44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 16, 2023 11:00AM
- Oct/16/23 2:12:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Alexandre Look, Ben Mizrachi, Adi Vital-Kaploun, Shir Hana Georgy, Netta Epstein and Judith Haggai are six Canadians who were brutally murdered in the war launched by the terrorist group Hamas against our friend and ally, Israel.
There are over 1,400 dead, scenes of sickening brutality, infants slaughtered and elderly survivors of the Holocaust butchered. Innocent civilians, Israelis, Americans and Canadians had their lives ended or forever changed simply because they were Jews.
I feel for the hostages being held in Gaza whose fate is unknown and the innocent Palestinian civilians who suffer because of Hamas. Yet, there are pro-Hamas demonstrations in our own country celebrating this depravity. I hope the entire House joins me in denouncing those who are celebrating the death of innocent Israelis and those who are inciting violence against Jewish Canadians.
My heart is broken. I am devastated. I stand with our ally Israel. I stand with the people of Israel.
Am Yisrael Chai.
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- Oct/16/23 8:44:40 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I was very concerned by what I heard before. The Jewish people were the victims of the greatest genocide in human history, the Holocaust. Israel is the only majority Jewish state in the world. It sounded to me very much like he accused the state of Israel of being on the verge of committing a genocide.
I would like to ask, yes or no, do you believe that Israel is committing or is about to commit genocide?
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- Oct/16/23 8:49:18 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg South Centre.
Let us start by asking ourselves why we are here tonight. We are here tonight because a terrorist organization that has in its charter the destruction of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people launched the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. It crossed the border into Israel. It slaughtered babies. It slaughtered women in their 90s who were Holocaust survivors. It took men, women and children who were huddled together in bomb shelters and kibbutzim, slaughtered them brutally and put it on video. It went to a music festival where young people were having fun, and slaughtered them all.
Among the 1,400-plus people who were slaughtered, which is the number that we know right now, were six Canadians: Alexandre Look, Ben Mizrachi, Adi Vital-Kaploun, Shir Georgy, Netta Epstein and Judith Weinstein Haggai. I have just learned from the family of Tiferet Lapidot that she was also slaughtered and that her body has been found. Seven Canadians have been slaughtered. I have been speaking to the families of those people, and it is devastating for them.
Something that has been impressed on the Jewish community for a very long time is the feeling that in the world today, we are very isolated. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, people are worried and this has exacerbated the situation. Israelis never thought this could happen. They thought their intelligence was better than this. Jewish Canadians are left shocked, vulnerable, apprehensive, afraid and angry. That is where we are today.
Israel, as a nation, has the right to defend itself within international law. We talk about the Holocaust, and the difference between today and the Holocaust is that in the Holocaust, we had no army for the Jews. We had nobody to stand up for us. Now we have a democratic state that has an army that can defend itself and the Jewish people, and that army has a right to eradicate a terrorist organization that has wreaked misery not only for Israeli families but for Palestinian families as well. Hamas uses its population as human shields.
We absolutely need to make sure that in Gaza, there is a humanitarian corridor. We need to make sure, and Israel has historically had the idea to make sure, that it does not attack civilians. We need to make sure that civilians are protected as well as possible, that humanitarian aid reaches Gaza and that there is a safe zone in the south. All of these things are important, but Israel has the right and the duty to defend itself. That is important.
I want to turn to something that has not come up as much as it probably should, which is that in Canada, there are two communities right now that are very vulnerable and nervous: the Jewish community and the Muslim community. Of course, all people who identify as Palestinians, whatever their religion, feel very vulnerable. Jews in Canada are not responsible for the actions of the State of Israel, and Palestinians in Canada are not responsible for the actions of Hamas. These two populations in Canada have historically gotten along very well and been allies, and we, as parliamentarians, have a duty.
We all have a duty to ensure that, here in Canada, we avoid the battles being fought in the Middle East, that all communities get along here in Canada, that we, as parliamentarians, offer our full support to the people in our ridings who feel extremely vulnerable right now, especially young people and students in our schools and universities. That is critical.
We, as politicians, have to set an example for everyone. Whether we agree or not, we need to be seen talking to one another and sharing our concerns in a civil way, because that is the way we set an example for future generations and other countries around the world.
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- Oct/16/23 8:55:19 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, that is a very important question. Iran is definitely responsible for Hamas having the resources it had to carry out these terrorist attacks. Whether or not Iran was actually involved in plotting these attacks, we do not know yet; I imagine we will at some future date. However, what we do know is that Iran is actively involved with Hezbollah and may well try to get it to create a second front in Lebanon. We need to make sure, along with our allies, that Iran does not further exacerbate tension in the region. Of course, I have voted in the House to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, and I certainly continue to support that vote that I made several years ago.
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- Oct/16/23 8:56:30 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I always enjoy getting questions from my hon. colleague, who is very intelligent. He always asks good questions. In my opinion, we are in a situation where a western democratic country was attacked by a third party, a terrorist group, whose stated purpose is to eradicate that country. The terrorist group's goal is not to create two states but to eradicate the State of Israel. Israel has the right to defend its population, just as every other state in the world does.
Unfortunately, sometimes it seems as though the issue is dealt with differently only in the case of Israel. I am grateful to the Bloc Québécois for taking a clear stance on this issue.
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- Oct/16/23 8:58:51 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I also know my hon. colleague to be a very nice and well-reasoned person, and I consider her a friend. We disagree on this. I do not believe that anybody is saying any of the things she just said. Israel will do its best, as always, to make sure to make civilian casualties as low as possible. The difference between Hamas and Israel is that Hamas attacks civilians; that is its goal. Hamas wants to kill as many people as possible; Israel does not. Israel wants to go after military targets of Hamas, and I trust the State of Israel will do that.
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- Oct/16/23 9:15:43 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for his excellent speech.
Unfortunately, the hon. member may not have heard that the bodies of two of the three Canadians we thought might have been taken hostage were found today. That means the Canadian dead now number seven. I believe it was an attack.
Does my hon. colleague agree with me that it was an attack not only on Israel but on Canada, on the United States and on humanity?
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- Oct/16/23 9:24:22 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague, a good friend who delivered an excellent speech.
At the United Nations and at international organizations there is frequently something that happens, which is Israel being treated differently from everyone else in the community of nations. At the UN Human Rights Council, Israel is the only regular item on their agenda. Israel is disproportionately singled out for condemnation in every UN agency.
It seems, with this war, there are some who would treat Israel differently from every other country in terms of its right to self-defence under international law. I am wondering if the hon. member might comment on that issue.
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- Oct/16/23 10:49:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the member for Calgary Heritage on his excellent speech. Like many Jewish Canadians, I have taken great comfort from the debate tonight and general unanimity in the House that Israel has the right to defend itself within international law because it was attacked by a terrorist entity and we are all better off if that terrorist entity is destroyed.
There tend to be places where Israel is treated differently from every other country in the world, by some people. I wonder if the member might extrapolate a bit about how this is taking place in this context.
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