Speaker, with great thought to what other members in this House have said, I rise to speak to this motion today from a particular point of departure.

For years, I was a university professor. I taught and studied human rights both in Canada and around the world. I had the privilege to study with students from Israel and Palestinian communities, from places all over the world, and that life experience has led me to say the following to contribute to this debate.

I think we need, right now, a very serious response among political leaders to the ongoing horrors in Israel and in Gaza. My contribution to this debate is that I believe it’s time to raise our voices for peace with justice, and I’ll describe this afternoon what I mean by that.

Back home, like I heard from the member for Thornhill and many others, I have been talking to Jewish and Palestinian neighbours who are grieving in a deep state of trauma for having lost loved ones, and many more who are living their lives, right now, terrified. They have been quite clear to me that there is one important thing I immediately have to do for them, and that is to offer them support, to offer them comfort for what they’ve lived through, the atrocities of October 7, and what they continue to live through in what is truly one of the most horrifying weeks I’ve seen in my lifetime.

The war crimes committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians last Saturday have shocked us; they have shaken the community I serve. Hundreds of civilians maimed, executed or kidnapped have had direct impacts on my city and they must be condemned unreservedly.

The same is true for Israeli military attacks that have hurt Palestinian civilians. Speaker, apartment buildings—entire buildings—have been levelled. Entire families have been killed. Food, water, fuel and power have been cut off. Border crossings have been bombed and blockaded as people have tried to escape. The use of deadly white phosphorus, a chemical weapon, has been verified by journalists. These are not actions against Hamas. This is terrifying ordinary Palestinians, and it has to stop.

If this was a serious debate, we would be insisting on what the United Nations has demanded: an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a humanitarian aid corridor into Gaza. We would demand justice for all victims of war crimes and their families. We would be insisting that every Canadian seeking to flee this violence can get home safely. But sadly, Speaker, that is not what this motion does. It’s not about trying to comfort those who are grieving—all of those—ending an escalating rise of violence or seeking justice for war crimes against civilians. This motion, sadly, as it currently reads, inflames a dangerous moment, and I think that’s a terrible choice. That’s not the leadership the world needs right now.

This morning, I heard government members—I listened to them closely—say that we must support whatever Israel believes is necessary to “eliminate Hamas from Gaza.” We heard that Israel has always shown restraint, balance and upheld the rule of law. But, Speaker, that is not what I have seen with hourly and daily updates. That is not what I have seen following human rights in this region for decades. Israel is now being led by a government that includes members who openly speak of hatred and violence. That is one of the reasons they, in Israel, have been faced with mass protests by Israelis for months. But the truly horrible, heinous events of October 7 have created a new era of hatred.

I’ve seen the Israeli Minister of Defence, as the member from Scarborough Southwest said already, refer to Palestinians as “animals.” I’ve heard the Prime Minister of Israel promise to turn Gaza into “a deserted island.” I’ve been stunned as Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s interior minister, often invokes the need for a new Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” referencing the last mass expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians so long ago.

Speaker, these are examples of dehumanization. This is how a public is prepared for war. They are meant to justify atrocities that we must do everything in this House to avoid. They will not bring back loved ones who are dead or hostages who are currently held, but they will put Palestinian body bags in ice cream trucks, stored there because the morgues and hospitals in Gaza are currently at capacity. That was the image on my television two nights ago. That cannot be the solution.

Here is what history teaches me, Speaker, and it’s a hard lesson: You can bomb the world to pieces, but you cannot bomb it into peace. We can, and we must, do better. We should listen to Yonatan Silver, son of Vivian Silver, a peace activist from Winnipeg who was taken hostage from her kibbutz in Saturday’s horrific attacks by Hamas on Israel. Yonatan just told CNN, “I didn’t want war before, and I don’t want war now.” He is demanding that his mom be released by negotiation, not by descending Gaza into a humanitarian nightmare.

We should listen to Farah El-Hajj, our staff colleague at the Ontario NDP, who has lost 18 family members in Gaza this week—18. Apparently, 10 more are still buried under a massive rubble of concrete. Farah’s family are not Hamas members; they’re not soldiers; they’re not terrorists. They’re Palestinians and their lives have to matter.

Like many people, as I have heard in this debate, my heart has been shattered, broken, as I’ve spoken to people who have lost loved ones in Israel and in Gaza. To be honest, I’ve often felt powerless to do anything about it, because from where I sit, things seem to be only getting worse. But you know what? As I got ready for my remarks today, I’ve remembered something that history has also taught me: We can do something. We can join with voices around the world who are calling for an end to the bloodshed, for pursuing a road of peace with justice. We need a mass movement around the world for a ceasefire, and we need it now.

Now, I understand some of my colleagues may think that’s impossible in Israel and in Gaza. I’ve heard in debate today that Palestinian children are raised only to hate. But in my own lifetime, Speaker—I’m 51 years old—I’ve studied military conflicts from around the world, and I have seen in my own research and talking to people in Ireland and in Colombia that it is possible to work for peace with justice. These were countries torn apart by violence and war. Peace was possible there because people put in the effort, and it is still possible in Israel and Gaza, but it must come with justice.

The perpetrators of the horrific tragedies on October 7, the terrorist attacks and the crimes against Israeli civilians must be held accountable, and those responsible for the deaths of Palestinian civilians, like the bombing this afternoon of a hospital and a school, must also be held accountable, and a much longer commitment to peace in this region is so long overdue. Our province and our country, we have to choose to be part of that conversation.

That isn’t possible if Hamas believes it can terrorize Jewish communities, committing heinous acts of cruelty. That isn’t possible with an Israeli government intent on punishing innocent civilians for actions that are no fault of their own. And I am not making an argument of moral equivalence here; I am making a case for moral consistency. We must consistently support the human rights of every single person without exception. That is the only way I believe our hearts and souls can stay intact at moments like this.

It’s how we build peace, but building peace isn’t a slogan. It’s what happens every day, all over the world. It’s what happened when Vivian Silver, who has been taken hostage by Hamas terrorists, drove sick Palestinians to Israeli hospitals. That was her activism for her kibbutz. She built peace. She also organized against the Netanyahu government’s attacks on civil liberties, working with neighbours, building peace.

It’s what happened when Farah El-Hajj had the courage to tell us her story at a time of profound, overwhelming grief, and it is what happens when we listen to each other in debate, instead of screaming over each other, as is too often the case in this House.

Speaker, I call on Canadians across this country to demand this road of peace with justice. It’s a road with dignity. It’s a road that may be hard to see right now, but our ancestors have walked it, and we can choose to walk it.