The many ways Canada could send message to Israel

 

Canada’s arms ban made international headlines. But in reality, Ottawa isn’t severing assistance to Israel’s military.

In a first, Parliament spent a full day debating a motion on the Israel/Palestine conflict. The March 18 opposition day motion presented by the social democratic NDP called for Canada to recognize Palestine, fund UNRWA and “support the work of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court” on Israel. The motion also called to “suspend all trade in military goods and technology with Israel.”

Instigated amidst months of protests and backed by a huge email campaign, the majority of the governing Liberal party MPs looked set to vote for the original resolution. Justin Trudeau’s pro-Israel government panicked and sought to have the NDP, which is propping up the minority Liberal government, water down the motion in exchange for passing the bill. After unprecedented late-night negotiation between the two parties, two thirds of parliament, including the PM and cabinet, supported a watered-down version of the motion, which effectively dropped the recognition of Palestine, but kept the call to fund UNRWA and support the ICJ and ICC.

The final resolution also called for Canada to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.” The government sought wiggle room to continue approving outstanding arms permits. According to The Maple, 300 weapons permits were pending a decision. The Maple found that Ottawa’s response to the mass killing in Gaza was to expedite permits for arms. In the first two months of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, Ottawa okayed $28.5 million in weapons transfers, processing permits in as little as four days.  (more...)

The many ways Canada could send message to Israel