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Trudeau’s Rhetoric Masks Official Support for Israeli Militarism

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
January / February: 2024 – Vol. XLIII No.1

Prime Minster Trudeau recently cautioned Canadians against heated exchanges over the ongoing Gaza-Israel hostilities. Trudeau “…stressed the importance of free speech…” even though his government’s has embraced of a controversial “working definition of antisemitism” that actually stifles open expression and support for the BDS movement. This “embrace” encourages the false notion that even accurate criticism of the Israeli conduct is antisemitism.

Unfortunately, Canada’s Middle East policy ignores the Geneva Convention, International Law and United Nations Resolutions regarding Israel’s behaviour towards Palestinians.

For example, Canadian quietly accepts Israel’s gradual annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) where over three million Palestinians endure martial law as well as Israeli military control over Gaza’s land borders, coastline and airspace.

Operation Proteus is the Canadian military mission in the OPT. Behind the façade of peace enhancement, Canada is committed to supporting and training the security forces of the PA, a collaborationist administration whose governance of the OPT primarily serves the Palestinian elite and facilitates Israeli seizures of Palestinian land.

Canada signed the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement in 1997 for political and economic reasons. “In an implicit recognition of the occupation, Canada’s free trade accord with Israel includes the West Bank as a place where the country’s customs laws apply. Canada’s trade agreement is based on the areas Israel maintains territorial control over, not on internationally-recognized borders.”

Trudeau has not commented on the many Canadian-Israel dual nationals who exploit a loophole in the 1985 Foreign Enlistment Act serving in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) although no Canadian would be permitted to resist Israel military aggression in Gaza or the OPT.

It is obvious that official Canada is indifferent to the fate of Palestinians in the OPT and Gaza.

Morgan Duchesney – Ottawa, Canada