The Canadian government has already condemned
Israeli actions. But words without actions
that have meaningful consequences risks becoming complicity.
By Fareed Khan
A version of this can be found on Substack.
The illegal interception of the Global Sumud humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza by Israeli forces in international waters south of Cyprus in mid-May 2026 is not an isolated “incident.” It is the latest expression of a decades-long pattern in which Israel uses overwhelming military power, systematic and deliberate abuse, and flagrant disregard for international law to punish Palestinians and those who stand with them in their struggle for freedom from Israeli occupation and oppression. It is an act of piracy and terrorism that requires action by the nations of the people who were abducted and tortured while in Israeli custody.
By Fareed Khan
A version of this can be found on Substack.
The illegal interception of the Global Sumud humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza by Israeli forces in international waters south of Cyprus in mid-May 2026 is not an isolated “incident.” It is the latest expression of a decades-long pattern in which Israel uses overwhelming military power, systematic and deliberate abuse, and flagrant disregard for international law to punish Palestinians and those who stand with them in their struggle for freedom from Israeli occupation and oppression. It is an act of piracy and terrorism that requires action by the nations of the people who were abducted and tortured while in Israeli custody.
While the flotilla activists have now been released and are on their way home
they are not returning unharmed. After being given medical examinations upon
being deported to Turkiye—the starting point of the flotilla—they reported
being subjected to severe abuse and torture in Israeli custody, including
documented evidence of physical violence—beatings, use of tasers, sexual
assault, torture—psychological torment, and degrading treatment that constitute
clear violations of international humanitarian law.
This brutality against unarmed humanitarian workers is yet another criminal act in Israel’s decades-long campaign of state terror—alongside its genocide in Gaza, the routine torture of Palestinian and international detainees, and its entrenched system of brutal domination against those who oppose them. Such conduct is more evidence marking Israel as a rogue, criminal state that uses terrorist violence and impunity against civilians and aid workers alike.
In these circumstances, Canada (along with other nations) has both a moral and legal obligation to respond with concrete measures, including broad sanctions, arms restrictions, and accountability mechanisms targeting the Israeli leaders criminally responsible for these actions.
Piracy and terrorism at sea
The Global Sumud flotilla set sail with approximately 50 boats and more than 400 activists from over 40 countries, carrying food, baby formula, and medical supplies to a besieged Gaza Strip facing catastrophic deprivation and famine. The vessels were intercepted hundreds of kilometres from Israel’s coast, in clearly international waters, as multiple reports and UN experts have emphasized.
According to Turkiye’s Anadolu Agency and other news outlets, Israeli forces attacked the flotilla volunteers with rubber bullets and boarded the ships, detaining around 428 activists and transporting them to Israeli ports and prison facilities. Amnesty International described the interception as “shameful and inhumane,” stressing that the flotilla was attempting to break an illegal Israeli blockade and deliver life‑saving aid to a population in Gaza subjected to mass atrocity crimes, apartheid and genocide.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the forcible seizure of civilian vessels in international waters, absent a lawful basis such as piracy suppression or UN Security Council authorization, is widely viewed by legal experts as a flagrant violation of the freedom of navigation. The UN experts’ statement on the Global Sumud flotilla explicitly called the interception “a blatant violation of international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” and demanded the immediate release of the activists.
When a state uses armed force on the high seas to abduct civilians engaged in a humanitarian aid mission, many scholars argue that this conduct is the very definition of state piracy and state terrorism.
This is not the first time Israel has done this and it won’t be the last given how Israel’s leaders see their nation as above the law. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) case study on the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla notes that Israeli forces killed nine activists in international waters while enforcing the Gaza blockade, raising serious questions under international humanitarian law and the law of the sea. The Global Sumud operation thus fits a long‑standing pattern. Israel uses its navy to project coercive power and unwarranted aggression far beyond its territorial waters to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza, and to send a message of deterrence through fear and terrorist violence.
Torture, sexual violence, and humiliation in Israeli custody
The testimonies emerging from the 2026 flotilla participants are harrowing and remarkably consistent. Reports by news media noted that activists were subjected to “humiliation and violence,” including forcing women to remove their hijabs, keeping detainees in painful positions, shooting them with rubber bullets, beatings and other forms of torture. One news report recounts how New Zealand activist Mousa Taher was stripped naked, bound with zip ties so tight he cried out in pain, stomped on, beaten unconscious, and forced to crawl on the ground “to make us feel like we are nothing.”
