By Yves Engler

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

The double standard is blatant. Holocaust victims face extreme security checks while genocidal Jewish supremacists easily enter Canada.

In “When leaving Gaza for Canada is an almost impossible mission”, Le Devoir detailed the difficulties Palestinians experience entering Canada. While the government officially granted 5,000 temporary visas to Gaza residents, fewer than 334 have arrived here in nine months.

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

The article contrasted the situation with the ease with which nearly 300,000 Ukrainians arrived after the Russian invasion of February 2022. But Ottawa’s anti-Palestinian security excesses must be contrasted with the treatment of residents of the country that perpetrated the holocaust.

Over the past year, many more Israelis than Palestinians have come to Canada. At the request of the Canadian genocide lobby, Ottawa introduced a special three-year, fee-free work or study permit for Israelis that opens the way to permanent residency.

Thousands of Israelis benefited from the measure, which was extended until mid-2025 (I couldn’t find an exact number, but as of June it appears that “thousands of Israelis have moved in Canada since the beginning of the immigration initiative).

It is disturbing to think that planes full of genocidal Jewish supremacists are entering Canada without any surveillance. While a few valiant Israeli Jews oppose the holocaust their government is committing in Gaza, the vast majority of the country’s non-Arab population supports these horrors.

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

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

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

And these aren’t just opinions. Almost every Israeli spends some years in an army overseeing an illegal occupation that regularly bombs neighboring states. Many of those who have come to Canada have recently participated in the Israeli army’s long-standing crimes.

Some of those who entered Canada probably also participated in the Holocaust in Gaza. But Canadian authorities are not even investigating those who recently fought in Gaza.

Ottawa refuses to assume its responsibilities under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act passed in 2000, which states: “Any person who, before or after the coming into force of this article, commits outside Canada (a) genocide, (b) a crime against humanity, or (c) a war crime, is guilty of a criminal act and can be prosecuted for this offense.

There is a historical parallel with Canada’s racist, holocaust-on-holocaust double standard. After World War II, Ottawa largely blocked Hitler’s Jewish victims from entering Canada while opening the door to Nazis who participated in those crimes.

Last year, Immigration Minister Marc Miller note“There was a time in our history when it was easier to enter (Canada) as a Nazi than as a Jew. I think it’s a story we need to reconcile.

But the government’s duty is to do much more than reconcile history. It must learn the lessons of history. It must commit to never again welcoming those who participate in crimes against humanity while excluding its victims. This is the standard by which we must judge our government.

By this criterion, the Trudeau Liberals fail miserably.

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