The NDP has warned that a Conservative government would not uphold international law in the Middle East and is calling on the Liberals to recognize a Palestinian state.
“If there is an election in the coming weeks or months and we have a Conservative government, this won’t happen,” New Democratic Party foreign affairs critic Heather MacPherson said Monday.
She accused the Liberals of lacking the “moral courage and political will” to advance the Trudeau government’s goal of advancing a two-state solution in which Israel and a Palestinian state would peacefully coexist.
MacPherson said Canada should recognize a Palestinian state before early elections. Conservative Leader Pierre Poirierbre has been leading the polls for months, and MacPherson argued his party has uncritically supported Israel.
“We hear from Pierre Poirierbre and the Conservative Party that they have no interest in international law and no interest in protecting the rights of Palestinians,” she said.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said in a statement that Israel was defending itself against terrorism by Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Conservatives recognize that Israel is a democratic nation defending itself in the battle between democracy and rising authoritarianism,” he wrote. “There is no question as to which side Canada should take.”
The NDP also wants a two-way arms embargo, which would see Canada go beyond banning new arms licenses to actually blocking all military trade, including goods arriving from Israel.
The Liberals have restricted arms sales by halting the issuance of new licenses and suspending some that have already been issued, but the US government has offered to buy weapons from Canada and send them to Israel, a proposal that Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has said is under consideration.
The NDP also wants Canada to go beyond sanctions on specific West Bank settlers and impose a travel ban on at least two far-right ministers in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who MacPherson said have made “genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians.”
Last month, Ottawa criticized Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for suggesting it was justified to starve Palestinians, and he has previously said the Palestinian village of Huwara should be wiped out.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a member of a Jewish nationalist party, has called on Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip and allow Israelis to settle there, drawing accusations of ethnic cleansing.
The Liberal and Conservative parties did not immediately respond to Macpherson’s criticism.
MacPherson noted that the government could implement her three proposals without a parliamentary vote or parliamentary inquiry.
Israeli military strikes in Lebanon on Monday killed more than 270 people and wounded 1,000 in what the Israeli government said was an attempt to thwart ongoing rocket attacks by Hezbollah militants that have caused widespread displacement in northern Israel.
Canada designates Hezbollah a terrorist organization, and MacPherson said the rocket attacks must stop.
She also said international law had been violated, including in the pager explosions that killed Hezbollah fighters, civilians and children – attacks widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.
Asked twice on Monday whether he considered the “random” pager attacks to be acts of terrorism, MacPherson did not respond.
“We understand that Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization, but the Israeli government’s use of indiscriminate weapons and the suffering of the Lebanese people are in violation of international law,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2024.
