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Canadian Indian Activist Advocates for Israel's

(Times of Israel) Lisa Klug - Indigenous rights activist Ryan Bellerose, a Metis from northern Alberta, Canada, recently returned from his second trip to Israel. "Indigenous status means that your people had a coalescence and a genesis on the land," says Bellerose, co-founder of Calgary United with Israel. "Everything that makes Jews Jewish - their spirituality, their traditions, their culture, their language, everything - it stems from Israel." "I write about the commonalities of indigenous struggles, so going to Israel and seeing a place where indigenous people have managed to gain self-determination is massive for me." "I feel compelled to fight the idea that Israel is a colonialist state, that the Jews are colonizers from Europe and the entire invalid and false Arab narrative that has been spread since the 1960s. This ridiculous inversion of history has been accepted....Coming from an Indian from Canada...I have a unique perspective. I have lived through colonization, and Israel is not even remotely colonialist." "You are Jews from Judea. Your entire history is in the earth you walk on. Some of you were displaced and you fought for 2,000 years to return to the land of your forefathers. You do not need to be apologetic for doing something that is the goal of every indigenous people." "You are a great example to my people and to all indigenous people of what indigenous peoples are capable of. You were a damaged, fractured people who had the entire world against you, yet you not only regained your ancestral lands, you rebuilt them and you built a thriving, powerful nation without losing touch with your ancestral roots. Tell me that's not a powerful story and example."
2016-05-13 00:00:00
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