties are currently making headlines in Israel. The issues range from alleged- misconduct of the police during demonstrations and arrests to the censoring of sensitive material on the news.
Most democratic countries have organizations for the defence of civil liberties, and to find out about the situation in Israel. The-CJN lalkedto Ruth Gavison. a member of the law facu.lty at Hebrew L'liiversiiy. and outgoing chairperson ofthe .-Xssociation for Civil Rights in Israel. The association, a small non-political organi/ation. was formed in l'^~2. It was assisted at first by the .American Jewish Committee, but now runs on a shoe-string budget and most of the work is carried out on a voluntary basis.
CJN: What accounts for the relatively late start ofthe association's activities in Israel'.' Isn't there as much sensitivity to civil liberties in Israel as in other democratic countries'.'
Gavison: I wouldn't want to give the impression that we are theonlv civil rights group in Israel. There are others which deal with specific issues, such as prisoners" rights, with whom we co-operate. J'hen tliere is Sluilamit Aloni's Civil Rights .Movement, whkh is a [i.irli.imeniary . iioliiical party doing important work in this area. However. 1 wiHild agree that there is a ceiiain lack ot public awareness ot the issues.
Under the British Mandate, civil rights were v igorously championed-bv the Yishuv, But with the establishment ofthe state, it was regarded as almost unpaiiioiic to suggest that our mvn government was not taking care of our civil liberties adequately. Add to this the fact that large sectors of the population come from F-.isiern L'urope and the .Arab countries, w here civ il liberties are simply not taken seriously. CJN: But these liberties are anchored in Is raeli law.
Gavison: Certainlv. Israel, like Canada and Britain, has no formal constitution. .An at tempt was made at passing an all-embrac ing civil liberties law. though it never passed the committee stage. But the principles set out in the Declaration of Independence are embodied in various pieces of legisl.i-tion. so there is no basis for saying there is no adequate defence of these liberties in Israeli law.
CJN: What are vour principal areas of concern?
Gavison: We operate in four major areas: pensonaf status, particularly marriage and divorce, which are in the jurisdiction of the religious courts. Then there arc security-connected issues, vvhich include administrative arrests, ami expropriation of land or property, Lhis shades off into the.third area: freedom of speech! because for.reasons of secui^ity. people with unconventional political opinions may be denied freedom of expression. You have a problem here in-the schools in the Arab sector,where litera-ture may be banned from the syllabus, because-.its Arab-hationalist- overtones are taken as an attack on Israel. Lastly, there is 'law and order": the rights <.)f prisoners and suspects, and recently, the pur.suit of organized crime suspects at the e.vpei-iseof civil
; rights; '. . ' ■ \
CJN:' What'incfhods do you use in-dealing
with.these cases'.'
Gavison: We hold-symposia, keep a close watch on selected issues and legislation, preparcTcports for MKs and the press. We have framed bills on women's status and administrative arrest. Soon we shall begin publishing pamphlets for the public on topics like the rights of people under arrest. . Another issue we shall be taking up is hospitalization of the mentally sick against their will.
CJN: How much of your vxork is connected w ith minority rights?
Gavison: Possibly 60%. Recently, for example, we were asked to deal with the case of students from Taibc, a village inside Israel, w ho were tried in a military instead of a civil court after anti-government slogans were tound scrawled on the walls. Then there is our ongoing treatment of Ncgev Bedouin complaints. They were involved in a cohi-plex land claims dispute with the government, in the course of which they have been turned off land, had buildings demolished and their shepherds harassed.
Wc have also taken up the case of Mohammed Burkan. a Jerusalem Arab, who uas evicted from his home in the Jewish Ouarter during renovation projects, and refused the right to reacquire property there. And as for cases of threatened civil rights beyond the "green line", such as incidents involving student demonstrations in Bir /.eit. Ramallah and Beit Jallah — as the other party here is the Israeli authorities, vve.do not feel ourselves free, as an Israeli organization. \o refrain from dealing with these problems.
