Arnaud Bertrand on X:
This is incredible. Rob Oliphant, whose job is to defend Canada’s foreign policy in Parliament, got recorded in a private phone call admitting how disgusting Canada’s de-funding of UNRWA is, and that he does believe Israel is committing genocide. https://cbc.ca/news/politics/rob-oliphant-gaza-israel-joly-hamas-unrwa-1.7115468
Here what he said on the leaked recording of the call: “When I read that we were pausing money to UNRWA — I’m going to be very clear — it was political. And I don’t just mean domestic politics. It has to do with our allies. I thought it was the wrong decision.”
In short: nothing to do with the allegations against UNRWA (which to this day are still unproven), everything to do with the US pressuring Canada to de-fund it. Oliphant also said on the call that, even if the Israeli allegation is true, he doesn’t agree with the Trudeau government’s response: “You don’t stop aid to Gaza because of 12 or 13 employees out of 13,000. It drives me crazy. It is opportunistic, it is unfair, and it is maligning the operation of a UN organization that is doing, not perfect work — there’s no organization that’s made of human beings that’s perfect, UNRWA has its faults. But it is the best we have for education, for medical care, for food, all of those things. My heart falls down in my body. My heart hurts, because the only way to get that aid there is UNRWA. We can’t have 200 trucks a day. We need 800 trucks a day. We need more entry points. We need water access from the Mediterranean. And we need to push on those points. But we also need UNRWA, which is the only body that has the infrastructure to deliver the aid.”
Oliphant said that any decision to divert UNRWA aid to other channels likely would be symbolic, because “the reality is that UNICEF or World Food Program or other agencies are going to have to use the same people that work for UNRWA. It’s political and it’s driving me crazy.”
He added: “I will defend UNRWA forever. Their work in Lebanon, their work in Jordan, I’ve been there, I’ve been to the refugee camps. I’ve examined the curriculum that people have gone crazy about, saying it’s antisemitic. I don’t believe it is. I think UNRWA is maligned every day.”
On the call he also said he does believe Israel is committing “genocidal activity”: “Do I believe there’s genocidal activity on the part of Israel? Probably yes, from what I have seen.” He says Netanyahu is hurting not only Gaza but Israel too: “Netanyahu is hurting Israel. Not only killing Gazans, but hurting Israel. So for the love of Israel, tell him to stop.” Lastly he said that Israel — not other countries — should be made to pay the cost of the war: “Israel needs to pay for rebuilding the country it destroyed. I don’t want to pay for that,” he said, before acknowledging that Canada likely will be called on to contribute something, along with Gulf Arab nations…