Newsweek quotes Australian activist Juliet Lamont describing a boat where 180 people were “systematically bashed and beaten” resulting in 40 with broken bones and ribs, people being “tasered in the face,” and multiple incidents of sexual assault. Al Jazeera, NBC and other major news outlets all report that flotilla organizers documented at least 15 cases of sexual assault, including rape, humiliating strip searches, groping, pulling of genitals, and even “forcible penetration by a handgun” on a converted prison vessel lined with barbed wire and shipping containers.
Associated Press and NBC‑syndicated reports describe activists being punched, kicked, dragged by their hair, held in containers, shackled with iron chains, and surrounded by attack dogs. Canadian activist Ehab Lotayef from Montreal told CBC he was beaten for days, had his ribs injured, glasses broken, and his hand stabbed by a guard while trying to distribute water to other detainees.
Israel’s prison service has denied all allegations, calling them “false and entirely without factual basis.” Yet the convergence of testimonies—from Canadian, Turkish, Italian, Brazilian, Australian, French, and other activists, documented by rights groups like Israel’s Adalah and scrutinized by prosecutors in Italy and elsewhere—strongly suggests systematic abuse and torture rather than isolated misconduct. UN officials have called these accounts “disturbing” and insisted that those responsible must be held to account.
These practices mirror long‑documented patterns of torture and ill‑treatment of Palestinian prisoners—stress positions, beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, denial of medical care, and abuse of minors. Human rights organizations have for years concluded that such treatment violates the Convention against Torture and the Geneva Conventions’ protections for detainees. The flotilla activists, in effect, were briefly exposed to the perverse justice regime that Palestinians have endured on a chronic basis for decades.
Decades of occupation, apartheid, and Gaza’s strangulation
To understand why many now describe Israel as a rogue state that uses terror as an instrument of policy, the flotilla must be placed in the broader context of Israel’s rule over Palestinians since 1967.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion concluding that Israel’s prolonged occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza was unlawful, and that its Jews only settlements violate Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory. The Court emphasized that Israel’s policies breach Palestinians’ right to self‑determination and require third states not to recognize or assist the illegal situation.
Human Rights Watch’s 2021 report “A Threshold Crossed” found that Israeli authorities are committing crimes against humanity, apartheid and persecution, through systematic discrimination, land confiscation, movement restrictions, and fragmentation of Palestinian territory. Amnesty International has similarly concluded that Israel’s settlement project and legal regime amount to apartheid, and that the settlements themselves are illegal under international law.
Gaza, under a land, air, and sea blockade since 2007, has been described by the ICRC and UN bodies as being subjected to collective punishment, prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The blockade severely restricts movement of people and goods, crippling the economy and health system (which is now destroyed during the genocide). The UN Fact‑Finding Mission on the 2008–2009 Gaza conflict (the Goldstone Mission) documented attacks on civilians, homes, schools, hospitals, and UN facilities, concluding that serious violations of international humanitarian law and possible war crimes had been committed. Subsequent operations—2012, 2014, 2021, and the post‑October 2023 assault—have repeated the same patterns of disproportionate force and targeting of Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure.
In the current phase, the ICJ, in the case brought by South Africa, has found that there is a plausible risk that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and has ordered provisional measures requiring Israel to prevent genocidal acts and enable humanitarian aid—all of which Israel has ignored. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that Israel’s assault on the foundations of international law “must have consequences,” stressing that starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is unlawful. The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor has opened a file on the “Situation in Palestine,” investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by all parties, and has sought arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Taken together, Israel’s decades-long list of crimes—unlawful occupation, apartheid, collective punishment, repeated large‑scale attacks on civilians, and now a case of genocide—this record depicts a state whose leaders systematically violate core norms of humanity and the international order and rely on impunity guaranteed by powerful allies like the US. The violent attack on participants in the Global Sumud flotilla is a microcosm of that larger system.
Israel as a rogue state using state terror
“Rogue state” is not a formal legal category, but it captures a political reality—a state that persistently defies international law, disregards UN resolutions and court decisions, and uses violence against civilians to achieve political ends.
