Canada’s $100 Million Commitment to Palestinians Falls Short Without Accountability
September 23, 2026
Justice For All Canada acknowledges Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement at the United Nations General Assembly of $100 million in new assistance for Palestinians ($80 million in humanitarian aid and $20 million for peace and security initiatives) including continued Canadian support for Palestinian police training. This assistance is significant at a time of extraordinary humanitarian need in Gaza and worsening conditions across the occupied West Bank.
However, such commitments are contradictory amid what is happening to the infrastructure that Canada and other international donors are already funding. Documents tabled in Parliament this week demonstrated that in the West Bank alone, 170 projects supported collectively by Canada and other donor countries, representing at least $3.68 million in funding, have been destroyed, damaged, confiscated or abandoned. These include sanitation, education and shelter projects, as well as solar panels, latrines and homes. Some projects could never proceed because Israeli authorities did not issue permits. In Gaza, the documents also identify damage to a refurbished women’s shelter. The Canadian government has yet to determine whether it will seek compensation from Israel for damaged or demolished projects or finance their replacement. For example, the July 2024 Israeli destruction of the “Canada Well” water facility in Rafah was located in an area where Canadian assistance had supported development for decades. Israel subsequently produced an internal report on this incident, whose findings Canada says it cannot disclose.
This new $100 million commitment also fails to address the continued expansion of settlements or the broader economic relationships the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has specifically concluded that States must confront. In fact, Canada’s initial September 8 commitment to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements came as Israel was moving ahead with the E1 settlement project: on September 17 another tender for 2,167 housing units brought the planned total to 3,401, further threatening the territorial contiguity of the West Bank and deepening the separation of East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities. A ban on settlement goods is an important step, but on its own it does not address the wider trade, investment and other economic ties that sustain Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. The ban’s practical economic impact would also be limited, given that settlement-origin goods represent only a small share of Israel’s overall exports; for context, goods exported from Israeli settlements to the UK last year were valued at about $45 million, compared with roughly $4.4 billion in total UK-Israel trade in goods and services.
The ICJ has already made clear that states must not recognize or assist that unlawful situation and must prevent trade and investment relations that help maintain it.
Canada’s continued support for Palestinian police training also does little to address one of the most immediate security threats Palestinians face in the West Bank: escalating settler violence. Of the $20 million announced for peace and security initiatives, a portion will support continued Canadian training of Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) through Operation PROTEUS. Through Operation PROTEUS, Canada helps train Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) in the occupied West Bank under the U.S.-led Office of the Security Coordinator, established in 2005. Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP personnel deployed under Operation PROTEUS also attended a November 2025 seminar organized by the Israeli military on lessons from its military operations, including in Gaza. The program operates within the broader Oslo-era security framework, under which Palestinian police assumed some responsibility for internal security and public order for Palestinians, while Israel retained overall security responsibility for Israelis and settlements. Yet this model has offered Palestinians little effective protection from settler or Israeli military violence. PASF security forces, long considered to serve as a “subcontractor” of Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank, have repeatedly been deployed against Palestinians themselves. Violent settlers carrying out pogroms against Palestinians, often with direct assistance from the Israeli military, receive no protection from the PASF against such attacks. Expanding this same model into Gaza begs the question whether Canada is investing in Palestinian protection, or reinforcing a security framework centered on coordination with Israel.
We call on Prime Minister Mark Carney to take further substantive measures in line with his comments at the U.N.:
Justice For All Canada acknowledges Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement at the United Nations General Assembly of $100 million in new assistance for Palestinians ($80 million in humanitarian aid and $20 million for peace and security initiatives) including continued Canadian support for Palestinian police training. This assistance is significant at a time of extraordinary humanitarian need in Gaza and worsening conditions across the occupied West Bank.
However, such commitments are contradictory amid what is happening to the infrastructure that Canada and other international donors are already funding. Documents tabled in Parliament this week demonstrated that in the West Bank alone, 170 projects supported collectively by Canada and other donor countries, representing at least $3.68 million in funding, have been destroyed, damaged, confiscated or abandoned. These include sanitation, education and shelter projects, as well as solar panels, latrines and homes. Some projects could never proceed because Israeli authorities did not issue permits. In Gaza, the documents also identify damage to a refurbished women’s shelter. The Canadian government has yet to determine whether it will seek compensation from Israel for damaged or demolished projects or finance their replacement. For example, the July 2024 Israeli destruction of the “Canada Well” water facility in Rafah was located in an area where Canadian assistance had supported development for decades. Israel subsequently produced an internal report on this incident, whose findings Canada says it cannot disclose.
This new $100 million commitment also fails to address the continued expansion of settlements or the broader economic relationships the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has specifically concluded that States must confront. In fact, Canada’s initial September 8 commitment to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements came as Israel was moving ahead with the E1 settlement project: on September 17 another tender for 2,167 housing units brought the planned total to 3,401, further threatening the territorial contiguity of the West Bank and deepening the separation of East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities. A ban on settlement goods is an important step, but on its own it does not address the wider trade, investment and other economic ties that sustain Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. The ban’s practical economic impact would also be limited, given that settlement-origin goods represent only a small share of Israel’s overall exports; for context, goods exported from Israeli settlements to the UK last year were valued at about $45 million, compared with roughly $4.4 billion in total UK-Israel trade in goods and services.
The ICJ has already made clear that states must not recognize or assist that unlawful situation and must prevent trade and investment relations that help maintain it.
Canada’s continued support for Palestinian police training also does little to address one of the most immediate security threats Palestinians face in the West Bank: escalating settler violence. Of the $20 million announced for peace and security initiatives, a portion will support continued Canadian training of Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) through Operation PROTEUS. Through Operation PROTEUS, Canada helps train Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) in the occupied West Bank under the U.S.-led Office of the Security Coordinator, established in 2005. Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP personnel deployed under Operation PROTEUS also attended a November 2025 seminar organized by the Israeli military on lessons from its military operations, including in Gaza. The program operates within the broader Oslo-era security framework, under which Palestinian police assumed some responsibility for internal security and public order for Palestinians, while Israel retained overall security responsibility for Israelis and settlements. Yet this model has offered Palestinians little effective protection from settler or Israeli military violence. PASF security forces, long considered to serve as a “subcontractor” of Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank, have repeatedly been deployed against Palestinians themselves. Violent settlers carrying out pogroms against Palestinians, often with direct assistance from the Israeli military, receive no protection from the PASF against such attacks. Expanding this same model into Gaza begs the question whether Canada is investing in Palestinian protection, or reinforcing a security framework centered on coordination with Israel.
We call on Prime Minister Mark Carney to take further substantive measures in line with his comments at the U.N.:
- While Canadian-supported Palestinian infrastructure continues to be damaged or destroyed without accountability or compensation, Canada should act to protect the projects it funds and secure unhindered humanitarian access.
- Pursue restitution or compensation where donor-supported infrastructure has been destroyed.
- Impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for advancing and facilitating E1 before construction contracts are finalized;
- Suspend the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement, including preferential trade arrangements with Israel;
- Immediately suspend all direct and indirect arms transfers to Israel, including military components routed through third countries.
- Take concrete action to protect Palestinian communities from settler violence and hold those responsible for attacks and displacement accountable.