15 April 2005:
KAIROS - EXTREMIST ATTACK ON ISRAEL
IN SUBMISSION TO UN COMMISION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

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The Canadian group KAIROS which includes major national church organizations, claims to focus on humanitarian goals, for which it receives government funds through CIDA. KAIROS also has a history of extreme anti-Israeli political bias. KAIROS' submission to the Canadian Delegation to the 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, headlined "Defending Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories", is another example of this deep prejudice.

The report is entirely one-sided, reflecting the Palestinian version of history, and consisting of condemnations of Israeli actions, with no mention of Palestinian terrorism. Employing the language of demonization, KAIROS accuses Israel of "repudiation of its legal and moral obligations as an occupying power and its defiance of international human rights and humanitarian law." Such language also describes Israeli settlement activity as "the transfer of more than 400,000 Israeli Jewish civilians into an armed settler population".

In this spirit, KAIROS even condemns the ceasefire agreement reached in Sharm al-Sheikh in February 2005 as being "devoid of human rights content." The Palestinian pledge to halt terror attacks is thus viewed as irrelevant to human rights. This organization also joins many other political NGOs in attacking Israel's security barrier, which it refers to as "The Wall". Likewise, Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement (necessary to block terrorism) are, according to KAIROS, "administered in a humiliating manner and cause suffering and inconvenience to every Palestinian." Using the language of the 2001 Durban conference, KAIROS claims that "the Special Rapporteur compared the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by the Israeli authorities on Palestinians to the notorious "pass Laws" of apartheid South Africa." Referring to the "incarceration of Gaza" and despite the obvious need to secure its borders, KAIROS highlights that these borders "are rigorously patrolled by the IDF and passage in and out of Gaza is strictly controlled."

Criticism of the Gaza Disengagement Plan and claims that "Gaza will not be free from Israeli control" and that "Sharon's vision seems to be "Gaza only" and not "Gaza first" illustrates KAIROS' indulgence in political advocacy in order to promote the Palestinian narrative.

Concluding its submission, KAIROS makes a number of recommendations to the Canadian Delegation and to members of the Commission, all of which condemn Israel with no mention of Palestinian obligations or responsibilities for upholding human rights of both Palestinians and Israelis in the region.

In keeping with its previously demonstrated agenda, this submission to the UNCHR highlights KAIROS's extremist anti-Israel position, rather than joining voices that promote universal human rights.