Content warning: This article discusses death, genocide, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab racism.

The longstanding crisis in Palestine and Israel gained worldwide attention on October 7, and has since been protested globally. While we, as Canadians, may feel a geographic disconnect from Palestine, I see the Israeli state’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to be similar to that of Indigenous peoples in Canada’s history.

The start of European invasion 

Indigenous peoples in Canada existed before the first European invasion in 1497. Over time, the Christian and European languages arrived and displaced and permanently altered the Indigenous ways of life and cultural traditions. 

In contrast, over centuries, all three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Islam, and Christianity — have declared spiritual connections to regions in the Middle East which encompasses modern-day Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and southern portions of Lebanon and Syria. Many historians have detailed Palestine’s varying religious demographics with the rise and fall of different kingdoms from 1300 BCE to today. 

After World War I, the UK stepped into Palestine with the 1917 Balfour Declaration and took control of the region from the then-presiding Ottoman Empire. The declaration established Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people and allowed their immigration into the region. Although the UK promised independence from the Ottomans for the Arabs in that area, the declaration meant Palestine would be under British rule. 

Calculated steps of ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide

The United Nations describes ethnic cleansing as the process of using intimidation, force, or a combination of these methods to remove an ethnic, racial, or religious group in a specific region. Ethnic cleansing differs from genocide, as the former typically intends to displace a group, and the latter aims to destroy the group. 

While ethnic cleansing is not technically defined as a crime under international law, I believe it violates international law through extreme means of removal which accompany it such as murder and sexual violence, which are individually recognized under war crimes. 

There is a long history of the Western community neglecting the Israeli state’s treatment of Palestinian people. Since the 1917 declaration, including during the first war between Palestine and Israel in 1948, Israeli expansion resulted in 750,000 Palestinians becoming refugees. 

The Israeli government has since converted 78 per cent of what was historically Palestine into modern-day Israel, and the remaining 22 per cent into what is now the West Bank and Gaza Strip: modern-day Palestine. Despite Israel’s violent expansion, as of 2024, 165 of 193 UN member states recognize Israel as a state, while only 146 member states recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

In Canada, the Catholic Church in New France — which encompassed most of the modern-day Maritime provinces, Ontario, Québec, and the Hudson Bay region — created the residential school system to isolate Indigenous children from their families and integrate them into the settler-colonial way of life.

The Canadian government did not acknowledge its crimes until 2008, when then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly apologized to residential school survivors. The buried bodies of Indigenous children that were discovered in 2021 triggered reparations such as the federal government’s 23.34 billion compensation deal for Indigenous children in 2023. 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission now recognizes Canada’s violence against Indigenous peoples as a cultural genocide: the systematic destruction of traditions, values, and language of a people. I think it is safe to say that ethnic cleansing was also involved when European settlers mass-murdered bison to cut off an important Indigenous food source. 

Furthermore, Canada governs the reserve system under the Indian Act, in which status First Nations mainly reside in government-allotted reserves. These reserves have poor living conditions, are often extremely crowded, and need major repairs. I believe that isolating Canada’s Indigenous people in chronically underfunded regions is a continuation of settler colonialism. 

The land acknowledgement before singing the Canadian national anthem is a pitiful attempt at reconciliation as well. To me, it merely says, ‘This is your land, but we stole it.’ 

Recent tactics

Due to the sheer multitude of crimes Israel has committed, I cannot pay due diligence in commenting on Israel’s actions, but I can try to list a few.

Israeli officials have long used animalistic language to describe Palestinians. This includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referring to Palestinians as “wild beasts” in 2016. I see Netanyahu’s statement paralleling how European colonizers called Indigenous peoples “savages” throughout history and used that belief to justify their cruel treatment of them. 

At the start of colonization, Europeans used the Doctrine of Discovery as a legal tool to justify seizing Indigenous land on the suggested basis that Christian European ways were superior to Indigenous lifestyles. On the other hand, Israeli officials have also used religious texts to justify their attacks on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In a press conference in Tel Aviv on October 28, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Palestinians to Amalek: a nation of enemies against Israelites in the Torah. 

Finally, Israel’s blockade of media resources is clearly an attempt to erase the cruelty they commit against Palestinians. This is much like Canadian residential school officials who chose to neither document the death of children nor mark their graves. It’s much more difficult to describe cruelty if it isn’t written down in history. 

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rulings from July assert that Israel should end its illegal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Although not legally binding, this marks the first time the ICJ has commented on the legality of Israel’s occupation. 

I hope I have drawn clear parallels between Canada’s and Israel’s ethnic cleansing. History is repeating itself right before our eyes. I also hope I pointed out these nations who are complicit in this violence, as passive ignorance is part of the problem. 

Tania Guiti is a third-year student at University College studying philosophy and physics.