About 200 people protested Wednesday outside the Munk Debates in Toronto, where an all-Israeli panel of speakers discussed whether a two-state solution is best for Israel.
Protesters held signs and Palestinian flags while chanting before police broke up the demonstration. One of the protesters, Trevor Miller, called the event “unacceptable.”
“We are here to speak on behalf of the people of Palestine, of all those who suffer under imperialism,” he said.
According to the Munk Debates website, the focus of the discussion was: “Whether resolved, it is in Israel’s national interest to support a two-state solution.”
Ehud Olmert, former Israeli prime minister, finance minister and mayor of Jerusalem, and Tzipi Livni, former Israeli minister of justice and foreign affairs, argued in favor of the notice.
Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former deputy minister during Benjamin Netanyahu’s second term, and Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s former justice minister and interior minister, opposed it.
No Palestinian voices were included in Wednesday’s debate.
“It’s indefensible for them to have all these voices and not have anyone representing the people who are really suffering,” Miller said.
Organizers defend debate panel
Rudyard Griffiths, president and moderator of Munk Debates, defended the decision in an interview with CBC Radio. metropolitan morning On Wednesday.
“As we do with every Munk debate, we try to bring together people who have hard-earned knowledge and deep experience that they can bring to the topic,” he said. “I think these four panelists will do this.”
He said Wednesday’s conversation was just one part of a much larger, ongoing conversation.
Griffiths said the debate over Palestinian statehood has caused “deep fractures” in Israeli society, which he said makes it an important conversation.
Most members of the United Nations have recognized Palestine as a state, including Canada. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the recognition announcements and continues to reject a two-state solution.
When asked if the Munk Debates would be open to future debates that included Palestinian voices on the same topic, Griffiths said he would “welcome someone organizing that debate.”
He went on to say that the Munk Debates are a private organization.
“If you don’t like the debate, you don’t like the panelists, and you don’t like the topic, rest assured, your tax dollars will not go to this debate,” he said. “And we hope, we hope, to welcome other people who organize other debates on other topics.”
War crimes accusations
Henry Off, international human rights lawyer with Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), said the event was “unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, CLAIHR sent a 24-page document to the RCMP and the war crimes sector of Canada’s Department of Justice, calling for the arrest and investigation of two of the speakers, Olmert and Livni.
CBC Toronto has reached out to the RCMP and the Department of Justice for comment. This story will be updated if a response is received.
The document notes that the two former officials held senior positions during a conflict in Gaza from 2008 to 2009, where Israel is accused of committing multiple war crimes, according to the 2009 Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.
“From the facts collected, the Mission concluded that the Israeli armed forces in Gaza committed the following serious violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the UN report reads. It goes on to list the alleged violations, including intentional killings, torture or inhuman treatment, and extensive and unlawful destruction of property, not justified by military necessity.
Off said Olmert and Livni could reasonably have been aware of the alleged crimes because of their positions and should be investigated.
Humanitarian groups warn that the amount of aid reaching Gaza is nowhere near what was promised under the terms of the ceasefire deal with Israel, and the rains have left many with damaged shelters or no place to live as the weather cools.
“Canada needs to uphold the rule of law and that means playing its role in investigating and prosecuting international crimes,” Off said.
The law group’s document says Canada has an obligation to “‘seek and prosecute’ those reasonably suspected of serious violations who set foot in Canada,” according to an article in the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.
“Each High Contracting Party shall have the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered the commission of, such serious breaches, and to bring them, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts,” the Geneva Convention says.
“Given the vast amount of information about their role in the commission of international crimes, it would be truly unreasonable to let them enter and leave Canada without even questioning them,” Off said.
The same UN report cited by CLAIHR also said that actions by Palestinian armed groups, such as launching rockets and mortars at civilian areas, “would constitute war crimes and could amount to crimes against humanity.”
On its website, the RCMP has said that in early 2024 it began a “structural investigation into the conflict between Israel and Hamas,” aimed at collecting and assessing information “potentially relevant under Canada’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act.”
The RCMP has said the investigation is not criminal, but could launch a criminal investigation against a perpetrator who has “appropriate nexus to Canada.”