When a state:
* Maintains an unlawful occupation and apartheid regime despite ICJ and UN findings;
* Enforces an illegal blockade that starves and impoverishes a civilian population;
* Conducts military campaigns that UN bodies and respected human rights voices say amount to war crimes and genocide;
* Intercepts humanitarian flotillas in international waters, abducts hundreds of civilians, and subjects them to torture and sexual violence;
This brutality against unarmed humanitarian workers is yet another criminal act in Israel’s decades-long campaign of state terror—alongside its genocide in Gaza, the routine torture of Palestinian and international detainees, and its entrenched system of brutal domination against those who oppose them. Such conduct is more evidence marking Israel as a rogue, criminal state that uses terrorist violence and impunity against civilians and aid workers alike.
In these circumstances, Canada (along with other nations) has both a moral and legal obligation to respond with concrete measures, including broad sanctions, arms restrictions, and accountability mechanisms targeting the Israeli leaders criminally responsible for these actions.
Piracy and terrorism at sea
The Global Sumud flotilla set sail with approximately 50 boats and more than 400 activists from over 40 countries, carrying food, baby formula, and medical supplies to a besieged Gaza Strip facing catastrophic deprivation and famine. The vessels were intercepted hundreds of kilometres from Israel’s coast, in clearly international waters, as multiple reports and UN experts have emphasized.
According to Turkiye’s Anadolu Agency and other news outlets, Israeli forces attacked the flotilla volunteers with rubber bullets and boarded the ships, detaining around 428 activists and transporting them to Israeli ports and prison facilities. Amnesty International described the interception as “shameful and inhumane,” stressing that the flotilla was attempting to break an illegal Israeli blockade and deliver life‑saving aid to a population in Gaza subjected to mass atrocity crimes, apartheid and genocide.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the forcible seizure of civilian vessels in international waters, absent a lawful basis such as piracy suppression or UN Security Council authorization, is widely viewed by legal experts as a flagrant violation of the freedom of navigation. The UN experts’ statement on the Global Sumud flotilla explicitly called the interception “a blatant violation of international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” and demanded the immediate release of the activists.
When a state uses armed force on the high seas to abduct civilians engaged in a humanitarian aid mission, many scholars argue that this conduct is the very definition of state piracy and state terrorism.
This is not the first time Israel has done this and it won’t be the last given how Israel’s leaders see their nation as above the law. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) case study on the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla notes that Israeli forces killed nine activists in international waters while enforcing the Gaza blockade, raising serious questions under international humanitarian law and the law of the sea. The Global Sumud operation thus fits a long‑standing pattern. Israel uses its navy to project coercive power and unwarranted aggression far beyond its territorial waters to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza, and to send a message of deterrence through fear and terrorist violence.
Torture, sexual violence, and humiliation in Israeli custody
The testimonies emerging from the 2026 flotilla participants are harrowing and remarkably consistent. Reports by news media noted that activists were subjected to “humiliation and violence,” including forcing women to remove their hijabs, keeping detainees in painful positions, shooting them with rubber bullets, beatings and other forms of torture. One news report recounts how New Zealand activist Mousa Taher was stripped naked, bound with zip ties so tight he cried out in pain, stomped on, beaten unconscious, and forced to crawl on the ground “to make us feel like we are nothing.”
Newsweek quotes Australian activist Juliet Lamont describing a boat where 180 people were “systematically bashed and beaten” resulting in 40 with broken bones and ribs, people being “tasered in the face,” and multiple incidents of sexual assault. Al Jazeera, NBC and other major news outlets all report that flotilla organizers documented at least 15 cases of sexual assault, including rape, humiliating strip searches, groping, pulling of genitals, and even “forcible penetration by a handgun” on a converted prison vessel lined with barbed wire and shipping containers.
Associated Press and NBC‑syndicated reports describe activists being punched, kicked, dragged by their hair, held in containers, shackled with iron chains, and surrounded by attack dogs. Canadian activist Ehab Lotayef from Montreal told CBC he was beaten for days, had his ribs injured, glasses broken, and his hand stabbed by a guard while trying to distribute water to other detainees.
Israel’s prison service has denied all allegations, calling them “false and entirely without factual basis.” Yet the convergence of testimonies—from Canadian, Turkish, Italian, Brazilian, Australian, French, and other activists, documented by rights groups like Israel’s Adalah and scrutinized by prosecutors in Italy and elsewhere—strongly suggests systematic abuse and torture rather than isolated misconduct. UN officials have called these accounts “disturbing” and insisted that those responsible must be held to account.
