Palestinians continue to die every day in Gaza, but Canada does not intend to welcome more refugees. Less than 900 of them managed to go to the country. A situation criticized by lawyers specializing in international law, who insist that Ottawa redoubles efforts and creativity to save lives.
The government of Mark Carney plans, for the time being, maintaining “the ceiling of 5000 requests” authorized. This ceiling has already been reached since March and, to date, only 1188 Palestinians have indeed managed to complete their request to enter Canada and 864 have entered the country.
If the CAP of 5000 arrivals has not been reached, it is because “trips outside Gaza remain extremely difficult due to factors independent of Canada’s will”, maintains immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada, in a answer to questions The press sent by email. “This remains the main obstacle to the rapid processing of requests. »»
The ministry adds that “the priority is to bring families together without hindering their ability to return to Gaza when the circumstances allow it. This path is temporary and aims to offer a safe refuge in Canada for three years. ”
To submit their requests, the Palestinians must succeed in getting out of the borders – always locked – and then managing to submit their biometric data (fingerprints and photo), while the Gaza band is in full chaos and largely destroyed.
PHOTO OMAR AL-QATTAA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Al-Tuffah district of Gaza on Thursday
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said, about the Palestinians: “We do not push them outside, but we allow them to go out. These remarks were made while Israel is considering a massive project for colonization of the West Bank1 And wants to quickly take control of the city of Gaza.
Insufficient measures
François Crépeau, professor emeritus of law at McGill University, welcomes the family reunification measures of Ottawa, but he deems them clearly insufficient.
He believes that it is more than time to concretely help the Palestinians and that help has already been too late.
In its opinion, Canada and other countries denounce the policies of the Israeli government must show imagination.
It is important to recognize Palestine, but there are more urgent things to do. There are lives to save.
François Crépeau, professor emeritus of law at McGill University
According to him, it is necessary to quickly get the most vulnerable, “the most badly taken, those who suffer from malnutrition, who are injured, the orphans, the women who have become only head of families who have three, four or five children, the elderly”.
Not all should necessarily be welcomed in Canada. We could consider, dream of Mr. Crépeau, to set up temporary hospitals in Cyprus, for example.
Admittedly, NGOs like Doctors Without Borders are already responsible for treating people on the spot, in an often dangerous context, with food and essential goods that enter the droppings.
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Humanitarian aid trucks are waiting to be able to enter the Gaza Strip at the border post of Rafah, Egypt on August 6.
The most badly in point need more care “to resume their strength, be nourished properly, rest, be protected”, out of the constant risk of attacks, notes Mr. Crépeau.
“Removal of Palestinians”
For him, there is no doubt that “we are in a process of suppression of the Palestinians. It is genocidal ”and the current drama requires rapid and coordinated action between several countries.
At the same time, by promoting the departure of Palestinians, is it not likely to help Israel to empty the territories? Already, in February, Donald Trump dreamed of shaving what remains of Gaza and making this territory a riviera, style of the French Riviera.
Audrey Macklin, professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto, notes the irony of all this. “I am sure that the Palestinians suffer from thinking that if they arrive to leave to ensure their survival and that of their family, they will serve Israel’s objective to empty the region. But if they die, it also serves this goal, ”she observes.
Like Mr. Crépeau, Mme Macklin judges that the special family reunification program of Ottawa is far too shy. It is a “small step”, a “symbolic” gesture intended only to save appearances, according to her.
Yes, logistically, the evacuation of people taken in war areas is complicated, “but these are problems that can be resolved” by putting the required efforts.
This is all the more imperative, she underlines, as in virtue of the law of refugees, “it is prohibited to withdraw from a person the right to exit to request asylum”. But this requirement is not respected by any country, “neither Israel nor Egypt,” she deplores.
What Canada does, in its opinion, “it is to announce a measure to respond to a part of the electorate who wants Canada to help Palestinians”, without doing what it takes for the measures to work, “which satisfies another – more influential – of the electorate, which does not only want Gazaouis to Canada”.
Canadian arms exports in Israel
The government could notably follow the example of other countries that have set up programs to host students, researchers, artists or urgent medical cases, she suggests.
Audrey Macklin also stresses that “beyond the migration issue, Canada does not seem to respect its commitment not to export military equipment and weapons to Israel”.
At the end of July, the World Beyond War groups, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, as well as independent Jewish Voices, said they had found proofs of sending military weapons and ammunition to Israel, peeling Israeli import registers and Canadian expeditions.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Anita Anand, rejected these conclusions by arguing that some of these claims were “misleading and [déformaient] considerably the facts ”.
Meanwhile, in France, any welcome from Palestinians was frozen in early August.
1. Read “occupied West Bank: an Israeli Minister from the Far Right wants to accelerate colonization”
