2021 Overview
A legal complaint to Canadian Minister of Justice regarding illegal Israeli military recruiting in Canada in October 2020, resulted in RCMP investigation with more information provided in January 2021. Thousand of letters sent along with media coverage resulted. Almost 8K signed the parliamentary petition sponsored by NDP MP Matthew Green. See webinar from February 3, 2021, No Illegal Israeli Military Recruiting in Canada.
Update of the comprehensive Palestinian Human Rights Issues in Canada: Legal and Tactical Guide and associated resources.
Webinar: Palestine Advocacy and the Law in Canada: 2021 in review and looking forward.
Regular contact with our mailing to lawyers interested in Palestine and Kashmir. Other webinars such as The Innumerable Ways Canada Supports Israeli Apartheid, The Palestinian people’s future within the Ongoing Zionist Settler colonial and Apartheid ProjectLegal complaint to CRA in regard to illegal subsidies to Israeli military. Webinar: Subsidizing Apartheid: How the Canada Revenue Agency Contributes to Palestinian Dispossession
Work towards Member of Parliament sponsoring other petition regarding East Jerusalem, Palestinian children being detained, international law violations by India of occupied Kashmir & Israel of occupied Palestine, ethnical investment by CPPIB, and defending of Palestinian human rights groups. Two are currently active, E-3608 and E-3679, which can be signed by residents of Canada.
As a member of various Coalitions and networks, we have done work related to anti-war, the impact of sanctions, and other anti-imperialist work including the #FreeAlexSaab and the #NoNewFighterJet campaigns.
During the federal election, #VoteKashmir resulted in strong response by the Bloc Québécois (BQ) Party and also candidates from the Green Party and NDP. People from across Canada committed to contact candidates in about one-third of the ridings. We also took leadership in #VotePalestine and #IvotePalestine.
Initiated campaigns #NoIsraeliArms4Canada, #CPPDivest, Royal Bank of Canada say NO to Palantir and others. Research including historic voting by Canada at the UN.
Focus on prisoners joining with partners throughout the year. Currently, we call for justice for Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez as well as focus on #Justice4ElHalabi.
Campaigns and complaints such as this one to hold our media accountable.
Op-ed, and press releases to our 2500 individual media contact list.
Over 13.5 Million letters sent through our 40 letter writing campaigns through over 75,000 individual actions to government, companies, political parties, the UN, CBC and other media, and other institutions.
You can check out our webpage for more information. We appreciate your support through action and engagement and thank the many partners we work with in justice work.
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We are glad to share with you a few of highlights from 2021.
During the year our 40 letter writing campaigns resulted in over 75,000 individual actions being sent to 13.5 million government, media, companies, and various institutional decisions makers.
Our mailing list grew to just under 30,000, almost tripling through the year.
Over 50 media releases were sent to our list of about 2500. We published more than 20 op-eds.
We kept in touch with our list of over 100 lawyers and legal practitioners interested in Palestine and Kashmir.
We helped plan more than a half dozen social media storms with partners, and numerous webinars.
During the year we worked towards Member of Parliament from three parties sponsoring 8 Parliamentary Petitions regarding East Jerusalem, Palestinian children being detained, international law violations by India of occupied Kashmir & Israel of occupied Palestine, ethnical investment by CPPIB, and defending of Palestinian human rights groups. Approximately 20,000 people signed their parliamentary petitions.
As a member of at least 10 Coalitions and networks representing dozens of organizations, Just Peace Advocates has joined in work related to anti-war, the impact of sanctions, and other anti-imperialist efforts including the #FreeAlexSaab and the #NoNewFighterJet campaigns.
Key to all our efforts is the work with dozens of partner organizations across Canada, in Palestine and around the world. Critical to all of this work to hold decision makers accountable is your ongoing solidarity to be informed and take action. It is an honour to be able to join in this work with you.
Over the year some of our campaigns and work included:
A legal complaint to Canadian Minister of Justice regarding illegal Israeli military recruiting in Canada in October 2020, resulted in RCMP investigation with more information provided in January 2021. Thousands of letters sent along with media coverage resulted. Almost 8K signed the parliamentary petition sponsored by NDP MP Matthew Green. See our webinar with partners from February 3, 2021, No Illegal Israeli Military Recruiting in Canada.
In May, tens of thousands of Palestinians mobilized throughout Palestine and the diaspora under a unified call for freedom, dignity, and justice. The uprising sparked a shift in global consciousness. Earlier in the year, Just Peace Advocates had worked to initiate Parliamentary Petition E-3031 sponsored by Liberal MP Erskine-Smith which called for the Canadian government to hold Israel accountable for its ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem, and other war crimes. Erskine-Smith presented this just prior to the “mobilization” and Just Peace Advocates initiated a letter writing campaign calling on the Canadian government for action and accountability in their response to this petition. Over 15,000 letters were sent as calls to #SaveSheikhJarrah echoed around the world. Just Peace Advocates actions followed with over 3,000 letters to the CBC and a social media storm with partner organizations.
In July, Just Peace Advocates updated the comprehensive Palestinian Human Rights Issues in Canada: Legal and Tactical Guide and associated resources that had been released originally in 2020. As year end approached, we reflected through a webinar Palestine Advocacy and the Law in Canada: 2021 in review and looking forward which considered shifts in Palestine advocacy over the year and its interface with law in Canada, doing so in the context of what is happening in Palestine and internationally.
Several other webinars included: The Innumerable Ways Canada Supports Israeli Apartheid, The Palestinian people’s future within the Ongoing Zionist Settler colonial and Apartheid Project.
During the year a legal complaint was made to the CRA in regard to illegal subsidies to Israeli military. The resulting campaign included over 2,000 letters and webinar Subsidizing Apartheid: How the Canada Revenue Agency Contributes to Palestinian Dispossession.
During the federal election, #VoteKashmir resulted in strong response by the Bloc Québécois (BQ) Party and also candidates from the Green Party and NDP. People from across Canada committed to contact candidates in about one-third of the ridings. We also took leadership in #VotePalestine and #IVotePalestine.
Just Peace Advocates did much of research to launch campaigns including:
#NoIsraeliArms4Canada, #CPPDivest, Royal Bank of Canada say NO to Palantir and others. These campaigns have been endorsed by dozens of organizations, and thousands of individuals.
Other research by Just Peace Advocates included a review since 1948 of historic voting by Canada at the UN.
We kept a focus on prisoners joining with partners throughout the year with a number of campaigns and social media storms. Currently, we call for justice for Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez as well as focus on #Justice4ElHalabi.
In December the webinar Human Rights as Terror: Authoritarianism As Democracy was organized in response to the recent escalated crackdowns in the subject regions of Palestine and Kashmir, the launching of the US-led “Summit for Democracy” (December 9-10) and Human Rights Day (December 10).
You can check out our webpage for more information. We appreciate your support through action and engagement and thank the many individuals and partners we work with speaking out for justice.
Art: Taqi Spateen
Bethlehem, Palestine ·
If there’s no justice there’s no peace. #SDG16