These practices mirror long‑documented patterns of torture and ill‑treatment of Palestinian prisoners—stress positions, beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, denial of medical care, and abuse of minors. Human rights organizations have for years concluded that such treatment violates the Convention against Torture and the Geneva Conventions’ protections for detainees. The flotilla activists, in effect, were briefly exposed to the perverse justice regime that Palestinians have endured on a chronic basis for decades.
Decades of occupation, apartheid, and Gaza’s strangulation
To understand why many now describe Israel as a rogue state that uses terror as an instrument of policy, the flotilla must be placed in the broader context of Israel’s rule over Palestinians since 1967.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion concluding that Israel’s prolonged occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza was unlawful, and that its Jews only settlements violate Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory. The Court emphasized that Israel’s policies breach Palestinians’ right to self‑determination and require third states not to recognize or assist the illegal situation.
Human Rights Watch’s 2021 report “A Threshold Crossed” found that Israeli authorities are committing crimes against humanity, apartheid and persecution, through systematic discrimination, land confiscation, movement restrictions, and fragmentation of Palestinian territory. Amnesty International has similarly concluded that Israel’s settlement project and legal regime amount to apartheid, and that the settlements themselves are illegal under international law.
Gaza, under a land, air, and sea blockade since 2007, has been described by the ICRC and UN bodies as being subjected to collective punishment, prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The blockade severely restricts movement of people and goods, crippling the economy and health system (which is now destroyed during the genocide). The UN Fact‑Finding Mission on the 2008–2009 Gaza conflict (the Goldstone Mission) documented attacks on civilians, homes, schools, hospitals, and UN facilities, concluding that serious violations of international humanitarian law and possible war crimes had been committed. Subsequent operations—2012, 2014, 2021, and the post‑October 2023 assault—have repeated the same patterns of disproportionate force and targeting of Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure.
In the current phase, the ICJ, in the case brought by South Africa, has found that there is a plausible risk that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and has ordered provisional measures requiring Israel to prevent genocidal acts and enable humanitarian aid—all of which Israel has ignored. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that Israel’s assault on the foundations of international law “must have consequences,” stressing that starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is unlawful. The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor has opened a file on the “Situation in Palestine,” investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by all parties, and has sought arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Taken together, Israel’s decades-long list of crimes—unlawful occupation, apartheid, collective punishment, repeated large‑scale attacks on civilians, and now a case of genocide—this record depicts a state whose leaders systematically violate core norms of humanity and the international order and rely on impunity guaranteed by powerful allies like the US. The violent attack on participants in the Global Sumud flotilla is a microcosm of that larger system.
Israel as a rogue state using state terror
“Rogue state” is not a formal legal category, but it captures a political reality—a state that persistently defies international law, disregards UN resolutions and court decisions, and uses violence against civilians to achieve political ends.
When a state:
* Maintains an unlawful occupation and apartheid regime despite ICJ and UN findings;
* Enforces an illegal blockade that starves and impoverishes a civilian population;
* Conducts military campaigns that UN bodies and respected human rights voices say amount to war crimes and genocide;
* Intercepts humanitarian flotillas in international waters, abducts hundreds of civilians, and subjects them to torture and sexual violence;
it is
reasonable for advocates, scholars, and affected communities to argue that such
a state is acting as a rogue actor and employing terrorism as a weapon. The
purpose of the flotilla abuses was not military necessity, but rather to
terrorize activists and deter future attempts to break the blockade. As one
activist put it, this felt like a “planned campaign of violence” designed to ensure
they never return.
This is why many Palestinians and their allies describe Israel not merely as a state committing isolated violations of international law, but as a rogue, terrorist state whose policies are structurally violent. Whether one adopts that terminology or not, the legal and moral implications for third states like Canada are profound.
Canada’s legal and moral obligations
Canada is not a neutral bystander in all of this. It is a party to the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention, the Rome Statute of the ICC, and UNCLOS. It has domestic legislation—the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act—that incorporates international crimes into Canadian law and allows for prosecution on the basis of universal jurisdiction.
The Canadian government has already put out statements condemning the flotilla abuses. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand condemned the “appalling abuse” of Canadians and summoned the Israeli ambassador after videos showed Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben‑Gvir taunting kneeling, zip‑tied activists. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the treatment “abominable.” But condemnation without actions that have meaningful consequences in response to Israeli crimes risks becoming complicity.
