Canada Set To Expel Palestinian Activist under Pro-‘Israeli’ Lobbies’ Pressure

By Staff | Press TV

Despite its claims to be advocating human rights, the Canadian government is giving in to mounting pressure from pro-Zionist lobby groups to expel a Palestinian journalist and activist on false charges of promoting anti-Semitism.

Khaled Barakat, who lives in the Canadian city of Vancouver, has been accused by pro-‘Israeli’ lobbies, who sway great power in the North American country, of being anti-Semite and inciting attacks against the ‘Israeli’ occupation entity. He has already rejected all those charges.

“This is a smear campaign and a racist campaign led by the right-wing in Canada, particularly the National Post, known for their stance [which is] pro-‘Israel’ and against Palestinians and Arabs,” Barakat told Press TV on Thursday. “They want to divert the attention from what is happening in Canada and what is happening in Palestine.”

Barakat said student councils in four major Canadian universities recently voted to boycott the ‘Israeli’ entity and to sanction it for the violation of Palestinian rights, adding that they called for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea as well as the decolonization of Palestine.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a slogan commonly featured in pro-Palestinian campaigns and chanted at demonstrations, signaling a call for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the territory controlled by the ‘Israeli’ occupation regime. 

Stressing that there is “awareness” among young Canadian generations, especially young students and workers, the activist said, “They are supporting Palestinian rights and calling for the boycott of the apartheid ‘Israeli’ regime; so, the Zionist lobby is trying to divert the attention from what is happening and to create this false story to scare the Canadian public and to tell them that you should be scared of this person who lives in Canada.”

“‘Israel’ also wants to divert the attention from Palestine because of the crimes they commit on a daily basis against Palestinians and so they don’t want people to talk about this, but this campaign is a complete failure,” Barakat told Press TV.

The Palestinian journalist said the ‘Israeli’ regime wants to use these tools of oppression “to silence our voice and to besiege Palestinians everywhere they go, whether they are in Gaza, in Lebanon or Canada.”

Barakat said ‘Israelis’ want to stoke fear because fear is one of the tools that the Zionist regime has used all the time, adding that such measures will “not intimidate us and stop us as we are focusing on our campaign and intensifying our work more and more.”