Over the past two decades, Canada has spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting a US effort to build a Palestinian Authority Security Force to assist Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank. Please take a minute to write defence minister Bill Blair and NDP defence critic Lindsay Mathyssen to ask for the end of Operation Proteus.
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Read: Canada ‘aids’ Palestine by training PA police to repress resistance, by Yves Engler, December 19, 2024.
Listen to a recent Canadian Foreign Policy Institute interview with the Editor of the Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud on Canada’s role in training and financing Palestinian Authority security forces
Message to Minister Bill Blair
Minister Blair with copy to NDP Defence Critic Lindsay Mathyssen.
End Operation Proteus. Canada is assisting a US-Israeli effort to build a Palestinian Authority Security Force (PASF) to administer Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank.
30 Canadian troops and police are currently part of Operation Proteus, which trains the PASF as part of a mission led by the Office of the United States Security Coordinator. Over the past two decades Canada has spent hundreds of millions of dollars training, equipping and supporting a Palestinian force vetted by Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency.
Long a tool of Israel’s occupation, the PASF has recently turned its guns aggressively against those resisting Israeli violence in Jenin. They’ve killed many, including a child and a young journalist documenting PASF violence. Due to their coverage of PASF operations in Jenin, the PA recently followed Israel in banning Al Jazeera, probably the international media outlet doing the most to expose Israeli crimes.
It’s long been clear that Canada aids the PASF to help the colonial ruler. A heavily censored 2012 note that Postmedia unearthed through an access to information request confirmed that Canadian security aid to the PA is designed to protect a corrupt Mahmoud Abbas, whose electoral mandate expired in 2009, from popular backlash. Canadian International Development Agency president Margaret Biggs explained, “the emergence of popular protests on the Palestinian street against the Palestinian Authority is worrying and the Israelis have been imploring the international donor community to continue to support the Palestinian Authority.” Biggs further explained, “the Israelis have noted the importance of Canada’s contribution to the relative stability achieved through extensive security co-operation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”
Operation Proteus reinforces Israeli influence in the West Bank as that country expands its illegal settlements. It’s time to end Operation Proteus.
