In a late-night news release on Saturday, defence minister Bill Blair said “with a high degree of confidence” that Canada does not believe Israel was responsible for the October 17 attack on the Al Ahi Arab hospital in Gaza.
“The more likely scenario,” Blair stated, “is that the strike was caused by an errant rocket fired from Gaza.”
The defence minister did not indicate who Canada believes was responsible. The Israeli Defence Force says it was Islamic Jihad, a small group affiliated with Hamas.
Bill Blair’s mid-weekend statement might help placate critics of the Trudeau government, who have been demanding this country support the Israeli – and U.S. president’s – version of the hospital explosion.
The Conservatives have been pressing the government on this issue, as have such mainstream media personalities as Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne.
But the statement will do little to quell the growing unease in Canada about Israel’s military response to Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack.
The fate of civilians on both sides
It is only a bit more than two weeks since Hamas, in a single day, murdered the greatest number of Jews since the Holocaust.
It was a bold operation, which entailed the kidnapping of more than 200 people, including at least one Canadian, and the brutal massacre of more than 1,400 men, women and children, most of them civilians.
Hamas’ wanton violence shocked the world, and rallied widespread support for the Jewish State – even from countries, such as those of the European Union, which are often critical of Israel’s intransigence vis-à-vis the Palestinians.
Now, however, Israel’s bombs and missiles have killed more children in Gaza than all of the people Hamas murdered on October 7.
Many, especially in the US, still unequivocally support Israel’s right to defend itself. And the Israeli government argues that to effectively carry out its own defence it has no choice but to utterly destroy Hamas.
But others, including many in Canada, are now watching in horror as this growing war threatens more than two million people crammed into a closed territory smaller in area than the city of Montreal.
Israel does not try to pretend its bombs are not killing and injuring Gazan civilians. It only asserts civilian casualties are entirely Hamas’s fault.
Western leaders, among them US President Joe Biden, have been warning the Israelis to respect international law and avoid civilian casualties.
Biden says that while the US upholds Israel’s right to self-defence, it also insists the Israeli military “must operate by the laws of war.”
And the US president pointedly adds: “That means protecting civilians in combat as best as they can. We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace.”
Biden held a meeting on Sunday evening with a number of other Western leaders, including Canada’s Justin Trudeau and the heads of government of France, the UK, Germany, and Italy.
Their joint statement reiterates the US position. It calls on Israel to “adhere to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.”
It is not clear this message of caution and restraint is getting through to Israel’s leadership, although there are a couple of positive signs.
For one thing, the Israelis have agreed to allow some humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border.
As well, as of this writing, Israel has not (yet) launched a full-scale ground offensive.
There is, however, one aspect of President Biden’s message the Benjamin Netanyahu government most definitely does not want to hear, namely, the US government’s continued support for the “two-state solution”.
Netanyahu and his far-right coalition colleagues are, in fact, pursuing policies which aim to make it well-nigh impossible for the over three million Palestinians on the occupied West Bank to ever have their own country.
One way the current Israeli government hopes to thwart a Palestinian state is by massively expand its illegal settlements on the West Bank.
There are now almost half a million Israeli citizens living in West Bank settlements, with all the benefits of Israeli citizenship, and with their own services, security, and even roads.
Netanyahu and his far-right allies want to vastly increase the number of such settlements, which would effectively confine the West Bank Palestinians to a series of separate enclaves.
And Netanyahu has long sought to politically weaken the moderate West-Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA). Unlike Hamas, the PA recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and is committed to a two-state solution.
Indeed, in the current context of war it might seem shocking, but until October 7 of this year Netanyahu and his political allies considered officially-terrorist Hamas to be, as senior Israeli cabinet minister Bezalel Smotrich put it, “an asset” .
As long as Hamas – despite its theological / ideological commitment to eliminate the Jewish state – remains a powerful force, the Palestinians, as a whole, will be divided. And that division makes it extremely difficult to further the goal of transforming the West Bank (and, possibly, Gaza) into a sovereign Palestinian state.
In this regard, the New York Times quotes Netanyahu’s own words, four years ago, to a meeting of his Likud Party:
“Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy.”
