TORONTO – A delegation of thirty Canadians, including six federal MPs, was denied – this morning – entry to the West Bank where they arrived as part of a trip organized by the charity Canadian Muslim Vote. According to a spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), which includes members of the group, each delegate was asked to sign a form acknowledging their threat to public safety given the dangerous nature of the area. The delegation members refused to do so and were therefore turned back. 

NCCM CEO Stephen Brown, in an emailed statement to CBC, said that the delegation members had been granted electronic travel authorizations by Israel before arriving at the border. The incident “regrettably aligns with a broader pattern by the Israeli government of restricting access to those seeking to independently witness the realities in the occupied territories” and it’s “sadly consistent with the Israeli government’s policy of restricting access to those seeking to independently bear witness to the reality of the occupied territories” Brown said.

The six MPs on the delegation — Liberal MPs Sameer Zuberi, Fares Al Soud, Aslam Rana, Iqra Khalid, Gurbux Saini, and NDP MP Jenny Kwan — had planned to meet with civil society groups, Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as officials from the Canadian government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). However, things evidently didn’t go as planned.

Anyway, the delegation members are safe and sound and are already on their way back to Canada. They will stop to Jordan to attend a series of meetings, with the intention of returning to Canada after that.

For its part, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which manages border crossings in the West Bank, said the delegation was denied entry “for security reasons” but MP Kwan (in the pic above, from her Twitter account X – @JennyKwanBC) predicted it, telling the CBC a week ago that she feared they might be denied entry due to the progressive deterioration of relations between the Canadian and Israeli governments over the past two years. And perhaps especially since Canada formally recognized the State of Palestine about three months ago, just before the United Nations General Assembly in New York.