Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Vancouver: Statement on the National Day of Action for Palestinian Family Reunification
On the National Day of Action for Gaza Family Reunification, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Vancouver calls on the Canadian government to honour its commitment to expedite temporary resident visa applications for Palestinians trapped in Gaza.
Last week, a UN Special Committee found that Israel’s actions were “consistent with the characteristics of genocide” due to its siege on Gaza, targeted killings of civilians and aid workers, obstruction of humanitarian aid and its intentional use of starvation as a method of war and collective punishment. This committee is the latest in a long series of independent UN reports and investigations that underscore the constant, mortal danger that Gazans face every day.
The Canadian government should be lifting all diplomatic levers and making it as easy as possible for Palestinian Canadians’ loved ones to escape starvation and genocide in Gaza, where Israel has nearly obliterated government and health care facilities. Instead, the government’s Temporary Resident Visa Program for Gazans (TRV) is an obstacle course of insurmountable logistical and financial hurdles, such as medical exams and biometric data.
As Jewish people, we remember Canada’s antisemitic immigration policies of the 1930’s and 40’s that kept Jews fleeing pogroms and the Holocaust in mortal danger. Many of us are here today because these policies were eventually relaxed so that our parents and grandparents could immigrate to safety. We are here today because our history as Jewish people means that we have a duty to fight for justice and safety of Palestinians.
The Canadian government needs to take urgent and effective measures so that families in Gaza can escape temporarily to Canada in order to survive until they are able to return home safely. We saw these measures work when the government launched a program in 2022 to help Ukrainians escape to Canada and took urgent efforts to evacuate Israelis to Canada. We condemn the systemic anti-Palestinian racism that is glaringly obvious.
Jewish and Palestinian safety is intertwined and interdependent. We refuse to subscribe to a narrative built by the pro-Israel lobby that pits us against Palestinians. We refuse to see more Palestinian children die because the Government of Canada has designed a program that was destined to fail in an attempt to appease critics. We demand that the Government of Canada reform the TRV program so that Palestinians can survive.