CJN: Doesn't this mean the association is often identified with a left-wing political Ime?
Ga\ison: Not necessarily. It should be remembered that Herut was in the forefront ol .1 crucial civil liberties-struggle in this
Hebrew
(Carol Goottir photo)
Unlversilv's Ruth Gavison
country: the ending of military government over Israeli Arabs in the '60s. The defence regulations, which give virtually unlimited powers to the executive to curb personal liberty and freedom of expression, were inherited from the British Mandate. Herut feared that keeping them on the book in a sovereign Israel would be a standing invitation to the government to crush the opposition. But the fact remains that at the time these regulations were used against Israel's Arab population.
The Likud in power has continued to take this line. Soon thev mav allow the inhabi-
tants of Biram and Ikrit, who were expelled after the War of Independence for security reasons, to-rcturn to their homes near the Lcbaiiese border. Then you have the removal of Brigadier David Hagoel from his post as regional commander of Judea and Samaria — an unprecedented step. (Brigadier Hagoel was removed from his post on the orders of Defence Minister Ezer Weizman, after an investigation substantiated reports in Time magazine and the Israeli daily Haarctz. The reports, two months ago, said that an army unit caused injury to high school students in Beit Jallah, who had earlier taken part in demonstrations, by tossing tear gas grenades into their classrooms.)
CJN: One can guarantee ci.vil rights even to groupsvvhose objective is the overthrow of society?
Gavison: Clearly, a civil rights organization would support measures against groups engaging in violent, subversive activities such as you have today in Germany or haly. But it would not support the authorities if they tried to muzzle groups who publish unorthodox opinions in pamphlets. When a policeman tells people collecting signatures for the Peace Now movement that he has orders' to' monitor subversive activity, and asks them to identify themselves, as happened here recently, a warning light should flash somewhere.
CJN: It is sometimes-claimed that a country like Israel, threatened on all sides, and,from within, cannot afford the luxury of the full range of civil liberties. Gavison: In a country with no dissension or internal divisions, you probably wouldn't need a civilrights as.sociaiion. It's precisely where there arc burning controversies and real problems that it becomes so crucial to defend civil rights.
i.viicv- UK Jiie hditoi
Article on proposed Psychologists Act
: readers
givesm
Hear Editor:
The article on Marvin Goodman in The Canadian Jewish News, April 21, gives a vet-y misleading impression of the proposed Psychologists Act. As a spokesman for the Ontario Psychological As.sociation (OPA). Dr. Goodman compares the act to our scat-heh law. whicK is "an example of government control for the common good."
Anyone who reads the proposed act will sc(> how' silly this comparison is. The act defines the "practice of psychology" so that it includes all forms of counselling and then prohibits anyone from practising psychology unless he or she belongs to a group which is specifically exempted from prosecution.
.An exemption is given to clergy only if they confine their counselling to their own congregation and receive no remuneration, directly or indirectly, from the.recipient of the counselling. And according to the act, the cabinet has the authority to change or to Withdraw an exemption which has been granted; ■
If the act were passed, rabbis, priests and ministers — and every citizeri ^ would have the right to counseTothers who have personal problems only if given permission by. the government. And the- state would thus acquire the authority to eliminate any voluntary association vvhich involyes counselling: new religions and old religions, distress centres and yoga centres, therapy groups and ethnic associations.
Any time the public is in a moojd of scape-gdating panic, an unpopular group coiild be prosecuted for-counselling without a license andwithout an exemption. All jgroups ■
would exist by permission of the state unless they banned counselling among their members. And the OPA would be the nev\-"state church", with a prc-cniinchce over all other groups.
