Letter Template to Canadian MPs to Stop Selling Arms to Israel, and Support Palestinian Liberation
Send an email! Use the template below, and mix and match to personalize your email (carries more weight than auto-emails). Emails must be sent ASAP
EMAIL TEMPLATE:
SEND TO:
Note: Below are Vancouver MPs, if you’re based outside of Vancouver you can still use the same template. Find your MPs here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en
BCC: hedy.fry@parl.gc.ca, joyce.murray@parl.gc.ca, Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca, harjit.sajjan@parl.gc.ca, don.davies@parl.gc.ca, jenny.kwan@parl.gc.ca CC: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca, marc.garneau@parl.gc.ca, Jagmeet.Singh@parl.gc.ca socialjusticecentreubc@gmail.com
Side note: please remember to CC the social justice centre as outlined above, this is how we keep track of how many people are sending the emails.
SUBJECT (please make your own; here are a few examples, but please do NOT use these – unique titles help ensure your emails are read):
To my elected Members of Parliament,
My name is [NAME], I am a Vancouver resident, and I am [affiliation – optional]. I am writing to urge you to stand in solidarity with Palestinian people. Canada remains complicit in Israel’s violence so long as it continues to sell weapons that kill and displace innocent people. Your power as an MP matters to me, because you can vote to stop exporting arms to Israel. Your voice as an elected representative matters to me, as you can condemn the abusive force employed by Israel on Palestinian people in Gaza and within its own borders. Your actions matter to me, and I hold you responsible in representing what Canada purports to stand for. In this email, I outline the following four demands:
Demand 1: We strongly urge you to support the NDP’s call to end arms sales to Israel (please paraphrase these demands - making your email unique ensures it doesn’t go into the MPs’ spam folder)
This week, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called on the Canadian Government to halt the sale of arms to Israel in response to Israel’s escalating violence against people in Gaza. Sanctions on Israel are broadly supported among the Canadian electorate: in 2017, for example, a survey by the polling firm EKOS found that 78% of Canadians viewed sanctions against Israel (military, financial, etc.) as being appropriate and reasonable. This survey also found that 90% of people who reported support for the Liberal Party of Canada supported BDS, a movement calling on the international community to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel. In 2020, according to EKOS, 84% of Canadians supported a formal investigation into Israeli war crimes and human rights abuses.
By rising to this moment and resisting Israeli war crimes by ending arms sales to Israel, you would not only be practicing your ethical duty as a member of parliament–-to uphold the rights of people being oppressed in our world–-you would be acting in step with the vast majority of your constituents.
Demand 2: We strongly urge you to pressure Israel to lift its brutal blockade and siege of Gaza.
Gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis under Israeli occupation: according to the United Nations, 56% of Gaza’s population is living in poverty, 54% are food insecure, and 97% of the water from the Gaza aquifer is contaminated. The situation is so dire that the United Nations had predicted that Gaza would be unlivable by 2020. There has been a recent escalation in violence. Israel’s brutal 11 day bombardment of Gaza killed at least 248 people, including 66 children, injured 1,900 people, and destroyed more than 500 homes, leading to the displacement of over 38,000 people. Israel has destroyed Gaza’s only COVID testing centre, the Ministry of Health building, and offices of international media, including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera.
Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated areas and over half of its population is under the age of 18. When Israel sends its missiles raining down on Gaza, it is guaranteed that civilians will be killed. Canada, a member of the UN and a country that claims to uphold human rights, can no longer remain silent in Israel's crimes - its murder of innocent civilians, its deliberate targeting of critical infrastructure, and its ongoing displacement of Palestinians from their homes - or it will go down in history as being complicit in this carnage.
Although Israel has recently agreed to a ceasefire, this is not enough. Israel must lift its land, air, and sea blockade of the Gaza strip, and it must stop occupying the Palestinian people. Do not let this ceasefire lull you into complacency.
Demand 3: We strongly urge you to pressure Israel to stop the expulsion of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah.
Under International Law, the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, located in occupied East Jerusalem, belongs to the Palestinian territories. Israeli settlers, emboldened by the Israeli government and protected by Israeli forces, have been stealing Palestinian homes and dispossesing Palestinian families from East Jerusalem. In 2009, 67 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood to make way for Israeli settlers. Now, 13 families are facing the same fate. Israeli forces have been attacking and arresting dozens of Palestinians for resisting their dispossession. This is part of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which Canada must stand firm against.
Demand 4: We strongly urge you to condemn Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid.
For decades, Palestinians have been documenting and living the reality of apartheid under Israeli rule. The Human Rights Watch has recently released a report providing 200 pages of documentation and proof of Israel’s apartheid practices against Palestinians. Israel’s largest human rights group, B’Tselem, has also released a detailed report explaining how Israel is maintaining an apartheid regime. In light of this, I demand that you stop resorting to evasive discourse (for instance, referring to apartheid as a “two-sided conflict” or “clash”) that obscures the power dynamics at play.
Call Israeli apartheid for what it is. Use your position of power to stand in solidarity with Palestinians by condemning Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza, Sheikh Jarrah, as well as all over Occupied Palestine. Stand for justice by implementing the recommendations of the Human Rights Watch report, including sanctioning Israel.
Please keep me updated on this issue.
[NAME]