Israel supplied the Dvora patrol boats to Sri Lanka, which was been used extensively against Tamils With permission from the United States, Israel has sold Sri Lanka consignments of Kfir jetsВ and drones. Israel has been a major arms supplier to Sri LankaвЂ™s government and provides it with strategic military advice. Nevertheless, there are more direct connections. The Sri Lankan governmentвЂ™s own statistical data reveal that almost 147,000 persons remain unaccounted for: no one knows if they are held in prison, injured, or dead. A United Nations report estimates that from January to May 2009, between 40,000 and 75,000 persons were killed. The report finds the Sri Lankan state guilty of bombing hospitals, humanitarian operations and even government-declared вЂњsafe zonesвЂќ in clear violation of international humanitarian law. The Rome-based Permanent PeoplesвЂ™ Tribunal has commissioned an independent reportВ about Sri LankaвЂ™s war against the Tamil people. Through the вЂњwar on terror,вЂќ the Israeli and Sri Lankan armies have waged war on civilian populations. I realized then that even though our homelands are oceans apart, Palestinians and Tamils have much in common. And once again, we hit TorontoвЂ™s streets in protest.

At York University, where I was a student, we mobilized the campus to defend Palestinian rights.ДЄ few months later, bombs were falling on my people - in the Vanni region of northern Sri Lanka. Like people all over the world, we called for an immediate end to the war. Towards the end of 2008, I joined thousands in Toronto to protest IsraelвЂ™s attack on Gaza.

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