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Canada silent on Israel’s misconduct

Ottawa Citizen: 15 April, 2023

As Canadian politicians praise the current Israeli government’s retreat from its reactionary judicial reforms, they quietly accept Israel’s gradual annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories where over three million Palestinians endure martial law.
Gaza’s two million residents exist in a similar state of Israeli military control over all land borders, coastal regions and airspace and Canada is equally silent on this situation.

Israel’s traditional indifference to international accords like the Geneva Convention is a vastly greater threat to its democracy than any judicial tinkering by Likud members. A genuine democracy requires more than formal mechanisms like voting.

The following passage represents the consequences of a powerful nation inflicting martial law and military control over other people:

Since 2008, 6,263 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military and security forces, mainly in Gaza but also as a result of access prevention, demonstrations, Israeli settler attacks and during search and arrest operations in the occupied Palestinian territory.

During the same period, 292 Israelis died as a result of Palestinian militant violence in Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. Seventy-six of Israel’s 292 causalities were Israeli civilians, the other 216 Israeli deaths were soldiers and settlers. By comparison, 2,030 of the 6,263 Palestinian fatalities were women, girls and boys.
Palestinians in the occupied territories face stark choices: exercise their legal right to resist, emigrate or accept Israeli domination.

This situation can be changed if Western powers stop excusing and financing the oppression of Palestinians and other peoples for cynical advantage.