"It is edifying to pass through Israeli military checkpoints alongside Palestinians, to witness Israeli settlements with manicured green grass beside impoverished Palestinian villages with crumbling infrastructure, and to see the realities of ordinary life on the other side of the wall."
September 18, 2023
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) previously tried to argue that their sponsored trips were never a “lobbying exercise” in the first place, but instead were educational “fact-finding missions.” Now their argument has shifted to claiming that, to understand the “nature of the Jewish community in Canada,” Canadian representatives ought to go on a highly-curated, CIJA-sponsored trip to Israel.
Canada’s Jewish community is not a monolith — many fight furiously against Israel’s human rights violations and do not identify with the state. Human rights groups in Israel, like B’Tselem, accuse the state of practicing apartheid.
If these trips are about finding facts, Parliament itself should send MPs and senators there, while ensuring that participants also see and hear from Palestinians living under occupation. It is edifying to pass through Israeli military checkpoints alongside Palestinians, to witness Israeli settlements with manicured green grass beside impoverished Palestinian villages with crumbling infrastructure, and to see the realities of ordinary life on the other side of the wall.
Jason Toney
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
Address: 580 Sainte-Croix, Suite 060, Montreal, QC H4l 3X5
T: 438-380-5410
C: 438-530-6567