Wesam Cooley

Mr Kenney, I was the disruptor in the audience that night. I was able to get in because a fellow citizen was so outraged at the Calgary Opera's decision to punish a brave young artist for displaying the Palestinian flag on stage that they donated their tickets specifically to enable that kind of protest. Unlike those people who see art as merely an object for passive consumption, there are many in this city who understand that true respect for the arts demands that we take action in the real world to uphold the morals and principles contained in these artistic works. That young artist understood that and acted accordingly, and was punished by the Calgary Opera for doing so; in response, we disrupted it. Anyone who claims to be more troubled about such a mild disruption than they are about the mass slaughter of human beings is either lying or so morally bankrupt that they shouldn't be taken seriously anyway; in any case, unlike the millions of Palestinians killed and displaced in the last three years, everyone at the show who was bothered by my brief intervention will be just fine. For the last three years, tens of thousands of Calgarians and millions of people across this country have been organizing non-stop protests and events to try to bring an end to the mass slaughter of Palestinians (and Lebanese, Iranians, Yemenis, Syrians) being carried out by Israel with the support of Canadian and Calgarian politicians and institutions. For three years, we have been largely ignored, all while we continue to watch images of the bodies of civilians and children pulled from the rubble; Israel blowing up hospitals, schools, refugee camps, residential blocks, and entire cities with impunity; mass graves left by Israeli soldiers filled with civilian bodies showing marks of torture and execution; mountains of credible evidence, testimonies and reports of extreme abuses of Palestinians by Israeli prison guards, including torture, sexual torture, and rape; and countless more indescribable crimes that can only be compared with the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust and other such genocides. Unfortunately, despite the persistence of protesters across the world and the gravity and frequency of the crimes being committed by Israel, our efforts have so far failed to bring an end to the slaughter. This failure to stop the genocide is due in no small part to people like you, who have a track record of unrelenting material support for Israel both in and out of political office. We in Calgary remember that just a few weeks ago you appeared as a speaker at a fundraiser here for IDF soldiers recently returned from directly committing genocide on the ground in Gaza. You, whose hands are drenched with the blood of children, have no moral standing whatsoever to pass judgment on anyone, and in a better world you yourself would be on trial for the years you've spent providing political cover and direct material support to the genocidal Israeli state. To be the target of such an ignorant and hypocritical statement from an unrepentant genocide supporter like you doesn't bother me in the slightest; on the contrary, it's a badge of honour that I and everyone involved in sustaining these acts of protest will wear proudly long after world opinion has discarded you as the depraved genocide apologist you are. And as long as the killing continues, rest assured we will also continue to give people like you plenty of opportunities to keep honouring us with statements like this. Remember, there is no statute of limitations for war crimes and genocide. See you in a few years, you bloodthirsty Zionist fanatic.