Functioning at the UN as Israel’s defense lawyer for its serial violations of international law has once again cost Canada the coveted Security Council seat. And rightly so. The UN charter unambiguously declares its objective as “respect for international law.”
It was widely accepted that former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s staunch support for Israel contributed to his defeat for a Security Council seat a decade ago.
UN appointee and recognized Canadian expert on international law Professor Michael Lynk understandingly warned last month, “If Canada’s campaign for a council seat is once again unsuccessful, its taciturn approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will surely have been a contributing factor.”
In 2018, dozens of Canadian NGOs encouraged the PM and Foreign Minister Freeland in the Security Council seat bid, however cautioning on Palestine, that makes it “now more imperative than ever that Canada’s voting record at the United Nations is one that reflects the principles of international law.” Nonetheless, shortly thereafter Freeland announced that a seat would allow Canada to serve as an “asset for Israel.”
As Canada maintained months of silence in the face of worldwide condemnation over Israel’s threat of annexing Palestinian territory, last month over 100 Canadian, American and international NGOs wrote to all UN Ambassadors to ensure that Canada’s recalcitrance in the face of international law governing Palestinian rights didn’t go unnoticed. Corey Balsam of Independent Jewish Voices observed, “Trudeau speaks a lot about the importance of maintaining a rules-based international order … but of course, annexation is at complete odds with international law and those rules.”
‘Twas not ever thus. Twenty years ago when rose petals filled the fountain in front of the House of Commons at the passing of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, recalling his signature lapel rose, Prime Minister Jean Chretien reflected of his mentor, “On the international stage, he gave us a profile and stature well beyond our size and power. Wherever we were in the world, he made us feel proud to be Canadians…” Days later I was called to a meeting with the Prime Minister where he sought insights and support for continuing to steer a Canadian course on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the face of intense pressure from the Israel Lobby over Canada’s voting at the UN, the last time it sat on the UN Security Council.
Now, the bloom is off the rose. For the Security Council seat, former UN ambassador for disarmament, Canadian Peggy Mason recently stated Palestinian rights “matters in the voting. It played a role in our unsuccessful 2010 campaign…it would have been unthinkable when I was ambassador — Canada voting with the U.S., Israel and sometimes the Marshall Islands — on UN resolutions where the entire rest of the UN is voting in favour.” She noted the hypocrisy of “isolating ourselves in that way when we’re a self-declared champion of international law yet our voting record doesn’t reflect that.” Canada’s loss is the UN’s victory.
The failed campaign culminated with a desperate, if disingenuous response to the NGO letter by Canada’s ambassador to the UN: “this year, we voted yes on one more resolution” at the UN supporting Palestinian rights. Thus obscured the fact that it was one more than zero under this Prime Minister, while voting against 67.
Karen Rodman of the law NGO Just Peace Advocates observed, “The Liberals have voted against dozens of UN resolutions defending Palestinian rights, threatened to cut funding to the International Criminal Court for investigating Israeli crimes, protected Israeli settlement wine producers, celebrated Canadians who fight in the Israeli military and slandered the pro-Palestinian movement.”
Rodman added Canada’s former foreign minister under Trudeau, “even told an Israeli audience Canada would act as an ‘asset for Israel’ if it won a seat on the UN’s most powerful decision-making body.”
And this is out of step the desire of most Canadians to be an international force for peace and human rights. An EKOS poll this week found 74 percent of Canadians oppose Israeli annexation, while a plurality of Canadians even want to impose sanctions against Israel if the annexation plan proceeds.
The defeat ought to be a clarion call for the Canadian government to join the Canadian and international consensus on Israel and international law.
A version of this op-ed was published on June 25, 2020 by the Arab News and is republished here with permission.
I am ashamed by the hypocrisy of the Canadian government, its failure to represent the opinion of the majority of Canadians on Israel’s criminal dispossession of the Palestinians. The judgment of the world community is a rebuke for Canada’s sniveling support for Israel’s endless ugly violence against the Palestinians and her neighbours.
I am heartened by the world’s denunciation of Canada’s abandonment of the universal application of international law and human rights law in Palestine. If the Canadian government refuses to hearken to the opinion of a majority of Canadians, it must now heed the opinion of the rest of the world in the humiliating defeat at the UN.
a plurality of Canadians even want to impose sanctions against Israel if the annexation plan proceeds.
Sanctions on Israel should be imposed immediately, until Israel lifts the murderous blockade of the Gaza strip, a hideous insult to human decency.
https://daysofpalestine.com/post/14484/120-French-parliament-members-urge-Emanuel-Macron-to-recognize-state-of-Palestine
“120 French parliament members urge Emanuel Macron to recognize state of Palestine” Days of Palestine, June 23/20
“Some 120 French Members of Parliament have co-signed a letter urging their president Emmanuel Macron to recognize the state of Palestine as a response to Israel’s impending plans to annex large part of the occupied West Bank.
“In their letter, the French parliamentarians urged the French president to move forward in order to preserve the two-state solution as the only solution that provides hope for achieving a durable peace in the region, and establishing a real Palestinian state and not just pantostans isolated from other.
“The signatories called for the necessity to impose international sanctions on Israel if it implements its annexation plans, slamming such plans as a blatant violation of international law and constitute a real danger to regional peace and security.
“The letter called for a collective European recognition of the State of Palestine, adding that if a collective European recognition is not possible, France should unilaterally recognize the State of Palestine.”
“They reiterated their firm position that settlements violated the Charter of the United Nations and the international law.
“The parliamentarians noted that the Israeli government is trying to exploit the world’s preoccupation with confronting the Corona pandemic in order to pass its settlement plans instead of cooperating with its surroundings in facing the pandemic.”
Panic stations for Irwin Cotler, Israel’s none-too-bright and ever-willing lieutenant in Canada.
Why does the leadership in Canada want their country to ape “Big Brother” across the border?
Are they unable to see that Israel has inserted itself into US politics and foreign policies, making itself a pariah in the rest of the world, by consistently voting to protect Israel from being held accountable in the UN? Whatever happened to common sense and not going down the same path? The US can never get out of Israel’s “control”, and President after President, seems to
kowtow to Israel, in every way possible, and despite the false support for a 2 state solution, seems to be sending the aid and weapons, to keep the status quo going.
Trudeau has been a huge disappointment, going against his own people, to do Netanyahu’s bidding.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/06/26/un-snub-the-latest-in-liberals-rancid-record.html
“UN snub the latest in Liberals’ rancid record” by Rick Salutin, The [Toronto] Star, June 26/20
EXCERPT:
“There is one and only one reason, IMO, for the resounding defeat of Canada’s bid for a Security Council seat at the UN: Palestine. It has been a UN focus — almost obsession — since the vote for partition in 1948, though it’s taken various forms. The current version is opposition to Israel’s intention to annex large chunks of the occupied territories that it conquered 53 years ago, on which it has planted many settlements.
“UN attention to this issue is so intense that you can readily access voting stats of contenders for the seat, the way you could once check how teams are doing in the sports world. So, just in this century, on votes backing, somehow or other, the Palestinian cause, our rivals for the seat, Ireland and Norway, voted yes 251 and 249 times, while Canada did so 87 times — and 85 of those were from 2000 to 2010. Post-2010, one of our only two yes votes came last December, with the Security Council vote looming. So that might merit an asterisk, like this year’s World Series winner, if it’s played.
“On these effectively ‘pro-Palestinian’ motions, Canada voted no 166 times. The other two never did.”