OTTAWA — A controversial “people’s tribunal” examining alleged Israeli violence against Palestinians and Canada’s supposed complicity is scheduled at the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre on November 14 and 15.
Jewish and pro-Israel organizations condemn the event as a politically motivated academic exercise that misrepresents facts, spreads anti-Israel propaganda, and risks inciting hostility against Canadian Jewish communities.
The Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility claims it will examine Canadian policies in Gaza over the past two years, including arms transfers, charitable organizations, universities, and media coverage.
Organizers plan to hear testimony from over 50 witnesses, including Palestinian individuals, former UN Special Rapporteurs, legal scholars, Indigenous activists, and international human rights experts.
Among the named participants are Palestinians Ahed, Taha, Hani Bseiso, Ibrahim Abu Saqer, and Mohamed Khrais; UN Special Rapporteurs Richard Falk, Michael Lynk, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and Hilal Elver; and legal scholars Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Ardi Imseis, and Mazin Qumsiyeh.
Jewish organizations warn that the tribunal is designed to delegitimize Israel and advance politically motivated narratives, often repeating unfounded claims of genocide, apartheid, and colonial wrongdoing.
The Israeli Canadian Council stated that such events are not legitimate legal proceedings but are instead symbolic platforms that amplify blood libels against Israel and portray Jewish communities as complicit in supposed crimes, creating a climate of hostility.
The tribunal also includes Indigenous scholars, feminist advocates, and lawyers pursuing litigation against Canada, further blurring the line between genuine human rights inquiry and anti-Israel advocacy.
Critics say the inclusion of politically controversial figures, such as former UN Special Rapporteurs with known anti-Israel biases, signals that the event is structured to produce predetermined conclusions rather than objective analysis.
The University of Ottawa will host the proceedings but has not publicly addressed concerns over the tribunal’s credibility or its potential impact on Canadian Jewish life.
Observers note that “people’s tribunals” carry no legal authority and serve only to influence public perception and academic discourse, often spreading unverified claims and politically charged narratives.
Organizers have also scheduled a press conference for November 12 at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. Attendance for the question-and-answer portion is limited to accredited members of the Press Gallery. Jewish leaders warn that media coverage of the event should clearly note its activist nature rather than treating it as an objective legal or human rights proceeding.
Critics argue the tribunal’s claims of Canadian complicity in alleged human rights violations by Israel are fundamentally misleading. By framing Canadian institutions as enablers of alleged Israeli violence against Palestinians, the event spreads false narratives that could embolden anti-Israel and antisemitic movements within Canada.
Jewish advocacy groups emphasize that such blood libels threaten the safety of Jewish communities and the cohesion of Canadian society.
Despite these warnings, the tribunal is expected to draw significant participation from international activists, students, and academics.
Jewish organizations are urging Canadian media, policymakers, and the public to treat the tribunal with skepticism, recognize it as a politically motivated platform, and avoid amplifying anti-Israel rhetoric.
Thank you for reading. If you value independent Jewish journalism, help keep our reporting free and reliable, share this article, subscribe for regular coverage, or donate $10, $25, or $50 today.
Every gift powers timely, trusted reporting and amplifies pro-Israel voices defending Jewish rights worldwide. Donate now.
This article is based on verified information from the University of Ottawa, tribunal organizers’ public announcements, and accredited media reporting on the event.
You are so full of shite. Did you attend the tribunal????? Stop with this bloody nonsense of blood libel. You are a bunch of anti-semites. My best friend, Sara Adler, went to bnai brith camps in the 50’s and 60’s just outside Toronto. I defended my best friends, Sarah Adler and Eric Freedman from anti-semitic assholes in the playground at Humewood Public school that we all attended. When the parent of another child called my friend Sarah a dirty Jew, I leapt at her (I was 6) and told her being Jewish was GREAT and to leave my friend alone. This was one of many incidents over my childhood living on Humewood Drive in Toronto.
I worked at Jewish camps and learned to swim at the JCC with my brothers; we attended purim parties with our friends and I generally thought of myself as a Jew as I grew up. Blueberry buns at the Health Bread at St. Clair and Raglan were a must when the season arrived. Later, I was much influenced by Jewish feminist thought, and my politics were grounded in my experience of knowing and growing up around socialist Jews in Toronto. One family had been exiled from Drummondville for their communist leanings. I accompanied my friends to Camp Naivelt as a young kid. I did not grow up among Zionist Jews, but nevertheless as a socialist I was OBSESSED with Israel and the socialist ideals of kibbutzim. So, at 18 I left Toronto and made aliyah to Kibbutz Mefalsim–which was one of the kibbutzim that was attacked on October 7, 2023.
