Montreal, September 5, 2025 — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is urging Canada to intervene to protect Palestinian human rights groups following attacks by US President Trump. Yesterday, the US announced sanctions against three key Palestinian organizations, Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), for their role in collecting evidence of Israeli war crimes and providing it to the International Criminal Court (ICC). CJPME condemns this egregious assault on Palestinian civil society and stands in solidarity with human rights defenders under attack.
“Trump is persecuting the most important Palestinian human rights groups documenting the genocide in Gaza. Their only crime is documenting the horrific atrocities committed by Israel, and turning to international courts for relief,” said Michael Bueckert, Acting President of CJPME. “This latest move is about eliminating the most effective voices for justice, using sanctions to cut them off from the rest of the world. Canada must step in and protect human rights defenders from this devastating campaign,” added Bueckert.
In a joint statement, the three Palestinian human rights organizations urged Third States to “condemn the application of Executive Order 14203 as an internationally wrongful act and exert meaningful pressure on the United States to lift all sanctions,” and “take concrete steps and activate all available means to ensure the safety and protection of our operations and staff in Gaza and the West Bank, facing heightened risks of being targeted for carrying out legitimate human rights work.” CJPME urges Prime Minister Carney to implement these demands as soon as possible, and to express Canada’s unequivocal support for human rights defenders in Palestine.
CJPME raises the alarm that the latest attacks are part of a coordinated campaign to target support for Palestinian human rights organizations, including in Canada. On the same day that the US issued the executive order, pro-Israel lobby group “NGO Monitor” published a smear campaign against PCHR, pointing out its participation in a Canadian-funded UN project addressing violence against women. This smear campaign was quickly repeated by right-wing media in Canada, including in the Toronto Sun, which falsely and recklessly claimed that Canada was “fund[ing] Palestinian terrorism.”
CJPME has written to the Sun about the journalistic violations in their report and is urging significant corrections. “These smear campaigns are putting the lives of Palestinian human rights defenders in danger. Journalists must refrain from spreading the dangerous disinformation from pro-Israel lobby groups targeting the victims of an ongoing genocide,” said Jason Toney, CJPME’s Director of Media Advocacy.