Israeli pressure leads to Zionist support statement by G8 ministers

IMEMC- After a call from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Canadian Premier Stephen Harper agreed to draft a statement for all G8 ministers to sign that expressed support for Zionist aspirations by removing any reference to the 1967 borders.

The Group of 8, or G8, meeting was held Thursday and Friday in France, and included representatives from France, Britain, Russia, the US, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada. Going into the meeting, all but one (Canada) supported the inclusion of a sentence supporting a return to the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed upon land swaps, as a basis for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

But with Canada's refusal to accept the Final Declaration of the Summit unless that sentence was removed, the other nations succumbed to the pressure and removed the reference to 1967 borders. Instead, the Declaration, entitled “G8 Declaration: Renewed Commitment for Freedom and Democracy”, included criticism of the Palestinian plan to declare statehood in September at the United Nations. Read more