Montreal, May 21, 2020  — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) urges the Canadian government to take a strong stand against Israel’s planned annexation of huge swaths of Palestinian territory in the West Bank.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, struck a deal in April to annex parts of the West Bank as part of their bid to form a unity government.  Many of Canada’s European allies have spoken strong against Israel’s plans, but to date Canada has not substantively addressed the issue.  France, Belgium, Germany and Estonia have stated, for example, they will not recognize such Israeli annexations, and called Israel to “refrain from any unilateral decision that would lead to the annexation of any occupied Palestinian territory and would be, as such, contrary to international law.”

Montreal, December 6, 2017 — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) opposes the US Trump government’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and begin the process of relocating its embassy to Jerusalem. Like many Canadians, CJPME strongly believes that the world’s governments should not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital until Israel has reached a just peace settlement with the Palestinians.

CJPME Factsheet 54, published February, 2009: This factsheet looks at the World Medical Association (WMA), an international organization that determines the proper ethical conduct physicians should abide by at all times. The Israeli Medical Association (IMA) signed WMA’s Declaration of Tokyo in 1975, which prohibits the participation of physicians in interrogations and torture of any kind. Dr. Yoram Blachar, long-standing president of the IMA, was inaugurated as President of the World Medical Association (WMA) in 2008. Many have since called on Dr. Blachar to step down as head of the WMA, since doctors in Israel continue to play an integral role in the everyday running of Israeli interrogation suites that include cruel and inhumane treatment and humiliation amounting to torture.