Grass stains on Canada’s hands

Walking through the peace and tranquility of Canada Park’s forestry with Israeli families picnicking around you, it’s nearly impossible to tell that you’re in the occupied West Bank or treading on the site of two villages, destroyed and evicted in the 1967 war.

Established in 1973 through donations fundraised by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Canada, Ayalon/Canada Park sits on top of the Palestinian villages of Imwas and Yalo, just off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Adjacent to the park is the Jewish settlement of Modi’in which buries the Palestinian village of Beit Nouba, also demolished in 1967. Currently the JNF in Canada, which enjoys charitable status, is in a fundraising drive for a “renewal and development” of the park.

On a series of walls at the entrance to the park are rows of plaques to Canadian donors.

Sitting in a Ramallah coffee shop with Ahmad Abu Gaush, an Imwas refugee and current head of the Imwas association – which demands the right to return for the displaced villagers, he describes the terror and confusion of the early hours of June 5 1967. “My family left an hour before the soldiers reached us….We walked through the mountains for 32 km with no food or water until we reached Ramallah,” he says adding that when the soldiers arrived they ordered everyone to leave the village, firing their weapons in the air.

Currently 54, Abu Gaush was 14 when he was forced to flee his home and as we look at photos of Imwas before it was destroyed he begins to reminisce about the calm beauty of his village, and how he feels Israel stole his childhood. He says that when his older brother tried to return with several hundred villagers a week after the war, they were stopped before they got to Beit Nouba and ordered back, after which he maintains that the army destroyed the remnants of the villages.

Growing up in Ramallah, he states that West Bank Palestinian’s were able to visit the village until 1991, but after the first Gulf War the Israeli military erected a checkpoint, barring displaced villagers from visiting their land. “When returning to the park I had mixed feelings. It’s very hard, standing on the ruins of where you used to live while seeing people laughing, eating and enjoying themselves,” he says. Israel’s wall now encompasses the park and it’s become virtually cut off to West Bank Palestinian access.

John Reynolds, a legal researcher with the independent Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, argues that displacement and destruction of the three villages located in the Latroun Valley constitutes a war crime. “The forcible transfer of people from their villages and the destruction of those villages are defined as a grave breach of the Geneva Convention, which is in the category of the most heinous war crimes,” he says.

While the maps of pre- and post-1967 Israel indicate otherwise, the JNF has argued that the park is in 1948 Israel and don’t inform their donors about the political issues surrounding the park. Al-Haq’s claim “is ludicrous and has no foundational basis in law,” Executive Director Joe Rabinovitch says, rejecting the statements and sworn affidavits of displaced villagers. Questioning the need for the park to acknowledge the existence of the villages, he maintains they were destroyed for security reasons. “There were Palestinians lobbing shells onto the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway,” he argues, though asked if this occurred in the 1948 or 1967 wars he says, “I don’t know.”

Next month Al-Haq will officially release a report about the Latroun valley and Canada Park contending that the Israeli government, JNF Canada and the Canadian government bare responsibility in violating international law and human rights. The report, which was shown to villagers on December 3, combines their affidavits, recorded testimony of soldiers serving during the displacement, maps, photos and legal analysis.

“The state of Israel bears the primary responsibility for the human rights violation. The JNF also has legal responsibilities as a charitable organization and NGO, not only to Canadian charitable laws but also International law,” Reynolds argues. He adds that the Canadian government also holds some responsibility because the money to build Canada Park came through state subsidized through tax exemptions.

Looking around the park the only visible signs of previous inhabitants is a crumbling cemetery with Arabic engraved on the stones and a series of old stone village walls. On a series of these walls at the entrance to the park are rows of plaques to Canadian donors such as the City of Ottawa, the Metropolitan Toronto Police Department, former Ontario premier Bill Davis, and Toronto city councilor Joe Pantalone, who helped make the park possible.

There is no visible sign postage about the villages that predate Canada Park or their inhabitants. It’s not surprising to Eitan Bronstein who works with Zochrot, a mainly Jewish Israeli organization that educates the Israeli public on the creation of Palestinian Refugees in 1948 and 1967. “For Israel it’s better not to show the history because if you know the history, you have to take responsibility. It’s easier for Israel and the JNF to keep the myth about blooming the desert,” says Bronstein adding that often people get angry when confronted with this history.

Wondering around, many people I speak with have no idea that villages had ever existed or that the park is officially in the West Bank. Only one person from a nearby kibbutz knew the history and acknowledged many of the kibbutz residents boycotted the park because of the evictions, but then she cut the conversation short to return to her picnic.

Jesse Rosenfeld is a freelance journalist based in Ramallah