PSAC strongly condemns Israeli airstrikes against Gaza and police raids against Palestinian worshippers at the Al Aqsa Mosque, a highly sacred site for Muslims worldwide, as Palestinians mark the final week of Ramadan. The escalation of violence in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has been sparked by weeks of provocation by Israeli settlers and threats of evictions of hundreds of Palestinians from East Jerusalem. 

PSAC urges the Canadian government to:

• condemn the attack on the Al Aqsa Mosque which wounded 300 worshippers when police entered the compound, shooting rubber-tipped bullets and stun grenades
• pressure the Israeli government to stop Israeli air strikes against Gaza that have killed Palestinians including 10 children and that threaten to escalate the conflict
• take measures to stop the imminent eviction of 4 Palestinian families from their homes in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem 
• prevent the scheduled expulsions by Israeli authorities of hundreds of Palestinian families and their replacement by Israeli settlers
• acknowledge that the displacement of a civilian population to an occupied territory violates the Fourth Geneva Convention.