By Yves Engler
The recruitment of volunteers for the Israeli military is particularly a cause for concern given the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Israeli armed forces.
The database Find IDF Soldiers has elicited a significant backlash. But there’s been little discussion of the website’s indictment of the legal exceptionalism given to Israel in Canadian political culture.
Find IDF Soldiers lists 85 Canadians who have fought in the Israeli military. It has been covered by The Jerusalem Post, Ynet, Jewish Onliner, Jewish Press, Israel Hayom, i24, The J, National Post, Jewish Breaking News, Jewish News Syndicate, Jew In The City, Vernon Morning Star, Haaretz and others.
A Canadian Jewish News article headlined “Canadian veterans of the IDF profiled by an anti-Israel website are considering a class-action lawsuit” quotes the father of one of those listed who is campaigning to shutter the site. Author of The Wake Up Call: Global Jihad and the Rise of Antisemitism in a World Gone MAD, Israel Ellis told Canadian Jewish News, “‘How do we get this thing shut down as quickly as possible?’ That took me on a bit of a journey,” he said, and was soon contacting ‘every politician I know’—and law enforcement officials, too. ‘Many people were talking, and by the morning the site was shut down.’”
The reaction to the site, which is back up, is another example of the authoritarian tendency of Zionism. If it bothers their genocidal, supremacist, sensibilities, it must be illegal and shuttered.
But there’s a far stronger legal case to be made against those named on Find IDF Soldiers and those who induce Canadians to join the Israeli military. Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act states, “Every person who, either before or after the coming into force of this section, commits outside Canada (a) genocide, (b) a crime against humanity, or (c) a war crime, is guilty of an indictable offence and may be prosecuted for that offense.”
Every Canadian who has fought in Gaza over the past 16 months should be charged. Many of those who fought in Israel’s occupation force in previous years should also be investigated for possible participation in war crimes.
Part of why Find IDF Soldiers has elicited such a reaction is that it was launched as the Hind Rajab Foundation pursues Israeli soldiers in Brazil, Belgium and elsewhere. The foundation has also filed complaints against 1,000 IDF members and officers to the International Criminal Court.
Find IDF Soldiers also highlights the failure of Canadian officials to enforce the Foreign Enlistment Act, which states that “any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offence.”
Various schools, community institutions and wealthy individuals induce Canadians to join the Israeli military. In 2020, a formal legal complaint and public letter signed by numerous prominent individuals were released calling on the federal government to investigate individuals for violating the Foreign Enlistment Act by inducing Canadians to join the Israeli military.
Partly in response to the police’s unwillingness to take violations of the Foreign Enlistment Act seriously, Palestinian Canadian artist Rehab Nazzal and Rabbi David Mivasair commenced the first ever prosecution related to Israeli recruitment in Canada. In 2022 they launched a private prosecution against Sar-El Canada, which brings about 150 Canadians to volunteer on Israeli army bases each year. They maintain the facilities, stock shelves and clean guns. According to Sar-El, the volunteers are responsible for “routine logistical support tasks normally assigned to active-duty soldiers and reservists.”
A Justice of the Peace agreed the evidence against Sar-El warranted a hearing. But, in a legal slight of hand the “Public Prosecution Service of Canada intervened, took over the case, and terminated the prosecution.” They clearly didn’t want a court to adjudicate the matter.
This week, the Court of Appeal for Ontario denied Nazzal and Mivasair’s appeal challenging the Crown’s abuse of process. While the Court of Appeal agreed with part of their challenge, the court found that they had not shown there was an improper exercise of prosecutorial discretion by the Crown.
n their statement responding to the decision Nazzal and Mivasair complained that the “written judgment did not meaningfully engage with affidavit evidence that the Crown’s actions were not an anomaly, but were part of a consistent pattern of refusing to uphold Canadian law where the Israeli armed forces are concerned.”
Nazzal and Mivasair’s release further explained, “No one should be above the law. Section 11 of the Foreign Enlistment Act makes it an offence for anyone within Canada to recruit or otherwise induce another to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state.
The recruitment of volunteers for the Israeli military is particularly a cause for concern given the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Israeli armed forces that are being investigated by the International Criminal Court. The egregious abuses by the Israeli military make it all the more important to challenge Canada’s complicity with Israeli military recruitment.”
The police should take seriously their responsibilities vis a vis Sar-El’s promotion of Canadians to assist the Israeli military. Several Jewish schools and other institutions should be investigated for potentially violating Canada’s Foreign Enlistment Act. At the same time, Canadians who’ve participated in Israel’s war crimes and genocide should be investigated under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
As Nazzal and Mivasair concluded, “Canada’s practice of Israeli legal exceptionalism, and its complicity in Israel’s crimes, must continue to be challenged on every front.”
– Yves Engler is the author of Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and a number of other books. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit his website: yvesengler.com.
