On the morning of May 29, 2025, as we are writing these lines, we learn that over 50 people have already been killed in Gaza, and the day is not over. How much more horror will it take for our governments to act and stop this carnage ?
“Protecting the Palestinian people has become an absolute emergency. In Gaza, after a few weeks of suspension, mass killings have resumed, accompanied by a total siege, widespread famine, and the forced displacement of populations.”
This is the dramatic observation made by the “Paris Appeal for the Protection of the Palestinian People” on May 25, 20251 :
“More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military operations. The devastated Gaza Strip has become uninhabitable and lies in ruins.”
History will judge us for our silence
In Quebec, a petition signed by over 800 people— including prominent historical figures — expresses the same outrage and calls on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to “raise his voice.” They state : “We refuse to be kept in a state of powerlessness and passivity. We reject the judgment that History will pass on our silence.”2
It’s not just people dying in Gaza: according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), less than 5 % of agricultural land is now usable. What do we call such destruction ? Gaza is about the size of Montreal Island. Imagine if all our hospitals were bombed repeatedly, destroyed or severely damaged. Imagine our downtown and residential neighbourhoods reduced to rubble.
We have seen, almost in real time, children burned alive in Gaza. They were reaching out. We saw their small bodies move but didn’t hear their screams in the bombed-out school where they had been living with their parents. The U.S. ambassador (under President Biden) recounted the scene, just as we do here, but she still vetoed a ceasefire resolution that day at the UN Security Council.
After Gaza, the West Bank
On May 26, we again saw Palestinian children burned alive in a Gaza school : 36 dead. In Gaza, children are having arms, legs—or both—amputated without anesthesia! Because hospital supplies have been bombed or exhausted. The children are so young that some ask if their severed limbs will “grow back.” Many are orphans because of the war.
And after Gaza, the West Bank is also turning into a battlefield: in just 18 months, there have been over 1,500 attacks by the Israeli army. Settlers have killed more than 900 and wounded over 7,000 Palestinians, not including the thousands displaced. Settlers are seizing land, burning olive groves and homes !
On May 26, 2025, 800 British lawyers, including two former UK Supreme Court judges, declared that the actions of Israeli authorities in the occupied territories may amount to genocide, echoing findings from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 19673.
No less important than the protection of Israeli civilians from any kind of aggression, the protection of the Palestinian people and their children is our urgent and shared duty.
“Every human being whose life is in danger has the right to assistance” (Article 2 of Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms). This principle is also enshrined in international humanitarian law. That is the law we must preserve.
Our fight against apartheid
Canada has faced similar challenges in the past. Who regrets our fight against apartheid in South Africa ? Or our courageous campaign against anti-personnel landmines, supported memorably by Princess Diana ? In 1956, we said no to the Suez War and invented peacekeeping— earning Canada a Nobel Peace Prize. We didn’t just support the creation of the International Criminal Court—we helped build it. The doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect” bears our name.
Have we learned anything from our history ?
On July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague confirmed that Gaza and the West Bank are occupied territories. The Court stated that Israel must end this nearly 60-year occupation and withdraw its settlers from the West Bank. Not in ten years ! Now.
The ICJ also ruled that Israel must compensate Palestinians for damages caused by this colonization. Several judges also denounced an apartheid system in the West Bank, echoing what Nelson Mandela, an honorary Canadian citizen, had already said.
On September 17, 2024, following the ICJ’s opinion, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted “to dismantle Israeli settlements by September 18, 2025.” That date is now less than four months away. Canada abstained from the vote. We urge our government to reconsider its position and join the vast majority of UN member States, as France has done.
On May 29, 2025, Israel announced the construction of 22 new settlements in the West Bank. In the face of such provocation, can Canada continue to ignore the Court’s ruling and proceed as if nothing is happening—maintaining free trade with Israel, including for products from the West bank ?
The opinion of the International Court of Justice cannot be ignored
The ICJ’s opinion is crystal clear. The Court speaks the law! Canada cannot ignore this decision. In growing partnership with European nations – recently Germany and Norway –, Canada must demand respect for international justice, call for peace, and implement a strong strategy of pressure on Israel’s authorities—including a sanctions regime and recognition of the Palestinian state. On May 30, 2025, President Macron presented this recognition as “not just a moral duty, but a political necessity4."
Canada will host the G7 countries in Kananaskis on June 15. From June 17 to 20, a special session of the UN General Assembly will take place in New York, chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, to revive a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The following week, a NATO summit will be held in The Hague.
Canada has the opportunity to use these platforms to show leadership and defend the rights of a people in peril !
