Canada won’t accept Palestinian refugees displaced by controversial Israeli settlements: Immigration minister

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said Sunday Canada will not get involved in resettling Palestinian refugees displaced by the expansion of controversial Israeli settlements.

“We are not going to resettle in Canada … the hundreds of thousands who want to live in a Palestinian state because they want to go home eventually,” Alexander told CTV’s Question Period. “That is the objective we will be working towards under the leadership of the [United Nations Refugee Agency] and with our friends, allies and partners.”

The remarks are an apparent reversal of Canada’s official position on the decades-old territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, in which it has offered Canada as a home for some of the refugees displaced.

Asked if that was still the case, Alexander said: “With respect to Palestinian refugees, the objective we all share is for them to become citizens in a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution.”

The minister’s comments came the same day Prime Minister Stephen Harper landed in Israel with a sizable delegation on what is purported to be an historical trip to the Middle East.

Before leaving Canada, Harper’s office had deflected questions over whether the prime minister agrees with Canada’s longstanding foreign policy regarding Israeli-occupied territories on Palestinian lands as illegitimate.

Alexander defended the government’s response on Sunday.

“It isn’t for Canada or other countries to use or impose their own views on these two parties that have to resolve these issues together,” he said.

Alexander said the Canadian government does not support unilateral action on either side of the conflict, adding that Harper’s trip to Israel was intended to underline “65 years of strong relations that Canada has had with a very successful democracy … that is a model in the Middle East.”

“We want to work with our Israeli partners to find solutions to the security issues that represent threats to the region and indeed the world.”

Michael Bell, former Canadian ambassador to Israel and Jordan, said the government’s refusal to articulate Canada’s official foreign policy regarding the settlements along the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights — captured by Israel in the 1967 war – may signal the prime minister is planning to change this country’s official stance.

“What concerns me for this visit is what is going to come out of it that is new and different other than a mutually supportive and sympathetic voicing of views?” he told CTV.

“Are we going to change the policy document? Is Israel going to ask for that?”

Bell said Harper’s position on Israel goes beyond supporting the state’s right to exist, but rather is a political alignment with the right-wing policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mohamed El Rashidy of the Canadian Arab Federation said the government’s refusal to criticize Israeli occupation of the territories was a “very disappointing step.”

He noted the settlements are widely recognized as illegitimate by members of the international community, including Israeli allies such as the United States.

Harper’s unquestioning support of the Netanyahu government does little to benefit a diverse Israeli culture, or support a peace deal, he added.

“There’s no question that Israel is an ally of Canada and will remain so. The real question is how Canada chooses to exercise that influence with Israel and its neighbours in the region.”

El Rashidy said he too worried Harper’s deflection of the issue could signal a change in foreign policy that would set it notably apart from its international allies.

“Taking land from Palestinians … for Jewish-only homes is just wrong,” he said. “It’s wrong according to every reasonable country on the planet and Canada should not exit that group of reasonable countries.”

With files from Mark Kennedy