CANADA / PNN/

While Israelis raids has resulted in the close of seven human rights organizations in Palestine last week, a Jewish organizations, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, has called on the Canadian government to condemn the Israeli raids.

According to Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), "On October 19, 2021, Israel’s Minister of Defense Benny Gantz announced that he was designating six respected and credible civil society Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist organisations,” effectively criminalizing them. This was followed two weeks later by a military order which officially allows Israeli occupation forces to shut down the NGO offices in the West Bank, to confiscate their property, and to arrest and prosecute their staff. This puts the work and safety of the NGOs’ employees and volunteers in serious danger."

CJPME has urged the Canadian government to take a strong stand for human rights defenders in Palestine, especially by condemning Israel’s criminalization of Palestinian NGOs, and firmly rejecting the fraudulent “terrorist” designation.

“Israel’s crackdown on these organizations is a blatant anti-democratic attempt to delegitimize and ultimately silence Palestinian civil society,” said IJV Communications and Media spokesperson Rowan Gaudet. “This motive is made especially clear by the attack on Defense for Children International–Palestine which is investigating the killings of some 37 Palestinian children this year alone.”

“Just this past June, Justin Trudeau reiterated that Canada and Israel ‘are close friends bound together by shared democratic values’,” said Gaudet. “Does this mean we can expect Canada to shutter the offices of Canadian human rights and Indigenous groups and seize documents they’re using to investigate our government? Or will Canada finally condemn these actions and join with its European allies in rejecting Israel’s claims?”