SIGNATURES
- François Crépeau, OC, Professor of International Law, McGill University, former UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Aline Gobeil, journalist ;
With the support of :
- Mark Antaki, Université McGill
- Rachad Antonius, Professeur associé, UQAM
- Robert Armstrong, broadcasting consultant
- Idil Atak, Professeure, Toronto Metropolitan University
- Suzanne Aubry, écrivaine
- Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, Chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council
- Stéphane Beaulac, PhD (Cantab), professeur de droit international, Université de Montréal
- Gilles Bibeau, professeur émérite, Université de Montréal
- Megan Bradley, Professor and William Dawson Scholar, Political Science and International Development Studies, McGill University
- Bonnie Campbell, professeure émérite, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Christopher Campbell-Duruflé, Professeur adjoint, Faculté de droit, Toronto Metropolitan University
- Sonia Cancian, psychoanalyst, historian, Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires en études montréalaises, McGill University
- Janet Cleveland, chercheuse, Institut universitaire SHERPA
- Ellen Corin, Professor Emerita, McGill University
- Geneviève Dufour, professeure, Université d’Ottawa
- Gilles Duruflé, Consultant, Finance internationale
- René Dussault, ancien coprésident de la Commission royale sur les peuples autochtones
- Samaa Elibyari, Présidente, Conseil Canadien des Femmes Musulmanes-Québec
- Evan Fox-Decent, Professor of Law and Canada Research Chair in Cosmopolitan Law and Justice, McGill University
- Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, Artist, Documentarian, Indigenous Human Rights & Environmental Activist, Kanehsatà:ke
- Alain-G. Gagnon, professeur titulaire, département de science politique, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Gaëtane Gascon, retraitée d’Oxfam Canada
- Ana Gómez-Carrillo, MD, Psychiatrist, Montreal Children Hospital, McGill University Health Center
- Jill Hanley, Professeure titulaire, École de travail social, Université McGill
- Simon Harel, Professeur titulaire, Département de littératures et de langues du monde, Université de Montréal
- Ghayda Hassan, UQAM
- Denise Helly, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montréal
- Janique Johnson-Lafleur, Institut universitaire Sherpa et Université McGill
- Niky Kamran, McGill University
- Laurence J. Kirmayer, MD, Distinguished James McGill Professor & Director, Division of Social & Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University
- Myrna Lashley, McGill University
- Isabelle Lasvergnas, psychanalyste
- Peter Leuprecht, ancien Doyen de la Faculté de Droit de l`Université McGill
- Karine Mac Allister, PhD
- Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada, professeur titulaire, Université Laval
- Donna Mergler, professeure émérite, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Lucie Nadeau, MD, Professeure agrégée / Divisions de psychiatrie sociale et culturelle et de pédopsychiatrie / Université McGill
- Vrinda Narain, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University
- Ndeye Dieynaba Ndiaye, Professeure agrégée, Département des sciences juridiques, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Alex Neve, Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa
- John Packer, Human Rights Research and Education Centre and Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
- Michel Peterson, psychoanalyst, École lacanienne de Montréal, Corpo Freudiano, Alfapsy
- Johanne Poirier, Professeure, Faculty of Law, McGill University
- Maryse Potvin, Professeure titulaire, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Cécile Rousseau, Professeure, Université McGill
- Claude Savoie, avocate
- William A. Schabas OC MRIA, Professor of international law, School of Law, Middlesex University, London, UK
- Marina Sharpe, Associate Professor, Royal Military College Saint-Jean
- Oussama Sidhom, Université McGill
- Louise Vandelac, Professeure titulaire, sociologie, UQAM
- Marie-Joëlle Zahar, Directrice, Réseau de recherche sur les opérations de paix, Université de Montréal
1Published on the French site Orient XXI, the Paris Appeal was endorsed by filmmakers Ken Loach and Xavier Delane, novelist Annie Ernaux, Middle East experts Alain Gresh, Bertrand Badie, Agnès Levallois, Pascal Boniface, Didier Fassin (professor at Collège de France), Monique Chemillier-Gendreau (emeritus professor of public law), and many others.
2“Des centaines de personnalités québécoises demandent à Mark Carney de lever le ton face à Israël ”,Le Devoir, May 28–29, 2025.
3Haroon Siddique, “UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lauyer”, The Guardian, May 27, 2025.
4« La reconnaissance d’un Etat palestinien n’est « pas simplement un devoir moral, mais une exigence politique », déclare Emmanuel Macron. », Le Monde, May 30, 2025.