By Barry Ellsworth
TRENTON, Canada (AA) – A coalition of Canadians and Palestinians threatened court action if Canada does not stop military exports to Israel, according to media reports.
Spearheaded by the Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, the coalition argues that the practice poses a “substantial risk” to women and children and in doing so violates Canadian and international law.
The threat of legal action is contained in a letter dated Jan. 30 to Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.
The letter demands, “that the federal government immediately halt all exports and transfers of Canadian military goods and technology to Israel.”
The coalition consists of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, Al-Haq – Law in the Service of Man, Ayman Oweida, a Ramallah-based non-governmental organization, and a confidential Palestinian asylum seeker.
It argues that “the Export and Import Permits Act prevents Canada from issuing permits to Canadian companies to export military goods and technology to Israel due to the substantial risk that they could be used to commit serious violations of international law and serious acts of violence against women and children.”
It goes on to demand a response from the government within 14 days that it has stopped the shipments to Israel or “the coalition will consider its legal options.”
“We are calling on Foreign Affairs Minister Joly to comply with the law and halt all military export approvals to Israel,” it said.
The letter said the Israeli military is killing an average of 250 Palestinians a day and has “deliberately imposed a humanitarian crisis upon the 2.3 million Palestinian residents of Gaza.”
To date, there has been no official response from Joly.
Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, killing at least 27,019 Palestinians and injuring 66,139. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.