Mr. Speaker, this important issue affects Canadians all across the country.
I would like to thank the member for Parry Sound—Muskoka and the member for Calgary Signal Hill for bringing the motion to the House.
As we all know, Canada and Israel have enjoyed a long-standing friendship since May 11, 1949, when formal diplomatic relations were established. This is undoubtedly due to the approximately 20,000 Canadians living in Israel and 350,000 members of the Canadian Jewish community. The strength of our relationship with Israel cannot be overstated.
Most recently, in 2014, our Conservative government sent a delegation, including the former prime minister along with six other ministers and Canadian business leaders, to Israel. During this visit, the former prime minister became the first sitting Canadian prime minister to address the Israeli Knesset. There are very few countries that share such a strong and lasting relationship as we do. As I mentioned earlier, this has gone on for almost 67 years now.
Let us take a long look at the trading relationship between our two nations. In 2014, Canada exported 449 million dollars' worth of goods and imported $1.1 billion worth. These exports and imports to Israel and to Canada provide crucial employment opportunities for Canadians right across the country, including for constituents in my riding.
Israel is a leader in innovation and technology. In fact, in 2015, six of the ten companies on Forbes top 10 health technology companies were Israeli.
Canada has signed numerous bilateral agreements with Israel, including, but not limited to, the Canada-Israel strategic partnership memorandum of understanding, an MOU on foreign military co-operation and public diplomacy co-operation, among many others. Negotiations to modernize and expand the Canada-Israel free trade agreement are ongoing.
Israel also has numerous agreements with provincial governments, including my home province of Ontario, and Saskatchewan.
It is because of this relationship that I encourage all members to support the motion, to reject the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
I will now specifically turn to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
The BDS movement seeks to delegitimize and isolate and single out Israel from other countries across the world. It is an affront to Canadians by claiming a narrative that Israel is uniquely responsible for the Arab-Israeli conflict.
This movement to boycott Israel is an attack against the only liberal democracy in the Middle East and it completely disregards human rights offenders around the world.
The movement not only targets Israel politically, the movement targets the Israeli population, anywhere from pressuring consumers not to buy Israeli products, to calling on universities to cut ties with Israeli academia and for Israeli athletes to be banned from international sports competitions.
This movement is not pro-Palestine. It is not supportive of a two-state solution. It is just simply anti-Israel. By boycotting our relationship with Israel, this movement will not only negatively affect Israel, but also Canadians who rely on the importation and exportation of Israeli and Canadian goods.
This movement is anti-Semitic. It promotes anti-Semitism in Canada and abroad, it targets Israel and the Jewish community, and we as legislators must continue to fight against this. It is a form of discrimination based strictly on national origin. BDS activists call on boycotting people who come from the Jewish state. It is no way pro-Palestinian. It is just, again, anti-Israel.
The BDS movement is yet another message, as I said, for spreading anti-Semitism and advocating for the elimination of the Jewish state. It forces the blame of the Arab-Israeli conflict on a single actor, completely disregarding the multitude of issues and the actors involved.
It is clear that the intent of those in favour of BDS is not to resolve the conflict, but, again, as I pointed out, just to single out Israel.
BDS is a movement which seeks to target all Israelis without discretion. It isolates Israel and it serves as a means to collectively punish a diverse population.
We as legislators must recognize and reaffirm the State of Israel's right to exist and the right to self-defence.
As we all know, this movement has in fact been condemned by those of us on this side of the House and by members of the other side as well. Again, I encourage all members of the House to support the motion.
BDS undermines peace efforts and brings the Arab-Israeli conflict to Canada. It does nothing to bring the two sides of the conflict together, or promote peace or improve the quality of life for Palestinian citizens. We cannot allow Canadian businesses to be used for social exclusion and discrimination of people based on their national origin.
In the past, movements similar to BDS have been ineffective and historically have only mobilized the Jewish and pro-Israel community to buy the products that have been targeted. Israel's economy is continually growing, and we should be encouraging investment and growth opportunities for Canadian businesses rather than trying to restrict them.
The Canada-Israel relationship is one of Canada's strongest and most enduring, and it is for that reason that I once again call on all members of the House to support this motion.
To quote our former prime minister, the right hon. member for Calgary Heritage:
In the democratic family of nations, Israel represents values which our government takes as articles of faith, and principles to drive our national life.
And therefore, through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to questions from my honourable colleagues.