Canada Palestine Association (CPA) Vancouver strongly condemns the recent sale of Vancouver-based, International Submarine Engineering (ISE) to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and primary provider of land-based equipment and aerial apparatus to the Israeli military. This transaction further implicates Ebit Systems in Canadian financial institutions, military structure and technology.
While Mark Carney and government officials talk of “Canada First”, they knowingly align Canada more deeply with foreign states and companies directly responsible for the genocide of the Palestinian people. Israel has relied on Elbit Systems weapons, which are marketed as “battle tested” in Gaza and the West Bank, to enact criminal aggression and devastation across the region, killing people in Gaza every day, terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank, killing Canadian aid workers, occupying southern Syria, and wiping out villages in Southern Lebanon.
After the 2024 International Criminal Court ruling that Israel has “plausibly” committed genocide in Gaza, we, along with many Canadians, have been calling for the Canadian government to impose a full, immediate Arms Embargo and sanctions. The acquisition of ISE is yet another example of the cowardice of this government, one that bows to the pressure and praise of Zionist mouthpieces.
The Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs (CIJA) rushed to praise the government for allowing the foreign takeover as “a key milestone in Canada’s strategy to help small and medium-sized businesses grow and integrate into international defense supply chains, as well as the advancement of Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy”. Apparently, according to CIJA, it is “also another example of how Canadians and Israelis are working together, supported by our 30-year-old Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA), to create jobs, drive innovation and strengthen the security of both our countries.” Considering that the terms of CIFTA are in flagrant violation of Canada’s obligations under international law, it should be no surprise that the allowed acquisition only serves to establish the Canadian governments’ alliance with the genocidal Zionist state.
We and other Canadians reaffirm what we have been advocating for for years – A real arms embargo and a discontinuation of the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement.
Others also question who will benefit from this acquisition? We need to be asking how this contract – which was surely months, if not years, in the making – came about? If Canadian companies, supported with Canadian taxpayers’ funds help to build the technology, who gets to weigh in on its sale? Those following this action ask for accountability, and so do we.
ISE was a Canadian-owned company developing sophisticated marine defense technology. Yet the government falsely claims Arctic sovereignty will be protected by its acquisition to the largest Israeli arms manufacturer. In fact, what the sale does guarantee is further entanglement in Israel’s genocidal actions and deeper complicity in the current genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
ELBIT OUT OF CANADA!
Signed by: BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish & CPA Vancouver
