Following the passage of a motion proposed by the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Canada’s House of Commons, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Joly, has committed on Tuesday, March 19, to ceasing future arms exports to Israel.

The cessation is a step up from the temporary slow of application receival for defense exports to Israel that Minister Joly had reportedly enacted on January 8, after displaying concerns that Canada would be unable to ensure that any exports would not be able to be used in any potential human rights abuses or violations of law.

Demonstration in Canada against trade arms with Israel (Photo: World Beyond War)

Canada’s parliament passed a non-binding motion late Monday calling on the international community to work toward a two-state solution to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestine. The amended motion, which also adopted stronger language against Hamas, passed by 204 votes to 117 after most of the Liberal caucus and cabinet — including Ya’ara Saks, who is an Israeli citizen — voted in favor of the measure.

The vote had been delayed by last-minute wrangling over wording supporting Palestinian statehood, an idea that looked set to deepen splits inside the ruling Liberal Party. The original motion was drawn up by the minority New Democrats (NDP), who are helping to keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in power and are unhappy with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect Palestinian civilians amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

According Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, “We must ensure that all military exports are cut off, including existing permits. It is Joly’s responsibility to uphold the spirit and letter of the motion adopted by Parliament, and we will hold her accountable for this.”

In the past weeks, Canadians have demonstrated growing concern about the continued flow of arms from Canada to Israel amid credible reports of serious violations of international law in the course of the war in Gaza. According to Rachel Small from World Beyond War, Canada’s arms exports to Israel have actually spiked dramatically during the conflict.

“Despite recent statements by Prime Minister Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Joly denying that Canada was exporting any weaponry to Israel, the Trudeau government had in fact authorized at least 28.5 million dollars’ worth of new permits for military exports to Israel during the first two months of the state’s bombardment and starvation of Gaza, more than in the entire previous year,” said Small.