The Canadian delegation’s trip to the West Bank was sponsored by The Canadian-Muslim Vote, a registered charity that seeks to foster political participation within Canadian Muslim communities.
The Canadian-Muslim Vote sponsored a similar trip last year which saw Liberal MPs Salma Zahid and Shafqat Ali, as well as NDP MP Heather McPherson and former NDP MPs Matthew Green and Lindsay Mathyssen visit Jordan and the West Bank.
The West Bank was chosen as the destination for the 2025 trip because of “increasing concerns around settler expansion and settler violence” in the region, Ghayyur said.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, settlers in the West Bank attacked Palestinian communities over 1,600 times this year as of Dec. 5, an average of five per day. The current olive harvest season was marked by “widespread settler violence” targeting farmers, trees and agriculture infrastructure, the UN agency said.
The “accelerated settlement building across the West Bank” and “settler violence against Palestinians” were among the reasons Prime Minister Mark Carney gave for his decision to formally recognize the State of Palestine in September.
