Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: defend and protect international law, human life, and dignity of all people
The international community and international experts are clear: Israel’s military operations in Gaza are in violation of international law.
Canada needs to take decisive action to prevent continued human suffering, to avoid further erosion of international law, and to ensure that it is not complicit in these violations.
The United Church of Canada has again written to the Prime Minister of Canada urging immediate and decisive action. We also joined the ArmsEmbargoNow campaign and invite United Church members and allies to also take action!
- Write to your MP with our easy to use online form.
- Make it your own by adding personal stories or excerpts from the United Church’s letter to PM Trudeau.
- Request to meet your MP and keep up the relationship!
- Join the June 13th 2024 ArmsEmbargoNow day of action.
“There is another way!” Wi’am, a partner in Palestine, wrote earlier this month. “There are OTHER ways, less destructive, less violent, and less dehumanizing ways that do not force symphonies of sadness and despair into our hearts, but instead bridge the gaps, and present the sacredness of our humanity again, so that it may thrive, coexist, and live side by side.”
We asked the Prime Minister to do the following in response to international law violations linked to Israel’s military and Hamas:
- An immediate, binding, and full embargo on all arms trade with Israel, including trade through third parties, is vital.* Canada must ensure it is not providing supports or materials that could be used in the commission of international law violations.
- For more on this: see the Project Ploughshares report, findings and statement of the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and the campaign we have joined: ArmsEmbargoNow.
- Canada also needs to use all means at its disposal to:
- pressure Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah and to end extremist settler violence in Gaza and the West Bank;
- press for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all captives held by all parties;
- publicly support both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, cooperating fully with them on the Palestine situation and condemning any threats made against ICC personnel in connection with its work on this situation and any and all cases undertaken by the Court.
* While there are well-founded allegations of international crimes having been committed by both Israel and Hamas, the reason the arms embargo is focused on Israel is because there is no Canadian trade with Hamas: Hamas is a listed terrorist organization in Canada, thus all interactions are already prohibited.