Given the evidence and the findings of international bodies, a strong case can be made that Canada has at the least the following obligations:
Implement targeted sanctions on Israeli political and military leadership:
Under its Magnitsky sanctions legislation and in light of declarations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, the United Nations, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and the ICJ’s findings on the illegality of the occupation and the plausible risk of genocide, Canada can and arguably must impose asset freezes and travel bans on all senior Israeli political and military officials responsible for the crimes committed against Palestinians, the Gaza blockade, large‑scale military assaults against civilians, and the flotilla interdictions.
Criminal investigations and universal jurisdiction:
Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act grants it universal jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute individuals present on its soil for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide—regardless of where those acts occurred. Given the scale of alleged violations in Gaza and the flotilla incidents, Canada has both the legal authority and the moral responsibility to open investigations into any Israeli officials or soldiers within its territory when credible evidence links them to such crimes. A bolder step—such as automatically detaining anyone who has served in the Israeli military since 2023, including Canadian citizens—would send a clear signal that Canada is serious about enforcing its own laws and upholding international humanitarian standards.
Closing loopholes for arms and dual‑use exports:
Canada has obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and customary international law not to transfer weapons where there is a clear risk they will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. In light of ICJ and UN findings, and declarations respected human rights organizations, continuing any form of arms or dual‑use exports that could support Israeli military operations in Gaza or enforcement of the blockade is increasingly difficult to reconcile with those obligations. Closing loopholes and imposing a full embargo on military exports and technology transfers to Israel would be a concrete step toward compliance.
Diplomatic measures: expulsion and recall of ambassadors:
Expelling the Israeli ambassador and recalling Canada’s ambassador from Tel Aviv would signal that the relationship cannot proceed as normal while Israel defies the ICJ, the ICC, and UN bodies, and while Canadian citizens are tortured and sexually assaulted in Israeli custody. Such measures have precedent in responses to other states accused of atrocity crimes (like Iran).
Support for international accountability mechanisms:
Canada should fully support the ICC’s Palestine investigation, refrain from political pressure on the Court, and actively cooperate with any arrest warrants issued, including against Israeli officials. It should also back UN mechanisms documenting violations in Gaza and the flotilla incidents, and endorse the ICJ’s advisory opinion and genocide case orders, as well as join South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ which now has 20 nations supporting it, including NATO members Belgium, Iceland, Netherlands, Spain and Turkiye, as well as trading partners Mexico and Ireland.
These steps are not radical. They flow from Canada’s own treaty commitments and its self-professed support for a rules‑based international order. To continue business as usual with a state credibly accused of apartheid, war crimes, and genocide, and now documented torture and sexual abuse of Canadian and international activists, would be to erode those very rules.
From outrage to responsibility
The Global Sumud flotilla was a simple proposition. Civilians from around the world sailing to deliver food and medicine to a population deliberately starved and bombed. Israel’s response—armed interception in international waters, mass abduction, beatings, torture, and sexual violence—lays bare the nature of its regime and the depth of its depravity.
Whether one chooses the language of “rogue terrorist state” or prefers strictly legal terminology, the core reality is the same. Israel has, for decades, violated fundamental norms of international law with near impunity, and the flotilla abuses are part of that pattern. For Canada, the question is no longer what is happening, but what it is prepared to do about it, especially after more than two and a half years of genocide in Gaza where a conservatively estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed by Israel as of April 2026, according to international medical specialists, Israeli academics, and others.
Silence and symbolic statements will not protect Palestinians, nor will they protect Canadians and others who risk their lives to bring them live saving aid. Sanctions, arms restrictions, criminal investigations, and diplomatic downgrades are the minimum steps consistent with Canada’s legal obligations and moral claims. Anything less is a choice to live with atrocity—and to be remembered as being on the side of those who watched and did nothing to hold Israel accountable for its criminal actions.
© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.
This is why many Palestinians and their allies describe Israel not merely as a state committing isolated violations of international law, but as a rogue, terrorist state whose policies are structurally violent. Whether one adopts that terminology or not, the legal and moral implications for third states like Canada are profound.