(By the transfer of money, the Israeli PM was referring to the billions the oil-rich Persian Gulf sheikdom of Qatar has given Hamas, officially to support public services in Gaza.)
Canadians want government to work for peace
The larger issues bedeviling the Middle East, including the Israeli PM’s dubious record vis-à-vis the Palestinians, are probably not top-of-mind preoccupations for Canadians who want their government to try to rein in the current Israeli leadership.
Those Canadians are concerned with the ballooning body count in Gaza, and with the prospect of what the United Nations, Médecins sans frontier, and many other international organizations describe as an impending humanitarian catastrophe in the 25-mile-long enclave.
Those worries help explain why 23 federal Liberal MPs have added their voices to an open letter to the prime minister which echoes the federal New Democrats’ call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“We have a duty to be the voice of our constituents,” the MPs write. “We condemn the killing of innocent Israeli civilians in the attacks of October 7 by the terrorist group Hamas [and] we call for the release of all hostages.”
They then add:
“Canada has long been a voice for peace. The longer this conflict goes on, the more innocent civilians will pay with their lives … Canada must act before more innocent children are killed … The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a crisis worsening by the hour. They are out of food, water and medical supplies.”
Echoing NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, the MPs evoke the issue of legality:
“We call on Canada to strongly stand up for international law. International law is clear that innocent civilians and all those not taking part in the fighting must on no account be attacked and must be spared and protected. Canada must remind all parties to this conflict of their responsibilities in this regard.”
Liberals who signed the letter, which was also signed by NDP and Green MPs, say they expect more of their fellow MPs to join their ranks in the days to come.
Other groups in Canada are also encouraging the Trudeau government to play more of a peace-making role. Those groups include churches, non-governmental organizations, unions – and several hundred Jewish Canadians.
The Jewish group, admittedly a minority in the Canadian Jewish community, has issued its own call to action .
These Canadian Jews from across the country unequivocally condemn Hamas’ “unspeakable atrocities”.
“The targeted killing of more than 1400 innocent civilians, including children and elderly, and the gruesome images of what was done to them, are horrifying. Taking 200 or more civilian hostages, including children, women and elderly, constitutes a war crime …”
But they add that while they mourn, they “reject the use of our mourning as a reason to commit atrocities on the Palestinian people … We should not respond to atrocities by committing atrocities on a larger scale.”
The Jewish group’s call to action decries the sort of extreme language some Israeli government officials and some journalists have used to “dehumanize the Palestinians”.
The group might have in mind the Israeli broadcaster who said: “If all the captives are not returned immediately, turn Gaza into a slaughterhouse. If a hair falls from their head – execute security prisoners.”
Or they could be thinking of Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, who said: “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could’ve risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime.”
The group also expresses disapproval of Israel’s massive, disproportionate bombing of “civilian targets”; its complete cutting off of water, food, electricity and medicines for Gaza; the “displacement of more than a million people”; and the prospect of an even more sanguinary Israeli land invasion.
Their tangible calls-to-action are for “an immediate ceasefire, and the return of all the hostages.”
In the longer term, this group of Jews wants Israel to “engage in a real process to address the long-standing … deprivation of rights for the Palestinian people.”
“That’s the only viable path for a real, just peace,” they conclude.
The most recent public opinion polling in the US indicates massive support for Israel in that country.
In part, that is because – with some exceptions, such as the New York Times – most US media organizations do not make much effort to portray and personalize, with equal emphasis or concern, the suffering and agony of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.
Canadian media, especially the CBC, are more balanced in this respect. Canadian journalists and editors tend to see any child victim as someone worthy of our attention, regardless of the child’s identity.
And so, although we have, as yet, no polling data in Canada on this issue, we Canadians almost certainly have a more nuanced view of the Israel-Hamas conflict than do our neighbours to the south.
Members of the federal parliament, and other Canadian politicians (such as Ontario premier Doug Ford), would be well advised to pay close attention to the Canadian perspective when they pronounce on the unfolding tragedy in the Middle East.
Most Canadians hope discussion of this crisis can be a search for solutions, not an opportunity for partisan gains.
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