Israel’s West Bank Escalation Underscores the Urgent Need for a Full Arms Embargo
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) emphatically demands that Canada urgently impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel amid its current military escalation and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank. Israel ramped up its attacks on the West Bank immediately following the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, and this week deployed tanks for the first time since the early 2000s. Promising to apply lessons from its genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has forcibly expelled over 40,000 Palestinians from refugee camps and announced that they will not be able to return to their homes for at least a year. CJPME believes that Israel’s actions are in preparation for the full annexation of the territory, requiring immediate intervention.
“Israel’s assault on the West Bank is the continuation of its genocidal ambitions to fully displace all Palestinians and take full control of Palestine – eliminating the hope of Palestinian self-determination or statehood,” said Alex Paterson, CJPME’s Senior Director of Strategy and Parliamentary Affairs. “Canada claims to support a two-state solution, but this is just window dressing for their shameful real policy of profiteering off of Palestinian death and dispossession through the arms trade,” added Paterson.
To date, Canada still permits Canadian-based arms dealers to transfer weapons and parts for use in the occupied Palestinian territories, either directly to Israel or indirectly through the United States. In September 2024, Minister Joly explained that her limited suspension of permits for arms to Israel was specifically intended to stop goods from “being sent to Gaza,” but did not mention the West Bank. Meanwhile, Joly also excluded hundreds of existing permits from this policy, which means that $95-million worth of military goods could still ship to Israel by the end of 2025. Moreover, civil society groups have warned that Canada’s arms control regime contains a significant intentional loophole allowing weapons to flow through the US to Israel – unregulated, unreported, and without human rights evaluations. Last week, CJPME joined more than 230 organizations around the world in calling on F-35 partner nations to finally stop the transfer of F-35 parts and components to Israel, including through the US.
“If we take Joly’s statements seriously, it means that Canada has no policy in place to stop weapons from being used by Israel in its ethnic cleansing campaign in the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile, its ‘pause’ on exports for Gaza is riddled with so many holes that it is virtually useless. Canada must finally implement a comprehensive, two-way arms embargo on all military trade and services with Israel,” said Michael Bueckert, Acting President of CJPME.
Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act, its sanctions legislation, allows Canada to unilaterally adopt regulations that establish blanket bans on the arms trade with countries if they have committed grave breaches of international peace and security or gross and systematic human rights violations. Canada currently has arms embargos on many of Israel’s neighbours, including Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. •
