As the GENOCIDE in Gaza escalates, Canadians follow news of the violence through mainstream news and political statements, but these are rarely balanced and lack a historical context, especially concerning Canada’s long involvement in the colonization of Palestine. The media coverage also frames zionism and judaism as the same thing, and that demonstrations and other actions aimed at stopping the genocide are antisemitism. This is NOT true.

Zionism

• Zionism is a nationalist/ideological/political movement that emerged in late 19th century Europe to support the creation of a Jewish homeland through the colonization of Palestine.
  • It is a belief that Jews has the right to take Palestinian land and displace Palestinians, whose families have lived on the land long before the State of Israel was created. This practice continues today, through genocide, illegal settlements and violence.
  • Prior to the creation of the State of Israel; Arabs, Jews and Christians lived side by side in Palestine (the area has been under the control of different empires throughout history).
• Judaism is a RELIGION.
  • It centres on the belief in one God and the observance of religious laws and traditions outlined in their sacred texts.
  • More than half of all Jews in Israel today call themselves “secular,” and don’t believe in God or any of the religious beliefs of Judaism.

Despite claims to the opposite: Zionism is NOT Judaism. There are plenty of Jews that are anti-zionist and plenty of individuals from other religions e.g., Christianity who are zionist.

Speaking up against israel and the ongoing genocide against Palestinians is anti-zionist, NOT anti-semitic.

Current Canadian Involvement

• In response to “Israel’s” starvation and bombing (murdering) of Palestinians, the Canadian Government has issued two statements in May and July respectively threatening with concrete action if Israel does not lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid. Both were issued in 20205, and as of August 2025 no concrete actions has been taken.
• Prime Minister Carney issued another statement on August 8, 2025, condemning the Israeli decision to occupy Gaza City but didn’t commit to act to prevent it.
• Canada is set to recognize the State of Palestine in September 2025, however, there are conditions attached to this recognition. These conditions include a requirement for Palestine to demilitarize i.e., to disarm any resistance and to not establish a Palestinian military force. There is no corresponding requirement on Israel. This and other conditions are not in line with a strong independent Palestinian state that can defend itself. In practice Canada is telling victims of a genocide to disarm without requiring the same from the country committing the genocide. How is this viable?
• Prime Minister Carney has confirmed that Canada will always “support Israel’s existence as an independent state in the Middle East living in peace and security” and their right to exist. There is no clear, undisputed right for “Israel” to exists in International Law. Keep in mind that both Canada and “Israel” are established on land stolen from the Indigenous Peoples already living when the settlers arrived. The struggle for Palestinian freedom is interconnected with Indigenous Peoples struggles in Canada.

Partition of Palestine

“Canada’s betrayal of Palestine predates the declaration of the State of Israel”

Most people don’t know that Canada played a major role in the lead-up to the state of israel’s creation in 1948. Some examples include:

• Supreme Court Justice Ivan Rand shaped the 1947 UN Special Committee on Palestine Report. He supported zionism and saw israel as a western “beacon of light” in an uncivilized region.
• Diplomat Lester Pearson also championed partition, and he saw israel as a strategic western outpost that would benefit western imperial interests in West Asia.
• Pearson’s work earned him the nickname “Balfour of Canada”, referring to the British foreign minister Arthur Balfour, author of the 1917 Balfour Declaration announcing British support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, which at the time was an Ottoman region whose population was overwhelmingly native Arab Muslim, Christian and Jewish.

Both Rand and Pearson had colonial and racist views of Palestinians, which was echoed in 2024 when Selina Robinson, a BC minister (who later resigned) referred to Palestine, the land the state of israel was founded on, as “a crappy piece of land” before zionist settlers arrived.

Both the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1947 Canada-orchestrated Partition Plan ignored the Palestinian right to self-determination over their homeland, while funnelling Jewish immigrants, European Holocaust survivors, into Palestine to serve western imperial interests, instead of repatriating those European Jews into their respective European homelands.

Palestinians paid the price for Europe’s anti-semitism and imperial interests in West Asia.

The first Governor of the Bank of Israel/ Head of Israel’s Ministry of Finance writes: “It may be said that Canada more than any other country played a decisive part in all stages of the UNO [United Nations Organization] discussions of Palestine”.

Nakba – a Canadian Endorsed Disaster.

Canada’s role in the Nakba and the ongoing Israel’s occupation of Palestine has largely been erased from public memory.

Canada frames the 1948 Arab – Israeli war that started after the proclamation of israel as an Arab aggression. In reality, it was Palestinians and Arab states resisting the partition and occupation of Palestine. Palestinians were fighting for their right to self-determination granted to all peoples in the United Nations Charter. israel was backed by powers like the United States, Canada and the UK.

