Written by: Aidan Jonah

Global Affairs Canada announced funding today for the health-care needs of Palestinian refugees, as part of $84.5 million in funding to support humanitarian appeals. This funding will be directed to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The funding’s described purpose is to:

“focus its response on urgent health-care needs of at-risk Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as implement improved cleaning and hygiene measures at all its facilities.”

The organization itself has provided human development and humanitarian services for years, including: primary and vocational education, primary health care, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvement, microfinance and emergency response, including in situations of armed conflict.

The Canadian Government’s Willfull Blindness towards Israeli settler-colonialism

The Canadian government has made this funding announcement in ignorance of Israeli military actions against Palestinian COVID-19 containment efforts.

According to B’Tselem, field clinics in the West Bank were confiscated on Mar. 26 by officials from Israel’s Civil Administration, whom arrived with a bulldozer and military vehicles at the Palestinian community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. They confiscated poles and sheeting that were supposed to be used to construct field clinics and makeshift tents. These tents were meant to provide both a place to treat suspected coronavirus patients as well as a temporary shelter for those evicted from their homes, presumably because their homes were in the way of Israeli settlements waiting to be constructed.

Middle East Eye reported that settlers have carried out violent attacks against Palestinians and the razing of homes in Palestinian territory to make way for roads to be paved in Nablus, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, taking advantage of the fact that the Palestinians cannot defend themselves because of the enforced lockdown.

Israel settler-colonial agenda has continued through this pandemic, putting Palestinian lives at risk. Neither Global Affairs Canada or Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made any comment on the illegal actions of the Israeli military in destroying these medical camps.

To put funding into assisting Palestinian refugees in staying safe from COVID-19, while at the same time turning a blinding eye to the destruction of their medical camps by Israeli military forces, is a farcical endeavour. While it is important that the Canadian government directs funding to organizations such as UNRWA, the funding will be meaningless in the bigger picture, if they continue to say nothing in the face of rampant Israeli settler-colonialism.