OTTAWA — MPs returning from a visit to the West Bank argue Canada needs to do more to prevent escalating tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, as they recount distressing scenes from the occupied territories.
"We can't imagine what the people of Palestine are going through," said Liberal MP Shafqat Ali. "What we witnessed with our own eyes, it's basically constant humiliation, and constant mental torture."
He's among a group of three NDP and two Liberal MPs who spent last week meeting with Palestinian refugees in Jordan, as well as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as guests of Muslim advocacy groups.
The visit followed a trip to Israel last November organized by Canadian Jewish federations in which a group of different Liberal and Conservative MPs heard about the lasting impact of the Hamas attack in October that sparked the latest Israel-Hamas war.
Since that attack, which killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel and led to more than 200 being taken hostage, Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip in what it says is an operation to rid the territory of Hamas control and repression of Palestinians who live there. The Hamas-controlled health ministry reported Sunday that the number of confirmed deaths surpassed 25,000, including militants.
During last week’s trip, the MPs met with officials in Jordan before heading to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are areas that Israel has occupied since 1967.
The MPs saw what they described as segregation, through policies they witnessed that have also been documented by media and human-rights groups.
In Hebron’s historical market, Ali said he met Palestinian shopkeepers who use metal netting over their stores, claiming the stones and trash sitting on top had been lobbed by Israeli settlers on upper floors.
In Jenin, NDP MP Lindsay Mathyssen was haunted by a blackened pair of ballet shoes sitting outside a home that had been bombed during airstrikes last July, which Israeli officials say were aimed at militants and places they create and store weapons.
She said her Palestinian constituents warned her of what life is like in the West Bank, but she was still shocked.
"I've never seen or imagined that level of dehumanization," she said.
The group met Palestinian grade-school children who lamented being taught about human rights, which the students argue they don't have.
"That's how the international community has failed, in that idea of an international, rules-based order, when that's the base of it, when a 12-year-old kid can tell you," Mathyssen said.
NDP foreign-affairs critic Heather McPherson was stunned by the poverty and destruction she saw throughout the West Bank. She said it rivalled her visit last March to the Russian-shelled Kyiv suburb of Irpin, or the developing countries she visited in her previous career as an aid worker.
"I've seen conflict areas; I've seen areas where there's some real poverty. And I would say that what we saw in Jenin was probably one of the worst things I'd ever seen," she said.
"There's such despair because it was relentless — the attacks, the loss of life, the impacts on the community. Every building had bullet holes in them, every family's living conditions were damaged."
The MPs said they witnessed tense exchanges between Israeli forces and Palestinian civilians, including teens.
Israeli officials have said repression in Palestinian territories is necessary to maintain stability and thwart extremist groups from launching attacks, particularly with the Israeli military focused on Gaza and facing threats from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In recent years, Israeli officials argue, they have worked hard to provide economic opportunities to Palestinians, though countries like Norway have warned that Israel has undermined peace in recent years by allowing the expansion of settlements that are illegal under international law.
On their visit, the MPs were driven past Route 4370, a highway that separates Israeli settlers from Palestinians that is meant to prevent intercommunal violence but has been dubbed the "apartheid road."
They saw the segregated entrances to Al-Aqsa Mosque, a sensitive site where Israeli officials limit entrance based on perceived security threats, and where a raid last April caused global outcry, including from Canadian MPs.
Ali said he saw a group of children in school uniforms denied entry, while Mathyssen said one of the Canadians accompanying her who has a Palestinian background made it through a metal detector but was stopped when he picked up his phone, because the lock screen is a Palestinian flag.
Both Ali and Mathyssen said that Canada’s ambassador-level representative for the Palestinian Territories told the group that his team had lost all contact with people in Gaza because so many had died or been displaced, including UN officials undertaking Canadian aid projects.
Global Affairs Canada said it did not have an immediate response when asked to confirm that recounting, which included claims that Canada’s foreign service now relies on second-hand reports of what's happening in Gaza.
The department also had no response last week when asked about a claim that Canada’s ambassador in Jordan lamented that Canada’s positions on the Middle East has disappointed countries in the region and hurt Ottawa’s sway.
The five MPs have been calling for a ceasefire to end the current war in Gaza, which Israel argues would only enable Hamas to launch more deadly attacks.
McPherson said she is hoping to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, ideally with all MPs who took the trip, to convey what they heard and how Canada can respond.
She said that could include pushing Canada's peer countries to put more pressure on Israel and sanctions that target Israelis who impede a two-state solution.
Before and after the Hamas attack, Canadian officials have insisted they want a Palestinian state that exists in peace alongside Israel, yet MPs on the trip say Ottawa hasn't done enough to punish those who impede that goal.
Last Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, arguing it would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel and the U.S. and so his country "must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River."
McPherson said it's time Canada froze arms exports to Israel and reconsidered its policy of voting against almost all UN resolutions that are critical of the Israeli government. If not, she argued Canada will lose all legitimacy it has as a voice for peace.
"We weren't even in Gaza," said McPherson. "This isn't even the worst thing that's happening in Palestine right now."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 21, 2024.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
