Chezi Goldberg, father of seven, was a veteran of the Canadian Army - yet after he was one of eleven people murdered on the #19 bus bombing by a Palestinian terrorist two weeks ago, the Canadian Embassy in Israel informed his family that Canadian Ambassador to Israel, Donald Sinclair, would not be able to pay them a condolence call. The reason? The Goldberg family home is in Beitar Illit, just south of Jerusalem, and "Canada's policy is not to enter" Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. This, despite a visit by Canada's Foreign Minister Bill Graham to Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in May 2002.
Chezi's sister Carrie Devorah, a photo-journalist speaking on the Tovia Singer Show this past Thursday, said that her family was shocked to find out a week after the death, that the Ambassador would not be coming. She said that her brother had called the Embassy earlier and asked, "Where are you? My family is about to leave the country - where's the Canadian consul?" As the family was leaving the cemetery to mark the end of the seven-day shiva period of mourning, he received a call back from a low-level clerk saying that the Ambassador would not be coming. "I will never ever forget my mother raising the question," Carrie said, "that now sits within the entire family, which is, 'Why are we Canadian citizens - if the value of our passport doesn't bring dignity even at death?'"
Carrie also related another story: "The last night of shiva a young girl came... and she looked at me, and I looked at her, and she volunteered, 'I don't know anybody, but I needed to be here.' She introduced herself as the daughter of Liba Schwartz, which meant nothing to me. But my nephew Yitzchak [Chezy's son] sat up and said, 'She was murdered on the #2 bus [in August 2002; 21 were killed on their way back from the Western Wall].' And then he went further to share that 'we almost got on that bus as a family, but at the last minute, my dad got a ride for us...'"
The entire segment can be heard at approximately 26.5 minutes into the Thursday edition of The Tovia Singer Show, at "http://www.israelnationalradio.com/#tovia".
Chezi's sister Carrie Devorah, a photo-journalist speaking on the Tovia Singer Show this past Thursday, said that her family was shocked to find out a week after the death, that the Ambassador would not be coming. She said that her brother had called the Embassy earlier and asked, "Where are you? My family is about to leave the country - where's the Canadian consul?" As the family was leaving the cemetery to mark the end of the seven-day shiva period of mourning, he received a call back from a low-level clerk saying that the Ambassador would not be coming. "I will never ever forget my mother raising the question," Carrie said, "that now sits within the entire family, which is, 'Why are we Canadian citizens - if the value of our passport doesn't bring dignity even at death?'"
Carrie also related another story: "The last night of shiva a young girl came... and she looked at me, and I looked at her, and she volunteered, 'I don't know anybody, but I needed to be here.' She introduced herself as the daughter of Liba Schwartz, which meant nothing to me. But my nephew Yitzchak [Chezy's son] sat up and said, 'She was murdered on the #2 bus [in August 2002; 21 were killed on their way back from the Western Wall].' And then he went further to share that 'we almost got on that bus as a family, but at the last minute, my dad got a ride for us...'"
The entire segment can be heard at approximately 26.5 minutes into the Thursday edition of The Tovia Singer Show, at "http://www.israelnationalradio.com/#tovia".