It is not surprising that such totalitarian legislation has been officially opposed by many different groups, such as the Toronto Board of Education, the .Family Service ' As.sociation of Metropolitan Toronto, the Ontario Medical Association, the National Congress of Italian Canadians (Toronto branch). The Ontario Association of Professional Social Workers, The Ontario Council. of the United Church of Canada, the Canadian Association for Pastoral Education, and the Ontario Federation of Yoga Teachers;
Donald Evans, chairman, Commltlee Against Psychologists Act, Toronto
Dear Editor:
lam angry, saddened and appalled by your newspaper reporting ofthe implica-tioiis of the "Proposal to Control the Prac-'' tice of Psychology in Ontario" which was presented by the Ontario Psychological Association to the Ministry of Health, last August; This appeared in an article about Marvin Goodman, p.rcsideht of the OPA.
To start \Vith; all of OPA does not support this act. I am a member Of the OPA and do not support this legislation; 1 am joined in opposition by many full and associate members ofthe OPA. Rbcently. the MA division of the OPA'sLibmitted their own brief to the Ministry of Health.w-hich essentially regu-
REMEMBERING TOE^D^
A\ boy
who lost his father in one of Israel's wars lays a wreath in Tel Aviv cemetery, Simliar ceremonies were held all over Israel;
latcs theassociation alone and not other disciplines. The OPA boardhas demanded that we withdraw this brief.
The article quotes Goodman as saying he does not fear over-legislation, but a group of concerned and thoughtful citizens felt dif ferently and united against the act. In January of this year they came together calling themselves the Ad Hoc Committee of Concerned Citizens Against the Proposed Act. From a small group of individuals this committee is now actively supported by over 70 organizations in this province who arc concerned with exactly that — oyer-legislation by the.province, in areas w-hich wc consider dangerous to civil and religious liberties.
In the earefullyrcsearched article on this subject in The Toronto Star (March 11, 1978) headlined "Psychology bill stirs fear and outrage" it was pointed out that Opponents of this act fear it would outlaw dis-tressjccntres, Alcjoholics Anonymous, stop-smokTng-^grOups, yoga classes, assertive-nes.s training sessions as well as alL volunteer counselling. Of course, all counsellors trained at Transactional Analysis. Gestalt and Bio-Energetic Institutes would be unavailable to service the public. • This means that at a time when OHlip. paynicnts are increasing, hundreds of established private counsellors who are paid directly for their services would not be
. allowed to continue practising. Especially frightening is the fact that most ethniecouh-selling is done by volunteers and untrained .people and these services would be. cancelled. In our Jewish community most of
. . thegrovvth programs offered at the YMHA vvould'be unavailable since they are.not. led
- by psychologists.
Goodmancompares this type of civil and religious restrictions with restrictions im-plied in seat belt legislationand.his doing so is.insultingthe feeliiigs and intelligence of
: Jevys and. aU thoughtful citizens.
ConnleYoung, 'Toronto
Dear Editor:
The news story "Anti-Zionism on Campus; Is It on Upsurge?" by Toba Korenblum ' (May 12, 1978) has been brought to my ■ attention. The statement in the story that ■ the Canadian Professprs for Peace in the Middle East acts as a pro-Israel lobby is not . correct.
HarryCroweT" national chairman, Canadian Prof lessors for Peace in the Middle East« — . Toronto
Dear Editor: : . ^
Last night (May-10), in observairice of Yom Ha'atzmaut, I spenfT week at Beth Tzedec Synagogue. It was an evening which willbe long remembered; it was avery long ■ eyeniiig. The speeches droned on for 30 years, following vvhich the choir wailed throughS.OOO years of ancient history. I sat glassy-eyed through inexplicable periods of waiting, punctuatedonly by the shuffling of . microphones and pitisous pleas for someone to turn on the lights.
The Canadian Zionist Federatipn'TCe^n--trill Region, is to be congratulated; I know-that to some, the program appeared to be a disorganized mishmash, but to the astute observer it was clearly a finely orchestrated event designed to involve the whole audience in demonstrating the qiiintessential Jewish characteristic •—endurance!
Carole Greenberg, Toronto