Whole-of-government Approach Needed to Address Canadian Complicity With Israeli Settlements: CJPME

 

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lead a “whole-of-government approach” to address the problem of Canadian collusion in war crimes related to illegal Israeli settlements. This initiative follows the recent “Great Israeli Real Estate” events in Montreal and Toronto, which involved the open sale of properties within illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. CJPME is urging Canada to crack down on such events and focus on ending other forms of Canadian complicity in settlements. To that end, CJPME has provided Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet with 19 policy recommendations based on the status of settlements as war crimes under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

“Canadians buying properties in settlements is participation in an active war crime. Thanks to decades of impunity, Canadian complicity in Israel’s settlements has gone completely unchecked. This requires a whole-of-government approach for Canada to end its involvement in Israel’s colonial war crimes,” said Alex Paterson, Senior Director, Parliamentary Affairs for CJPME. “For nearly 25 years after Canada adopted the Rome Statute into domestic law, successive leaders have continued to willfully ignore illegal Canadian involvement in Israeli land theft and colonization of Palestine. It’s time to put these brazen war crimes to an end and meaningfully challenge Israel’s policy of annexation.”

CJPME notes that Canadian support for illegal Israeli settlements is a long-standing problem that touches on a range of Ministerial portfolios and crosscutting policy issues. For example, Canada extends free trade benefits to settlement businesses through the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA), gives charitable tax status to organizations that funnel money to settlements, votes against resolutions to condemn settlements at the UN, and fails to discourage or penalize trade and investment in the settlement economy.

“While Canada’s long overdue promise to impose sanctions on a few extremist settlers would be a good start, meaningful action to target Israel’s colonial take-over of Palestinian land requires using all the tools available to the government,” added Paterson. “If Canada was interested in stopping Israeli land theft, it has numerous policy tools at its disposal to go beyond symbolism or half measures. It is actively choosing to avoid those measures while Israel starves and slaughters Palestinians.”  (more...)

Whole-of-government Approach Needed to Address Canadian Complicity With Israeli Settlements: CJPME