Skip to main content

Take action against illegal settlements in the West Bank

It’s not just Gaza anymore (it never was). The attempted erasure of Palestinians from the West Bank – the West Bank *of the Jordan River*, not of Israel – is ramping up. The spitefulness of the tactics is appalling: in a moment of climate change, in a precarious desert-adjacent ecosystem, would who uproot thriving olive trees that are 100s of years old, providing shade, water cycling and beloved food?

And so, a letter to the foreign minister courtesy of Kairos Canada (not to be confused with Kairos Palestine). 


I am deeply concerned that the Israeli military and settlers are escalating the displacement,  dispossession and violence of Palestinians in the West Bank.  Ms Anand, your failure to say anything substantive in condemnation of Israel’s denial of entry to 6 MPs deepens that concern.

In a recent report (Dec 4, 2025) the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) provides the following update on the humanitarian situation in the West Bank (January 1 to December 1, 2025):  

  • 227 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers. 

  • Over 95,000 Palestinians were affected by expanded operations by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank. 

  • 1,680 documented attacks by Israeli settlers in more than 270 communities across the West Bank - an average of five incidents per day.  

In a landmark ruling in July 2024, the International Court of Justice determined that the settlements are illegal, must be dismantled immediately and all settlers removed from East Jerusalem and the West Bank.   

In September of this year, Canada, along with France, the UK and Australia recognized the State of Palestine. This was a step in the right direction. Yet, Israel’s expansion of settlements and outposts, annexation of Palestinian land and dispossession of Palestinian families and communities threaten the very existence of a Palestinian state.  

Ms. Anand, I urgently appeal to you to use your role in Parliament to ensure that Canada:  

  • Reaffirms its conviction and policy regarding the illegality of settlements and outposts in the West Bank under international law, 

  • Expands its existing sanction on settler violence in the West Bank to include sanctions on the State of Israel, 

  • Condemns Israel’s annexation plans, land theft and violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank as illegal under international law and a deliberate strategy to undermine a Palestinian state, now recognized by Canada.  

The settlements are expanding literally daily – settlements that are clearly illegal under international law and not a single one should exist in the first place, much less expand. As long as you continue to "stand with Israel", Ms. Anand, every word you speak about commitment to human rights is meaningless at best, outright lies at worst. 

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. 

Send your own letter:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living stones in the holy land

I met Jesus in Israel-Palestine a few years ago. I found him not in the rocky, desert ground he trod, nor in the ancient stones of the towns and cities he visited; not in the subterranean grotto in the Church of the Nativity, nor in the mammoth Church of the Holy Sepulchre, encompassing the traditional site of his death and resurrection. No, I met him in the lives of Palestinians who incarnate his spirit, in humble, passionate people who are convinced that love is the only way. I met Jesus in people who spoke like this: “We need to be soaked in the love of Christ. Love is not a hug and a kiss. Love is to seek the life of the other that the cost of one’s own.” --Labib Madanat, coordinator of the Palestinian and Israeli Bible Societies “Love is not an opportunity to overlook justice. Love is an opportunity to pursue justice…. [But] we want to resist any form of evil with the heart and mind of Jesus Christ.… There is no love without justice. And there is no true justice without lov...
2 comments
Read more

Broken people...

After reflecting with one coworker on how often churches in all their forms really mess up and hurt a whole bunch of people in the process -- and how "we gotta do better" -- I stumbled into another conversation with a coworker which highlighted our brokenness, and I suddenly realized what was wrong with my take in the first. I wanted the church to be better at fixing our mistakes, or better yet, at not making them in the first place. But maybe this "fix-it" attitude is partly the reason we keep blowing it again and again! My friend recollected an experience when a church community was in a terrible place: compounded mistakes, hurts, and frustrations had blown up, spewing pain all over all parties. (I'm sure anyone with a long history in the church can think of one, if not several, such occasions in their past.) A new Christian who observed all these goings on responded in an unexpected way. Instead of "you people are a bunch of screw-ups! How could this pos...
5 comments
Read more

Stand up for Canadian Health Care (such as it is)

Canadian health care is far from perfect — it has never achieved all Tommy Douglas dreamed for it: from tip to toe (teeth are still missing, as are a lot of drugs) — but unleashing unfettered two-tier is the opposite of fixing it.  So I joined with the Canadian Medical Association in pleading for the Canadian government to grow a spine and stop unhinged Smith's attempt to violate our own rules within her province.  As someone on Bluesky observed, if Stephen Harper tried to do this, we'd be at the gate with pitchforks. Where is the outrage. Daddy Warbucks Carney’s latest just-barely satisfactory performance in trade negotiations should not blind us to his failure to prevent this from happening.  The letter to the health minister, CC my MP and the shadow ministers: The Canadian Medical Association says the Canadian government must stand up for Albertans and all Canadians to ensure Alberta's new legislation doesn’t create a new normal of health care haves and have-no...
Post a Comment
Read more