TRENTON, Canada
Canada will ban all arms
shipments to Israel, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced Tuesday.Canada Foreign Affairs Minister, Melanie Joly
The move comes after lawmakers
voted 204 - 117 in favor of a non-binding motion to stop the weapons sales
after a lengthy debate Monday.
“It’s a real thing,” Joly told
The Toronto Star newspaper. The original motion was for a weapons sales
suspension but that was changed to an outright ban.
Also included in the motion
was a clause that called for support of the eventual “establishment of the
State of Palestine” in concert with Canada’s international partners.
Canada had earlier placed a
temporary suspension on export permits for military goods and technology.
But there was some confusion
previously as Global Affairs Canada continued to receive applications on arms
exports to Israel and they were reviewed on a case-to-case basis, the Star
reported.
But Joly insisted that after
the Monday vote calling for the weapons ban, the government decided to honor
the pledge.
Defense Minister Bill Blair
said Joly will decide how the ban is enforced.
“There are a number of
existing contracts that are already in place, but this was a going-forward
basis, I think that's how the minister's looking at it,” Blair told the Star.
“There has been a lot of concern expressed with respect to … lethal military sales
to Israel during the conflict.”
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