Today, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau finally spoke out about Israel’s upcoming annexation plans and was quoted as saying that he has “expressed Canada’s disagreement over the proposed annexation directly to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the country’s ‘alternate’ prime minister under a power-sharing agreement.”
CPA chairperson, Hanna Kawas, responded to the Prime Minister’s comments on Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, with the following statement:
If the Trudeau government truly “favours a two-state solution”, why did it vote AGAINST all resolutions that support the two state solution at the UN General Assembly for the past five years?!
1. The “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine” resolution that calls “on Member States not to recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regards to Jerusalem”;
2. “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources” resolution;
3. The resolution that condemns the “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan” and reaffirms the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force”;
4. The resolution concerning “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” that expresses “grave concern about the continuing systematic violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel”.
And finally, why would Canada vote against a resolution to uphold the rights of “Persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities”, unless it supports Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and the “Greater Israel Project”?!
Today, PM Trudeau claimed to “deplore” Israel’s annexation plans and said they “are going to delay any prospect of lasting peace in the Middle East”. If the Canadian government is genuine in this belated expression of opposition to Israel’s illegal policies, then the absolute minimum expected is to impose sanctions on the Israeli government until it respects international law. Actions speak louder than words!