Montreal, August 23, 2022 — CJPME joins over 190 organizations in demanding the international community to stand against Israel's militarized raids and forced closures of 7 Palestinian organizations. Read the joint statement below.

CJPME Factsheet No. 229, published August 2022: This factsheet explores the claim that Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians. It looks at the main organizations which have accused Israel of apartheid, reviews the claims that Israel is a democracy, and provides a few examples of apartheid in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Update June 12, 2022: BADBADNOTGOOD will no longer be playing their July concert in Tel Aviv! The venue claims that the show has been 'postponed' and will be arranged at a later date. CJPME asks BADBADNOTGOOD to respect the cultural boycott of Israel and refrain from re-booking this show in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Below is a letter sent by CJPME to Toronto band BADBADNOTGOOD on June 9, 2022, urging them to cancel their upcoming show in apartheid Israel.

In this position paper, CJPME outlines the problem of Canada's accelerating arms exports to Israel at a time when Israeli practices are increasingly recognized as amounting to apartheid.

Photo credit: Hersi Osman / Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians.

This analysis explores the problem of Canada's arms exports to Israel, given that the latter stands accused of significant human rights abuses and of maintaining a regime of apartheid against Palestinians. The analysis examines Canada’s exports of military goods to Israel, including the current values and historical trends, and the potential risk that these exports may contribute to a deteriorating situation for human rights and international law. This analysis also reveals that there is precedent in recent Canadian history for restricting sales to Israel over concerns about human rights and military aggression.

Issued April 13, 2022

Montreal, April 13, 2022  — A new report published today by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) raises serious human rights concerns posed by Canada’s arms exports to Israel. The report, titled Arming Apartheid: Canada’s Arms Exports to Israel, finds that Canada’s arms exports to Israel have been accelerating in recent years – reaching a 30-year high in 2020.  A significant percentage of Canada's arms exports to Israel are categorized as explosives and related components, and could include bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, or other explosive devices. The report argues that Israel’s occupation, violence against civilians, and discriminatory policies – recently named as "apartheid" by Amnesty International – present a situation of extreme risk in which Canada’s arms exports could be implicated in violations of human rights and international law.

On March 24, 2022, CJPME joined 89 Palestinian and international organizations in issuing a joint oral intervention to the UN Human Rights Council, welcoming the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Israeli apartheid. The intervention was delivered by Elizabeth Rghebi of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS). You can watch the video (starts at 01:18:54), or read the full statement below.

You can also read CJPME's separate press release here.

March 30, 1976 - Land Day: Israel kills six Palestinian citizens of Israel protesting the mass seizure of land

“We have on this land that which makes life worth living, we have on this land all of that which makes life worth living” - Mahmoud Darwish, On This Land

On this day in 1976, Israel shot and killed six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel, who were participating in a massive demonstration against the Israeli government’s plans to expropriate thousands of dunams of land. The protests by Palestinian citizens of Israel – across the country in the Galilee, the Naqab, and Wadi Ara – were met with severe Israeli violence, injuring hundreds more.

From then on forward, March 30 became recognized as Land Day, when Palestinians everywhere commemorate those who resisted Israeli expropriation and emphasize their continued relationship to the land. It remains a reminder of Israel’s continuous settler colonial and apartheid regime. Palestinians across the world commemorate this day, whether they are citizens of Israel, within the occupied territories or in the diaspora, by going out to the streets to demonstrate against Israel’s suppression, brutality, and confiscation of land. In doing so, they draw attention to ongoing Israeli practices of land expropriation and home demolitions, and to the ongoing denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

“For Palestinians, Land Day presents an opportunity not only to mark a past event, but also to think about creative and resilient ways to further resist Israeli land theft” - Yara Hawari

Read More:

Palestine Land Day: A day to resist and remember

Land Day: Commemorating Historical and Ongoing Land Expropriation and Suppression of Palestinian Resistance

Montreal, March 23, 2022  — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is urging Canada to act on the recommendations of an important new United Nations report which concludes that Israel is practicing apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The report was authored by Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, and will be introduced to the Human Rights Council on Thursday March 24. It conducts a legal analysis of Israel’s rule over the occupied territory, and concludes that it “satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid.”

When the United Nations first established the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, they decided to mark it on the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, when South African police killed 69 people during a peaceful demonstration against apartheid laws. Although South Africa’s system of Apartheid has long since ended, groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have recently concluded that Israel also practices apartheid against the Palestinians.