By Yves Engler

While the government has officially granted 5,000 temporary visas to residents of Gaza, fewer than 334 have made it here in nine months. 

The double standard is egregious. Holocaust victims face extreme security checks while genocidal Jewish supremacists enter Canada with ease.

In “Quand quitter Gaza pour le Canada est mission presque impossible,” Le Devoir detailed the difficulties Palestinians have in entering Canada. While the government has officially granted 5,000 temporary visas to residents of Gaza, fewer than 334 have made it here in nine months. 

Le Devoir’s reporter in Egypt found that the main obstacle to Palestinians coming was Canada’s extreme security review, not Israeli or Egyptian restrictions.

The article contrasted the situation with the ease at which nearly 300,000 Ukrainians came after Russia’s February 2022 invasion. But Ottawa’s anti-Palestinian security overreach should be contrasted with the treatment of residents of the nation perpetrating the holocaust.

Over the past year many times more Israelis than Palestinians have come to Canada. At the urging of Canada’s genocide lobby, Ottawa introduced a special fee-exempt three-year work or study permit for Israelis, which offers a path to permanent residency. 

Thousands of Israelis have benefited from the measure that’s been extended until mid-2025 (I couldn’t find an exact figure but as of June reportedly “thousands of Israelis have moved to Canada since the start of the immigration initiative”).

It’s troubling to think that planes full of genocidal Jewish supremacists are entering Canada with little oversight. While a valiant few Israeli Jews oppose the holocaust their government is committing in Gaza, the vast majority of the country’s non-Arab population backs the horrors. 

In fact, polls show a significant share of Israelis want more brutality. A survey in May found a third of Israelis said the military has “not gone far enough” in its killing in Gaza. Many want to starve the population and permanently occupy Gaza. 

Strong majorities of Israelis have also expressed their support for terrorizing the Lebanese.

Should Canada import large numbers from a population whose views are radically out of step with global opinion and international law?

And it’s not just opinions. Almost all Israelis spend a few years in a military overseeing an illegal occupation that regularly bombs neighboring states. Many of those who’ve come to Canada recently participated in the Israeli military’s longstanding crimes. 

Some of those who have entered Canada also likely participated in the Gaza holocaust. But Canadian officials are not even investigating those known to have fought in Gaza recently. 

Ottawa refuses to uphold its responsibilities under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act enacted in 2000, which states: “Every person who, either before or after the coming into force of this section, commits outside Canada (a) genocide, (b) a crime against humanity, or (c) a war crime, is guilty of an indictable offence and may be prosecuted for that offence.”

There is a historical parallel to Canada’s racist, holocausted vs holocauster, double standard. After World War II Ottawa largely blocked the Jewish victims of Hitler from entering Canada while opening the door to Nazis who participated in these crimes. 

Last year, Immigration Minister Marc Miller noted, “there was a point in our history where it was easier to get (into Canada) as a Nazi than it was as a Jewish person. I think that’s a history we have to reconcile.”

But the government’s duty is to do much more than reconcile history. It must learn from history. It must commit never again to welcome those participating in crimes against humanity while barring its victims. That’s the standard by which we must judge our government.

By that standard, the Trudeau Liberals are failing miserably.

 – Yves Engler is the author of Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and a number of other books. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit his website: yvesengler.com.