For more than a year, the tiny impoverished Palestinian village of Susiya has been under threat of demolition to make way for more Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law, but Israel appears about to move ahead. A Canadian church group wants Canada to speak out. Read more…
The United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI) has just launched an urgent appeal to Canada’s foreign minister Kristya Freeland to pressure Israel to give up the idea of demolishing two more Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank.
Canada’s official policy is that the building of new settlements is “unhelpful” to a peaceful solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. This would seem to be an extraordinary understatement.
UNJPPI is a voluntary group composed of members of the United Church of Canada “working toward the goal of a just peace in Palestine and Israel by calling for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and equal rights for all who live in Palestine/Israel through education and advocacy.”
UNJPPI is calling on Canadians to write the minister to appeal for urgent action. A draft letter is provided by UNJPPI as well as email addresses of the minister and relevant MP’s. Click here to see (and sign)
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Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 
Thanks Peter for this post drawing attention to another significant action in support of humanitarian action by a major religious body in Canada.
Reblogged this on World Peace Forum.
Bulldoze that illegal place to the ground immediately.
The letter makes no sense. The reason Israel is demolishing the villages is because it is construction that hasn’t gone through the Israeli approval process. Regulating all construction and setting building codes is something governing powers do. Occupying armies are mostly indifferent to civilian construction that doesn’t interfere with military operations.
The root of the problem is insisting on pretending these are the actions of an occupying army rather than a bad government. The reality clearly is that Israel intends to enforce the Israeli permitting and construction code system in Area-C. Acknowledge that Israel is acting like the governing power not an occupying power.
Once that is done address the problems of inequality of permitting. That’s a much easier fix than expecting Israel to allow for wildcat construction all over territory they clearly consider to be within their country. Canada doesn’t permit wildcat construction. Israel (for Jews ignoring Palestinians and Israeli Arabs) is one of the strictest countries in the world on construction law. Given the culture of very strong construction standards pushing them towards blanketly accepting wildcat construction is a bridge too far.
Then of course of the long term address the problem with unmixed housing. Canada doesn’t have housing set aside for Quebecois, English, South Asians… There is no reason over the long term Israel should either. In other words the best solution to this problem is precisely the opposite of what the UN and the UNJPPI advocates for.