Montreal, September 30, 2024 — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) continues to call on Canada to pressure Israel for a permanent ceasefire, both in Lebanon and Palestine. While Israel’s carnage continues in Palestine, and its bombing of much of Lebanon has caused hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to flee their homes, the massive airstrikes in residential parts of Beirut are particularly horrific and inhumane. Canada announced a paltry $10 million in aid to Lebanon on Saturday, but CJPME considers this mere tokenism as long as Canada refuses to use its military and economic relationship with Israel to end that country’s violence. Recent figures from the Lebanese government indicate that Israel has killed more than 1,000, and injured 6,000 more in the past two weeks. It added that a fifth of Lebanon’s population – one million people – have fled their homes.
“Canada’s reluctance to immediately implement an arms embargo to end Israel violence in Lebanon is absolutely disgraceful,” asserted Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. “This government’s most meaningful contribution to a ceasefire would be to stop arming Israel’s war machine.”
CJPME is outraged that the US derailed an attempt at a UN Security Council call for a ceasefire. Even if Canada is not on the Security Council, it must pressure its US allies to let such a vote pass. As Israel seems poised to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon, the need for a permanent ceasefire and end to all Canadian arms transfers to Israel is ever more imminent. In contrast to Israel’s continuing claims of self-defence, an Aljazeera report last week indicated that between October 7, 2023 and September 20, 2024, there were over 10,200 cross-border attacks between Lebanon, Hezbollah and other actors, of which Israel was responsible for over 8300 – over 80 percent of the attacks. There were 785 combined deaths from these attacks, of which 752 – fully 96 percent – were Lebanese killed by Israel.
CJPME’s call for an arms embargo on Israel is based on Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA). SEMA was created to enable Canada to take economic measures against states which commit grave breaches of international peace, and/or gross and systematic human rights violations. Both of these conditions are met by Israel’s genocidal incursions into Gaza and its bombardment of Lebanon. Since January, Canada claims to have paused the approval of all new arms export permits to Israel, and has suspended about 30 existing permits. However, as of August, nearly $95m of military goods had been approved to ship to Israel by the end of 2025. CJPME urges Canada to implement a full two-way arms embargo to ensure that Canada ends its relationship with Israel’s military industrial complex as it carries out gross violations of international law in Yemen, Lebanon, and Palestine.
“Canada’s reluctance to act decisively and fairly regarding the humanitarian toll of Israel’s offensives in Lebanon and Palestine is outrageous,” asserted Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. “The past year has demonstrated the Trudeau government’s apparent indifference to wanton slaughter and destruction, both with Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and with its devastating bombardment of Lebanon.”
About CJPME – Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is a non-profit and secular organization bringing together men and women of all backgrounds who labour to see justice and peace take root again in the Middle East. Its mission is to empower decision-makers to view all sides with fairness and to promote the equitable and sustainable development of the region.
For more information, please contact: Michael Bueckert, VP CJPME: 613-315-7947 or [email protected].
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East www.cjpme.org
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