Zionist militias tore through Palestinian villages, massacring and displacing the people living there to clear the way for the creation of israel. This is considered the beginning of Nakba – “catastrophe”, which saw massacres like Deir Yassin and the mass displacement of Palestinians. The actions of Rand and Pearson helped paved the way for it.

Settler militias also assassinated UN officials such as Count Folke Bernadotte, who supported Palestinians refugees’ right to return and warned of the partition’s harms to the native Arabs of Palestine.

The Nakba led to the forcible displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians, and they have not been able to return to their homelands since. israel was established, and is sustained, by the ongoing violence and oppression of the indigenous Palestinian population.

Canadian Peacekeeping

The United Nations (UN) involvement in Palestine was a continuation of colonial power under the guise of “peacekeeping”, with Canada playing a key role. For example after the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 ended in armistice agreements, The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization was, in part, founded to enforce the ceasefire. In reality this meant suppressing any potential Arab defence of Palestine under the guise of enforcing the ceasefire.

In July 1956 the Suez crisis occurred, after Egypt took control of the Suez canal from the British – French Suez Canal company. The canal was a critical shipping route.

In response Israel, UK and France attacked Egypt. Canada’s Foreign Minister Lester Pearson (champion for the creation of Israel) developed the idea of deploying an armoured UN peacekeeping force. After securing support, an UN peacekeeping force under Canadian command was deployed in November that year. Israel later asked them to leave.

The objective of Pearson’s efforts under UN Peacekeeping were ultimately to neutralize Palestinian resistance (and resistance of their allies). Canada, after all, is a manifestation of settler colonialism, too, and understands well the importance of racial hierarchies and containment along those lines. Thus Canada’s deep involvement in peacekeeping evolved from its role in the Palestine partition.

“A Close Relationship”

In 2003, Canada denied Palestinian refugees asylum, claiming the violence they face was part of “Israel’s” “attempts at establishing secure political frontiers and preventing terrorists attacks on its territory” and not racial or systemic in nature. This viewpoint erases the reality of the occupation and frame Palestinians as either terrorists or liars. The colonizer i.e. Israel controls not just the land and resources but the narrative and victimhood itself – a dynamic Canada knows well.

Since 2003, and well before then Canada has been one of “Israel’s” loudest cheerleaders on the international stage, even as Canadians disagree. For example Canada:

• Refused to criticize the establishment of illegal settlements in Palestine, even when the USA criticized the same settlements.
• Voted against an UN resolution guaranteeing the protections of the Fourth Geneva Convention to Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories. Over 167 other nations supported it.
• Treats the incarceration and the bombing of over two million Palestinians in Gaza with little concern, condemnation or humanity. Currently, virtually all political officials and media outlets in Canada follows this trend.

The normalization of the deaths of Palestinians over the years – because they are arabs, because they are Muslims, because they stand in the way of colonization – is dehumanizing them and fuelling their oppression. The same patterns of oppression can be seen in Canada’s relationship with the Indigenous Peoples on the Turtle Island (Canada), as for example despite the fact that Canada has the third largest freshwater supply, Indigenous Peoples living on reserves can’t access clean drinking water. Palestinians in Gaza is also living without access to clean water due to Israeli restrictions.

After October 7, 2023 the Joint Task Force 2 was sent to Israel. Major-General Denis Thompson remarked after deployment that “there’s certainly a close relationship between Canada Special Operations Forces and the Israeli Defense Forces”

Canada and the Palestinian Genocide

Even during the current genocide Canada continues to:

• Support israel’s ‘right to self-defence’.
• Commit personnel, including military, to assist Israel.
• Vilify campaigns such as Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) which aim to peacefully pressure Israel to stop its oppression of Palestinians.
• Provide millions of dollars in arms, fighter jet components and other military equipment, knowing they will be used to displace and murder Palestinians directly or indirectly.
  • In January 2024 the Canadian Government stated no new permits for military exports would be approved, however, prior to this announcement a record breaking number of permits were authorized, and the flow of military exports to Israel continued throughout 2024 and 2025.

In conclusion, Canada has been enabling and continues enable the genocide taking place occupied Palestine.

What can you do?

• Call your MP and demand they to do their job, and
  • Demand Israel to open the borders, let humanitarian aid in, and end their siege of Gaza
  • Implement sweeping sanctions and a two-way arms embargo against Israel
• Join our rallies
• Don’t buy or use services from companies supporting Israel and the genocide of Palestinians. A list of complicit cooperations can be found here

Resources

• Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza .
• The Deir Yassin massacre: Why it still matters 75 years later.
• We’ve just uncovered hundreds of shipments of weapons from Canada to Israel.
• A Brief History of Canada’s Role in the Colonization of Palestine.
• Canada becomes Israel.