Liberal, NDP MPs to visit West Bank, connect with Palestinians
CBC
A group of five Liberal MPs and a lone NDP parliamentarian are planning to spend three days in Israel and the occupied West Bank, at a time of heightened tensions between Ottawa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“I think being present helps; it does calm the situation because when you have internationals present, local actors will be on their best behaviour, or better behaviour,” said Liberal Sameer Zuberi, the MP for the Montreal-area riding of Pierrefonds-Dollard, speaking to CBC News before he traveled.
The MPs intend to meet with civil society groups, Palestinian refugees and internally displaced people, as well as officials from the Canadian government and the Palestinian Authority (PA). They will also talk to parliamentarians in Jordan on Monday before crossing into Israel the next morning.
The trip comes almost three months after the Canadian government formally recognized a Palestinian state, just ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, a symbolic gesture that nevertheless angered Israel.
“Israel will not allow you to shove a terror state down our throats,” Netanyahu told the UNGA a week after Canada’s announcement, also criticizing other Western countries that had opted for recognition, such as France and the United Kingdom.
Canada, as well as other countries, has said Hamas can have no part in governing a Palestinian state.
At the same UN event, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the body that in part administers the West Bank, condemned Israel’s actions both there and in Gaza as a “crime against humanity,” and also reiterated Hamas would have no future governance role in Gaza.
Like a previous delegation of different Liberal and NDP MPs in early 2024, this group is taking part in sponsored travel by a registered Muslim non-profit, Canadian Muslim Vote.
The only NDP MP on this trip, Jenny Kwan, who represents Vancouver East, said she has some concerns about gaining entry into Israel.
The group’s itinerary also includes going into the Israeli-occupied West Bank, administered by the PA.
While there, they intend to meet with Palestinian families who have had run-ins with settlers, as well as PA officials to speak about democratic reform and institution-building.
Kwan said she expects there could be obstacles on any step of the itinerary, given the Israeli-controlled access into the swath of land.
“At any juncture, anything could happen,” she said.
“What the organizers told me, if anyone of us run into a problem with respect to that, we as a group will unite together and act together.
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