"Dylan Robertson’s article titled 'Israeli cabinet minister’s unofficial visit comes amid strained relations' brings attention to a controversial, unofficial visit by Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli over his collaboration with far-right Christian groups in Toronto. While Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has criticised Chikli’s visit over its unofficial nature and requested that he meet with the Canada-Israel Parliamentary Group, Canada should be more concerned with welcoming and meeting with an extremist, far-right minister."
Re: “Israeli cabinet minister’s unofficial visit comes amid strained relations”
May 26, 2023
Dylan Robertson’s article titled “Israeli cabinet minister’s unofficial visit comes amid strained relations” brings attention to a controversial, unofficial visit by Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli over his collaboration with far-right Christian groups in Toronto. While Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has criticised Chikli’s visit over its unofficial nature and requested that he meet with the Canada-Israel Parliamentary Group, Canada should be more concerned with welcoming and meeting with an extremist, far-right minister.
Chikli has called for the suppression of the Palestinian national identity and has said that annexing the occupied West Bank – explicitly illegal under international law – would be “excellent.” Chikli is one of many extremistsin Israel’s most far–right government ever, which has been expanding illegal settlements on Palestinian land under the pretext that the occupied Palestinian territories belong exclusively to the Jewish people, a supremacist position that explicitly denies Palestinian rights. Canada should boycott all meetings with Israel’s far-right regime, including Minister Chikli.
Reem Majid
Policy Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East