Written by: Yves Engler

Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, is celebrating Israel’s slaughter of over 200 Palestinians. All Canadians are paying to have her promote Israel’s holocaust in Gaza.

On Saturday, Israeli forces killed over 200 and injured 400 in an attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Afterwards doctors described the inside of a nearby hospital as a “complete bloodbath" with one medic telling Al-Jazeera that Al-Aqsa hospital "looks like a slaughter house". European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell labelled it “another massacre of civilians.”

The stated aim of the operation was to release four Israelis captured on October 7. But, Hamas says three other detained Israelis were killed in the fighting and one Israeli commando was also killed. More broadly, Israel has long been able to retrieve those captured on October 7 by releasing the 10 000 Palestinians they’ve detained. It can’t be seriously claimed that Israel’s aim in Gaza is to retrieve hostages. Instead, the retrieval of the four Israelis should be viewed as part of justifying killing Palestinians in Nuseirat and across the strip. In response to Israel’s latest bloodbath, Canada’s special envoy to promote Israel’s holocaust in Gaza posted:

“A glimmer of hope this morning as Canadians, especially the Canadian Jewish community learned of the IDF’s rescue of four hostages who have been held in Gaza for 8 months. I join the community in gratitude and joy that Noa, Andrey, Almog and Shlomi are safely back in the arms of their families. As our government and allies have repeatedly demanded, all 120 remaining hostages must be released so that there can be a sustainable peace for Israelis and Palestinians. #BringThemHomeNow.”

Deborah Lyons said nothing about the multiple dozens of Palestinian children killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Over the past eight months Lyons has failed to note the 50 000 Palestinians killed or Israel’s destruction of half all the buildings and agricultural land in Gaza. The UN recently added Israel to its “blacklist” of countries committing abuses against children and by mid-July half of all Palestinians in Gaza could face starvation. The holocaust in Gaza is the latest phase in Zionism’s century long bid to dispossess Palestinians.

Lyons has spent eight months promoting the horrors in Gaza. Sunday, she participated in the Toronto “Walk for Israel” and was recently part of an Israel flag raising ceremony. Previously Lyons’ called for state forces to repress peoples’ right to gather, smeared protests against Canada’s complicity in Israel’s violence and lent government credibility to what turned into the most publicized incident of anti-Palestinian racism in Canadian history.

Lyons was hand-picked by Irwin Cotler for the special envoy position. Cotler wanted the hardline, non-Jewish Zionist diplomat to take over a role he effectively created. As Canada’s ambassador to Israel, Lyons hosted a 2020 pizza party for Canadians fighting in the Israeli military. Satisfied with her work, the Liberals recently boosted Lyons’ budget.

Lyons’ position is one of the innumerable ways Canada has enabled Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It’s outrageous that all Canadians are paying for a special envoy to promote Israel’s holocaust in Gaza.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

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Yves Engler is the author of 13 books. His latest book, available now, is "Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy”.

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