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Palestinians walk through the rubble of their properties after Israeli authorities demolished a large section of the main vegetable market of the West Bank village of Beita, southeast of Nablus on June 1. $100 million in federal funding has been pledged to support Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.Majdi Mohammed/The Canadian Press
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has announced $100 million in federal funding to support Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
She unveiled the funding in Paris, where Western leaders are meeting to discuss mounting challenges preventing a future two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Ms. Anand’s office says the funding will go to United Nations agencies, the Red Cross and others to address what it calls a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and rising violence in the West Bank by extremist Israeli settlers.
Israel violated Vienna Convention with its treatment of Canadian activists, Anand says
The new funding, which brings Canada’s support for Palestinians to $500-million since late 2023, will go to addressing basic needs such as medical assistance, food and water, and to peace and stabilization initiatives.
Ms. Anand met her British and Australian counterparts on Thursday, and all three pledged roughly $1.8-million over three years for a peace fund to empower Palestinians and Israelis who don’t hold hard line views.
The government continues to face criticism from Palestinian advocates who argue Canada does not do enough to call out Israel, and from Jewish advocacy groups which say Ottawa’s criticism of Israel fuels antisemitism.