Home

CAIA meets with CEO of Torstar, Trustee of HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers

Submitted by kole on Mon, 2007-06-18 01:08

Khaled Mouammar, President of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), and Abbie Bakan, of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) met with Robert Prichard, President and CEO or Torstar Corporation, at his office on 1 Yonge Street on May 3, 2007. The meeting was requested by Khaled Mouammar after an exchange of letters regarding Mr. Prichard¹s participation on the Board of Directors of the Heseg Foundation.

Mr. Prichard was open to hearing our viewpoint, and indicated at the outset that he was "here to listen, not to argue." However, on May 11, Khaled Mouammar received a letter indicating that Mr. Prichard had reflected on our arguments but had "decided to remain a trustee of the Heseg Foundation, recognizing its role in providing financial aid to support honourably discharged soldiers pursuing higher education in Israel."

We regret that Mr. Prichard has chosen to participate on a board of trustees that includes those such as Israeli General Doron Almog. A warrant has been issued by the British courts for his arrest as a suspected war criminal.

When we met with Mr. Prichard, after some discussion it became clear that his main reason to justify his participation in the activities of the Heseg Foundation is the claim that this is an educational scholarship fund.

But Heseg is a military fund, not an educational one. When we challenged Mr. Prichard to consider whether he would be as eager to act as a contributor and sponsor for a similar scholarship fund established for soldiers of the Palestinian resistance, he admitted that there might be grounds to think of Heseg in a different light. We further argued that this was a fund for which eligibility is based on ethnic criteria, not merit, as the Israeli military aims to recruit internationally among Jewish people. Support for Heseg amounts to providing incentives and perks for mercenaries, and enables former soldiers to be recruited to act as settlers on stolen and occupied land.

Khaled Mouammar summarized the argument that Heseg is not an educational fund, but a military one, in a letter sent to Mr. Prichard following our conversation.

These points include:

  • "Lone Soldiers" are foreign-born individuals, who have families in their home countries. They are recruited by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and are accorded special privileges simply because they have no families in Israel. These privileges include a double salary, rental subsidy up to 779 NIS/month, utilities subsidy up to 236 NIS/month, and an extra month's vacation time to visit family outside of Israel (Department of the World Zionist Organization, Chayal Boded (Lone Solider), 1-Ene-1998).

  • "Lone Soldiers" have served in combat units in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Lone Soldiers, Jerusalem Post, 22 August 2004) and have participated in the Israeli assault against Lebanon in July 2006 (Michael Levin: An Israeli Hero for Our Time, aish.com). The United Nations and reputable human rights organizations have accused the Israeli army of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in both instances (U.N. envoy on children: Israel broke international law in Å’06¹, USA Today, April 12, 2007).  

  • The Heseg Foundation provides scholarships for these "Lone Soldiers" to pursue higher education in Israel, and thereby to remain there after they serve in the Israeli army.

  • The IDF directly entices international citizens who are not Israeli but are Jewish, to join the Israeli army as soldiers for hire, mercenaries, according them financial benefits. Similarly, the Heseg Foundation indirectly entices these mercenaries to come and stay in Israel by offering them material compensation in the form of scholarships after they complete their service in the army.

  • Regardless of an attempt by the Heseg Foundation and its supporters to cultivate a public image that it is a politically neutral educational fund, this is not its function. In reality, the purpose of Heseg is the advancement of the Israeli military in defending an apartheid state based on ethnically defined laws and a history of ethnic cleansing. John Dugard, a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s, in his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council stated that "anyone who experienced apartheid has a sense of déja vu when visiting the Occupied Palestinian Territories" (Palestine like apartheid: UN expert, Toronto Star, 23 March 2007). Former US President Jimmy Carter, in his new book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, describes Israel¹s current policy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights" (Carter Book Slaps Israel With 'Apartheid' Tag, Jennifer Siegel, 17 October 2006; and Carter, Peace Not Apartheid, New York: 2006, p. 215). And South African Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated he was "very deeply distressed" by a visit to the Holy Land, adding that "it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa" (Tutu condemns Israeli 'apartheid¹, BBC News, 29 April 2002).