Canada’s legal and moral obligations
Canada is not a neutral bystander in all of this. It is a party to the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention, the Rome Statute of the ICC, and UNCLOS. It has domestic legislation—the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act—that incorporates international crimes into Canadian law and allows for prosecution on the basis of universal jurisdiction.
The Canadian government has already put out statements condemning the flotilla abuses. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand condemned the “appalling abuse” of Canadians and summoned the Israeli ambassador after videos showed Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben‑Gvir taunting kneeling, zip‑tied activists. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the treatment “abominable.” But condemnation without actions that have meaningful consequences in response to Israeli crimes risks becoming complicity.
Given the evidence and the findings of international bodies, a strong case can be made that Canada has at the least the following obligations:
Implement targeted sanctions on Israeli political and military leadership:
Under its Magnitsky sanctions legislation and in light of declarations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, the United Nations, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and the ICJ’s findings on the illegality of the occupation and the plausible risk of genocide, Canada can and arguably must impose asset freezes and travel bans on all senior Israeli political and military officials responsible for the crimes committed against Palestinians, the Gaza blockade, large‑scale military assaults against civilians, and the flotilla interdictions.
Criminal investigations and universal jurisdiction:
Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act grants it universal jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute individuals present on its soil for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide—regardless of where those acts occurred. Given the scale of alleged violations in Gaza and the flotilla incidents, Canada has both the legal authority and the moral responsibility to open investigations into any Israeli officials or soldiers within its territory when credible evidence links them to such crimes. A bolder step—such as automatically detaining anyone who has served in the Israeli military since 2023, including Canadian citizens—would send a clear signal that Canada is serious about enforcing its own laws and upholding international humanitarian standards.
Closing loopholes for arms and dual‑use exports:
Canada has obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and customary international law not to transfer weapons where there is a clear risk they will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. In light of ICJ and UN findings, and declarations respected human rights organizations, continuing any form of arms or dual‑use exports that could support Israeli military operations in Gaza or enforcement of the blockade is increasingly difficult to reconcile with those obligations. Closing loopholes and imposing a full embargo on military exports and technology transfers to Israel would be a concrete step toward compliance.
Diplomatic measures: expulsion and recall of ambassadors:
Expelling the Israeli ambassador and recalling Canada’s ambassador from Tel Aviv would signal that the relationship cannot proceed as normal while Israel defies the ICJ, the ICC, and UN bodies, and while Canadian citizens are tortured and sexually assaulted in Israeli custody. Such measures have precedent in responses to other states accused of atrocity crimes (like Iran).
Support for international accountability mechanisms:
Canada should fully support the ICC’s Palestine investigation, refrain from political pressure on the Court, and actively cooperate with any arrest warrants issued, including against Israeli officials. It should also back UN mechanisms documenting violations in Gaza and the flotilla incidents, and endorse the ICJ’s advisory opinion and genocide case orders, as well as join South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ which now has 20 nations supporting it, including NATO members Belgium, Iceland, Netherlands, Spain and Turkiye, as well as trading partners Mexico and Ireland.
These steps are not radical. They flow from Canada’s own treaty commitments and its self-professed support for a rules‑based international order. To continue business as usual with a state credibly accused of apartheid, war crimes, and genocide, and now documented torture and sexual abuse of Canadian and international activists, would be to erode those very rules.
From outrage to responsibility
The Global Sumud flotilla was a simple proposition. Civilians from around the world sailing to deliver food and medicine to a population deliberately starved and bombed. Israel’s response—armed interception in international waters, mass abduction, beatings, torture, and sexual violence—lays bare the nature of its regime and the depth of its depravity.
Whether one chooses the language of “rogue terrorist state” or prefers strictly legal terminology, the core reality is the same. Israel has, for decades, violated fundamental norms of international law with near impunity, and the flotilla abuses are part of that pattern. For Canada, the question is no longer what is happening, but what it is prepared to do about it, especially after more than two and a half years of genocide in Gaza where a conservatively estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed by Israel as of April 2026, according to international medical specialists, Israeli academics, and others.
Silence and symbolic statements will not protect Palestinians, nor will they protect Canadians and others who risk their lives to bring them live saving aid. Sanctions, arms restrictions, criminal investigations, and diplomatic downgrades are the minimum steps consistent with Canada’s legal obligations and moral claims. Anything less is a choice to live with atrocity—and to be remembered as being on the side of those who watched and did nothing to hold Israel accountable for its criminal actions.
© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.
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