[2] According to his University of Toronto obituary, "His principal interest in later years was the plight of the Palestinian people" and he wrote and spoke "widely and passionately on that topic".
[3] Graff founded Canada's Near East Cultural and Education Foundation (NECEF) in 1984, which describes its mission as promoting "a greater understanding in Canada of the history, culture and contemporary situation in the Middle East, focusing on the Arab World" and funding "humanitarian, educational, development and health related projects both in the region and here at home.
"Jim hated [violence]," Anglican Reverend Robert Assaly told The Globe and Mail, recalling how Palestinian official human rights abuses - first by the PLO and later by the PA - started to capture Graff's attention during the negotiation of the Oslo Peace Accords.
"[5] Janet Gunn in her memoir recalls the instrumental role Graff played in trying to save the life of Mohamed Abu Aker, a Palestinian 16-year-old who in 1988 had been shot by an Israeli soldier during a stone-throwing demonstration in his refugee camp near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
Aker needed a small bowel transplant if he was to survive his wounds - something that could not be done in the West Bank - and Graff used his contacts in the US to arrange the required visas and medical care.