From Gaza to Lebanon, war crimes are spreading

Israel’s siege of Gaza isn’t a military campaign. It is a war crimes campaign — now spilling over into Lebanon.

Palestinians are on the brink of a famine and have less than 5L of water per person each day — less than the water used in one toilet flush in Canada. There are no fully functioning hospitals and a handful of partially functioning ones. The lack of healthcare is turning otherwise treatable conditions — like kidney failure and diabetes — into deadly ones.

More than 1 million people fled their homes and are in need of humanitarian aid in Lebanon, including hundreds of thousands of children. Nothing about this crisis was inevitable, we must act now.

Canada needs to increase the pressure and call for a ceasefire now. The federal government needs to take all possible measures to secure a ceasefire and allow unrestricted access for humanitarian aid. Anything less is the equivalent of complicity in one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in modern history. We need to stop being part of the supply chain of death.

Oxfam Canada is calling for the following measures:

  1. The federal government continues to ship weapons or parts of weapons to Israel, citing previously approved contracts. They are also shipping weapons parts to the US, who are assembling and shipping weapons to Israel. Stopping arms transfers is an important step towards securing the permanent ceasefire that people desperately need.

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  2. The international community, including Canada, must use all tools at their disposal to secure a permanent ceasefire. This is the only way to stop the death and destruction, ensure the safe release of hostages, and get more aid to those who need it.

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  3. The Government of Israel must end the total siege of Gaza and Lebanon, and allow enough humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, food, fuel, and water to reach all those who need it.

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  4. All parties in any conflict must protect civilians during military action and uphold International Humanitarian Law. This means ensuring the unconditional release of all remaining hostages held captive by Hamas, and the protection of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, such as hospitals and schools.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has the power to take more measures and work with other world leaders to secure a ceasefire now. 

Join Oxfam Canada now in calling on the Government of Canada to increase the pressure and take more measures to secure a ceasefire and the safety of Palestinians in Gaza.

Canada must not remain a bystander in this conflict any longer. Act now: your signature can save lives.

I call on Minister Melanie Joly to escalate the call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

By allowing existing arms contracts with Israel to be fulfilled, the Government of Canada is allowing Canadian arms and parts to be sold to a military that is using them to kill thousands of innocent people in and around Gaza and Lebanon.

I am joining Oxfam to call on Minister Joly to use all her diplomatic power to make a permanent ceasefire a reality and ensure that all arms and arms parts transfers to Israel are stopped immediately so that Palestinians in the Gaza strip and the people of Lebanon have a chance to recover, to rebuild — and to simply live.