Oxfam-Québec and Oxfam Canada are sorry for Canada’s inaction in the face of famine deliberately caused in the Gaza Strip.
“Tweets do not feed anyone, and declarations will not open up the access points to Gaza”recalls Bushra Khalidi, head of Oxfam policies in occupied Palestinian territory.
Children and adults in Gaza starve and dehydration, when they are not reduced to waiting for hours under a blazing sun to get meager food rations by risking dying under Israeli military fire. Reaffirm Canada’s positioneven in more firm terms, as Prime Minister Mark Carney did this week, does not change the reality of a population that dies in Gaza because food, water and care are knowingly denied by the Israeli authorities.
The time for concrete actions restricting Canada’s support to Israel has largely come – without waiting for other countries to join or not. Prime Minister Mark Carney has the opportunity to demonstrate by acts his attachment to human rights and international humanitarian law. The options are multiple, starting with the immediate and public judgment of any transfer of weapons, components or ammunition to Israel, whether it is done directly or via the United States.
Abstaining to act is a decision fraught with consequences because it endorses the continuation of this moral failure for humanity in Gaza and which is more painful every day than the previous one for civilians. It is also betraying Canada’s commitment to humanitarian action and international humanitarian law and respect for the principles of independence, neutrality, Gaza and in the rest of the world.
We are impatiently awaiting the Carney government to finally announce concrete measures next week, at the United Nations Conference on the two -state solution.
