Coalition Platform

Platform adopted for the Coalition du Québec URGENCE Palestine

Introduction

The Coalition du Québec URGENCE Palestine was created on February 26, 2024 as an ad hoc coalition with the following objectives: 

  1. To give voice to Québec civil society’s outrage at the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza;
  2. To bring together all who support the Palestinian cause against occupation, colonization and dispossession.1

The Coalition has produced four documents that have been very widely endorsed across Québec: Together for Gaza and Palestine! Together for peace and justice! (co-signed by 237 organizations and 159 public figures); Together for Gaza and Palestine: Demand sanctions against Israel! (co-signed by 179 organizations and 96 public figures); CDPQ must end its complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people (co-signed by 169 organizations); Ceasefire agreement or not, Israel must be stopped! (co-signed by 172 organizations and 165 public figures).

The purpose of this draft platform is not to transform the Coalition into a permanent organization but to articulate points of agreement among its member groups in order to provide guidelines for the Coordinating Committee when it speaks on behalf of the Coalition. The content of the platform is grounded in on the three appeals mentioned above, international law and United Nations resolutions. The demands directed at Canadian and Québec governments and institutions are based on these principles.

1. Regarding Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza since October 7, 2023, we agree that:

      1. As an occupying power, Israel cannot claim the right to self-defence.
      2. Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza can be described as genocide. Without going into detail here, this conclusion is supported by multiple competent authorities, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found that there is a plausible case of genocide in Gaza; many international experts on genocide, including Israelis, who assert that genocidal crimes have been and are being committed; a number of UN officials and institutions; and Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, who concluded in her report Anatomy of a Genocide that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met.”
      3. The Canadian and Québec governments are complicit in this genocide: They initially invoked “Israel’s right to defend itself,” were slow to call for a ceasefire, continued trade in military equipment with Israel, failed to condemn Israel’s actions and, above all, have shamefully failed to take any action, as required under their international obligations, while Israel commits daily crimes in full view of the world.
      4. Israel’s current genocidal assault on Gaza is a continuation of its military occupation, apartheid policies and colonization of Palestine.

2. Regarding the situation in the West Bank, Israel’s war on Lebanon and the danger of an even wider regional conflagration, we agree that:

      1. Israel’s many crimes in the West Bank, as the occupier and colonizing power, have escalated dramatically since October 2023 with daily murderous raids, thousands of arbitrary detentions and torture, thousands of forced displacements and home demolitions, expansion of the settlements and an increase in attacks by settlers, who act with total impunity.
      2. Israel’s war against Lebanon since October 2024, and its threat to turn Lebanon into another Gaza, constitute a new escalation of its crimes.
      3. The intensification of Israel’s provocations against Iran could spark an even wider regional conflict; a war on this front is liable to involve other regional powers and the United States, creating a global crisis.

3. Our demands

In response to Israel’s current genocidal onslaught, we demand:

      1. A full and permanent ceasefire;
      2. An end to the “total blockade” (including water, food, medicine and fuel) that Israel has maintained since October 2023 and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid;
      3. The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza;
      4. An end to the land, sea and air blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007, which constitutes collective punishment of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza.

With regard to the “Palestinian question,” we demand:

e. A just and lasting solution for Palestine that recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and equal rights in their homeland.

The Coalition favours neither a two-state solution nor a one-state solution: this is not for us to decide but a matter for the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination.

However, a just and lasting solution must include: 

  • Israel’s compliance with international law, international humanitarian law and Palestinian human rights in general;
  • An end to Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT);
  • The dismantling of the illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT;
  • The removal of Israel’s illegal “separation wall”; 2
  • Implementation of the right of return of Palestinian refugees from 1948 to the present day.

4. The Coalition’s actions are in line with the international BDS movement.

Initiated by Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005, the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel is due to its systematic violations of international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people.

We therefore call on Canada and Québec to end their close ties to Israel and impose severe sanctions.

Specifically, we demand:

  • An immediate halt to the supply of military equipment to Israel (directly or indirectly);
  • A genuine policy of welcoming Palestinian refugees, with expedited processing in view of the urgency of the situation and condemnation of the obstacles erected by Israel;
  • A ban in Canada on real estate events and other marketing of property in the OPT;
  • The enforcement of ICC arrest warrants and, consequently, the arrest of any person subject to such a warrant who is on Canadian soil in order to bring them before the ICC;
  • Investigation of Canadians who have fought in the Israeli army to determine whether they were involved in war crimes;
  • The closure of Québec’s office in Tel Aviv.

We also call on:

  • Canadian and Québec companies and institutions (such as the CDPQ) to divest from companies3 whose activities make them complicit in Israeli colonization, war crimes and genocide;
  • Québec universities to cease collaboration with Israeli institutions.

5. The Coalition du Québec URGENCE Palestine stresses that defending Palestinian rights and, consequently, condemning Israel’s crimes and violations of international law, humanitarian law and Palestinian human rights is not antisemitic.

________ 

  1. Email dated February 15, 2024 calling for the formation of an ad hoc coalition to organize a major mobilization in March.
  2. On July 19, 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel’s occupation and colonization of the OPT is illegal and ordering a prompt end to the occupation, the dismantling of the settlements and the dismantling of the wall. On September 18, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly gave Israel a maximum of one year to comply.
  3. lThe companies are listed by the American Friends Service Committee’s Investigate Project (AFSC Investigate), in the United Nations database, and by World Beyond War.

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