I landed in Tel Aviv and within 10 minutes of landing all my dreams of a Jewish Utopia were shattered. I was sickened by what I saw. 18 year olds running around with Uzis threatening elders and kids with their guns. I had never seen anything like it and thought there must have been some kind of attack. But no, this was just the everyday normal of living in the apartheid entity. Living in Kibbutz Mefalsim cemented my ideals as a lifelong anti-Zionist. I had my 19th birthday on the kibbutz and they all threw me a surprise party. My boyfriend Nachemia (Gingy) Feuerlight was the head of volunteers for the kibbutz and we fell for each other literally at first sight. Gingy later told me that this gathering was the first time in the history of the kibbutz that residents of the kibbutz had mixed socially at an event with Arab workers and volunteers. I was on the kibbutz with my brother who arrived before me on his way to meet up with my uncle who was the Police Commissioner of Swaziland at the time. My brother and I befriended everyone, not having been raised in an Arab-hating culture, so it seemed natural to us. For the party, the “arabs” (we were not allowed to call them Palestinians) dug a hole in the ground and cooked me some potatoes over the fire they made because they knew, as an Irish person, that I loved potatoes. That party was one of the best nights of my life. We sang, we danced, everyone gathered up a blanket and tossed me in the air. It was very much like a Jewish wedding–or an Arab wedding.
I was SO DEEPLY NAIVE. It was only after spending months there and seeing the way Sephardic Jews were treated as “other” and the horrific treatment of Palestinians that I realized I had been duped. I worked in the children’s houses where children were separate from their parents and were still wetting the bed at 12 years old. My brother was attacked TWICE by Israeli soldiers because he wore keffiyeh. Once the soldier on a bus reached for a knife and went for my brother and was only stopped by his comrades who wrestled him to the floor of the bus. It was TERRIFYING. Another time my brother (Irish Canadian) was interrogated in a youth hosted by 4 soldiers who only stopped when I arrived screaming, “HE’S CANADIAN!!!!”.
I would have to say that Israel is the most terrifying place I have ever lived. And not because of Palestinians, who were the warmest, most hospitable, funny, kind, people I have ever come across in my travels. Mefalsim had a huge number of Palestinians working on the kibbutz and were one of the first kibbutzim to use workers on a mass scale. We had a blast. The old men who rounded up the chickens would make me tea (WAY TOO SWEET!) and we would talk and laugh even though we did not understand each other. I will never forget their kindness to me — a young Canadian, usually hungover from drinking copious amounts of Arak the night before.
I was always terrified when on the streets anywhere — whether in Tel Aviv, Bethlehem or Jerusalem — that some PSYCHO IOF soldier would hammer the crowds with machine gun fire. Literally terrified. My boyfriend’s mother, when we went to visit in Haifa, proudly showed me pictures of her son’s time in the army – one photo haunts me to this day and I ran from the room and wept for hours as he tried to console me. It was of a Palestinian ‘prisoner’ that they had hung upside down from the end of a tank gun. I don’t know if he was alive or dead, but it cemented in me how vicious and horrific the soldiers could be and how justified my fear was.
I now understand how I was able to live there. A kind of cognitive dissonance settles over you. Daily life just continues as if there is nothing wrong with this picture; but there IS something deeply, terribly wrong.
AND THIS WAS 50 YEARS AGO. After months of living there, I went on to spend a year in London and Paris where I met Palestinians and Jews who were anti-Zionist and organizing to try to alert the world to the plight of Palestinians. I have been working to this violent occupation end since then–in my large and loving Jewish and non-Jewish community. I have a Jewish son who is being endangered by the presence of the apartheid entity in the world. Israel has never and will never keep Jews safe. It is a misguided colonial project which is fundamentally Jew hating–from the rejection of poor Jewish refugees in the 1930’s to the 50’s — to the current and past genocidal practices. I am horrified by what I see. I spend a lot of time with a 95 year old Holocaust survivor friend — she was my professor in my 20’s. She is so distraught by what is being done in the name of Jews in Palestine that I am sure it has shortened her life. She cannot believe what she is witnessing and feels like she is back in Bayreuth dealing with Nazis. She sees Israel/US/Britain and its actions as no different. It is really hard to watch the impact on her.
My super sensitive wonderful Jewish child is strongly identified with Judaism. He too is HORRIFIED by what Israel/US/Britain are doing in Gaza and the West Bank. He recently went traveling in Japan for 5 months and ended up on a walking trail with a young Israeli woman hiker. At the end of the day he called me and asked if I could take $1000 out of his bank account and send it to Gazan relief (he saved for 3 years for this trip). I don’t know what happened on that hike, but I can only imagine. I am writing this because I heard that B’nai Brith is slandering the City of Toronto for raising the Palestinian flag this week. It perpetuates NONSENSE–just like you do.
I cannot abide this kind of nonsense. You KNOW what you are doing is wrong; has nothing to do with Jewish safety or anti-semitism. Palestinians have NOTHING to do with anti-semitism. The right wing Christian Nationalist nutbar fascists do. And you know it. All you care about is colonizing that beautiful place.
Jews have lived in peace with Arabs and Christians for millennia and you all are fucking that up royally. And why? For nothing. I am begging you to cease and desist. Focus on real anti semitism and leave the Palestinians alone. Miko Peled and Nurit Peled and SO many Israelis and Jews worldwide want to you stop. Why don’t you listen?
Think of the Jews!
End the occupation. End the genocide. One State; equal rights for all. It is not rocket science.
STOP WITH THIS NONSENSE REPORTING. WATCH THE TRIBUNAL RECORDING.