On July 19, 2024, the ICJ published its Advisory Opinion affirming that the occupation of Israel is illegal. According to the official summary, the United Nations General Assembly (GA) and the Security Council (SC) will consider further action 'to bring an end as rapidly as possible to the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.' WFM-Canada urges Minister Joly to champion the implementation of this decision, aligning Canada’s actions with international legal standards.

Our organization is deeply troubled by the erosion of the authority of the United Nations associated with the failure of the SC to take action to enforce its resolutions. While we commend Minister Joly for her role in the G-7’s condemnation of Israeli expansion in the West Bank, a stance not seen in decades, action must be taken to ensure Canada respects the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion. Today, SC resolutions continue to be ignored, including Israel's recent announcement to annex a large land mass located in the West Bank.

Following Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the UN responded with the passage of resolution 242 emphasizing the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war". When Israel, in the decades following, appropriated more and more of the Occupied Territory to its own use the SC passed further resolutions, the last one being resolution 2334 on December 23rd 2016 out of concern that continuing settlement dangerously imperils the viability of a 2 state solution based on the 1967 lines, reaffirming that "the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967...has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law" (para. 1), and, reaffirming its demand that "Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities" in the Occupied Territories (para. 2). 

On June 28, 2024, Germany condemned Israel's announced plans to legalize five settlements in the West Bank, and the following day, the EU urged Israel to reverse its decision approving these new settlements.

If UNSC resolutions are not enforced, they are rendered meaningless. The SC has failed to adequately address Israel's illegal settlement activity since 1967. Today, we are left to wonder whether the carnage which continues to unfold in Gaza could have been prevented if the UN had taken action to enforce its resolutions. It is more obvious today more than at any time since the 1967 war that a two-state solution is the only path to a lasting peace in the region.

The urgency for Israel to cease its illegal occupation and de facto annexation through settlements has never been greater. Canada must stand and support the EU in their criticism of Israel's stated plans, consistent with SC resolutions as well as Canada's UN Charter obligations to uphold international law, and our established policy supporting a two-state solution.

We call on Canada to unequivocally condemn this latest land grab and take decisive actions to hold the Israeli government accountable for its violation of international law.