We’re Waiting for Decisive Action, Mr. Prime Minister

As starvation and genocide in Gaza deepen, ecumenical and advocacy organizations are ramping up their efforts to apply pressure on Ottawa for decisive action towards a just peace in the Middle East.

Today, KAIROS issued a letter to Prime Minister Carney expressing deepening grief and frustration, and urging the Government of Canada to act decisively to end the abhorrent suffering and violence in Gaza. The United Church of Canada is a member of KAIROS and a signatory to the letter, which you can read along with an interfaith letter sent earlier this month in the Downloads section at the end of this post.

“Our work and witness are rooted in decades of partnership with local Christian churches and human rights organizations in Palestine and Israel. Even as they live through devastation, they continue to work boldly and sacrificially for just peace. Canada must do no less,” the letter reads. “While all Palestinians are suffering from Israel’s siege in Gaza and Israeli settlements and occupation in the West Bank, the situation of Palestinian Christians grows increasingly dangerous and grave. As Christian organizations in Canada, we are compelled to amplify their suffering and demands for peace.”

This letter was sent to the Prime Minister just as Palestinian Christian heads of churches issued a statement condemning another attack on the community of Taybeh.

While the churches welcome the Prime Minister’s words and intentions, there has been no meaningful action. The letter repeated the churches’ request for an urgent meeting to discuss the immediate, concrete steps our government must take to uphold human rights and international law.

In a well-timed campaign, Arms Embargo Now released a groundbreaking new report this week, revealing, for the first time, detailed records of ongoing shipments of weapons from Canadian arms manufacturers directly to Israel, and primarily to Israel's biggest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. These shipments include military goods—hundreds of thousands of bullets, General Dynamics cartridges, F-35 fighter jet parts, radar and Electronic Warfare Systems, and more—sent directly from Canada to Israel from October 2023 up to the present day.

The report results will be summarized in an online briefing on Thursday, July 31. Register here.

Despite the Canadian government's persistent efforts to create an illusion of having addressed Canada’s arming of Israel’s genocide, organizers say this report exposes that Canadian-made military goods have flowed directly to Israel over the past 21 months, in violation of both Canadian and international law.

For more advocacy tools to support this campaign, please engage here.