Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)

Activities

• In June 2025, following Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites, CJPME published a statement urging the Canadian Prime Minister to “forcefully condemn Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran, and to do everything possible to de-escalate and prevent further bloodshed. CJPME argues that Israel’s attack on Iranian cities is an illegal act of aggression, not self-defense, and must be viewed in the context of its expansionist goals.”
• In May 2025, CJPME published a statement claiming, “The Nakba never ended…While we advocate for the colonization of Palestine to be recognized by our leaders and institutions in Canada as an injustice, we are also witnessing the Nakba continue — and even accelerate — in Israel’s genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank…Nakba denial is a form of genocide denial and a mechanism for denying the Palestinian right of return…The Nakba is ongoing and Canada must play a role in halting it and reversing its consequences. To halt it, Canada must pressure Israel to change course by implementing boycotts, divestments, and sanctions.”
• In January 2025, following a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, CJPME published a statement: “How many lives could have been saved if the international community, including Canada, had put real pressure on Israel to accept the same deal many months ago? The failure of Trudeau to impose sanctions on Israeli war criminals or stop trading arms with Israel amounts to complicity in genocide…Regardless of the specific terms of the deal, Israel remains legally obliged to end its unlawful presence in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza as rapidly as possible. Canada must utilize every policy option available to ensure that Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid policies are irredeemably dismantled.”
• In October 2024, CJPME sent a letter to Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc calling to “retract the terror designation against Samidoun…One can vehemently disagree with a group’s actions and statements, but it is quite another thing to designate them as terrorists, an act which has profound implications for the freedom and safety of their adherents, allies, and the broader movement.”
  • On October 15, 2024, the US and Canada designated Samidoun as a terrorist entity, describing it as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.” Several other countries have also taken action against Samidoun including Israel, Germany, and the Netherlands.
• In October 2024, CJPME published an article titled, “Canada must stop Israel’s ethnic cleansing of North Gaza.” According to CJPME, “By failing to impose sanctions when Israel ordered the forcible displacement of more than 1 million people last year, Trudeau emboldened Israel to escalate its barbaric measures and attempt to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Northern Gaza.”
• In October 2024, on the one year anniversary of the brutal Hamas massacre, CJPME published a press release accusing Israel of a, “ genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people,” which “did not start on October 7, 2023, but followed 76 years of dispossession and 57 years of occupation and apartheid…CJPME urges Canada to respond to genocide by cutting off its ties with Israel, including through the imposition of a two-way arms embargo and sanctions on Israeli leaders.”
• In October 2024, CJPME released a statement alleging that “Canada has failed to publicly condemn the genocidal comportment of the Netanyahu government. It has failed to condemn Israel’s reckless and illegal violence in Lebanon. It has failed to take decisive action to withhold arms from Israel. It has failed to support international resolutions and action at the UN, the ICJ and the ICC. “According to the statement, there is a clear line between “Israel’s horrific collective punishment against Palestinians following last year’s Oct. 7 attack by Hamas – considered a genocide by many – and the outbreak of regional war today.”
• In September 2024, CJPME issued a statement regarding the Foreign Affairs Committee’s decision to study the implications of Canadian recognition of Palestinian statehood. CJPME criticized the study as “unnecessary” and argued that it “may further delay decisive action against Israel’s illegal occupation.” CJPME urged the Canadian government to immediately and unconditionally recognize the State of Palestine, coupled with “concrete measures to end Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including sanctions against Israeli officials responsible for sustaining the military occupation and settlement expansion.”
• In September 2024, CJPME published a statement claiming, “Israel is conducting a multifront ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza and the West Bank and is now opening a third front with Southern Lebanon. This is shameless brutality, with colonial overtones, by a racist Israeli government propped up by Canada, the US and their allies,…Canada had nearly a year to calibrate an effective response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, violent land theft in the West Bank, and its war with Hezbollah. It has now failed to deter Israel from escalating its attacks and violations of international law throughout Lebanon.”
• In September 2024, CJPME led a campaign alleging “Israel’s brutality against its neighbors (Lebanon)” and demanding that Canadian leaders “do everything possible to stop Israel’s war machine!”
• In September 2024, CJPME called on Canada to “vote for a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution this week which demands a swift end to Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories… Canada has significantly eroded its own credibility on the world stage by continuing to shield Israel from accountability. If Trudeau votes against this resolution, the entire world will witness Canada choose to uphold the colonial interests of Israel’s illegal occupation instead of siding with Palestinian freedom. We are hoping that he will make the right choice.”
• In May 2024, CJPME published a statement calling on Canada “to address its ongoing complicity in Palestinian dispossession…On this Nakba Day, our minds are on the horrific genocide and mass upheaval in Gaza, which echoes the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948…The Nakba is not just a historical event. The Nakba marked the beginning of an ongoing process of colonization and ethnic cleansing of the historical land of Palestine of its indigenous population. The genocide in Gaza is its latest and most violent manifestation. There is no hope for a just resolution without acknowledging the Nakba and the 76 years of dispossession that Palestinians have faced since.”
• In April 2024, CJPME called on Canada to “insist that Israel end man-made famine in Gaza.” According to CJPME, “From the very first days of the war, Israeli leaders openly proclaimed a policy of forced famine. Canada must finally acknowledge that Israel’s actions reflect blatant genocidal intent, and impose sanctions to prevent further mass deaths.”
• In February 2024, CJPME “welcome[d] the NDP motion calling on the Canadian government to recognize the State of Palestine.” According to CJPME, “Canada should have recognized Palestinian statehood years ago. By waiting for Israel’s permission before taking action, Canada has allowed Israel to hold the aspirations of Palestinians hostage.”
• In October 2023, CJPME “applaud[ed] those public figures who highlight the broader context of Israeli occupation, violence and apartheid against Palestinians.  Only when the international community attributes equal value to Palestinian and Israeli lives and rights will there be hope for justice and peace in the region.”
• In October 2023, CJPME tweeted, “Israel’s decades-long confinement of more than 2 million Palestinians inside the world’s largest open-air prison is critical context for understanding today’s escalation of violence.”
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, CJPME published a statement claiming, “CJPME notes that Israel’s brutal policies over the last several decades have ensured a state of tension and hostility – one that guarantees the continuance of Palestinian armed resistance…The recent attack by Hamas comes in the context of significant Israeli violence and oppression. Over the past several years, Israel has repeatedly launched military assaults on Gaza, including in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The last two of these Israeli attacks were blatantly unprovoked or ‘pre-emptive,’ in which Hamas was seen to show restraint by deciding not to respond.”
• In May 2023, CJPME launched an initiative called the “Media Accountability Project” with the stated aim of monitoring and confronting Canadian media coverage “that ignores pro-Palestinian spokespeople, uses misleading terminology, or omits key context.” 
  • In June 2025, CJPME sent a letter to Global News demanding “Stop calling it ‘Hamas-Run’; it’s the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza…Describing it as the ‘Hamas-run’ Health Ministry is not a neutral designation; it is a politically loaded term that portrays Palestinian hospitals as suspicious and untrustworthy —  as if the facts must first pass through a filter of suspicion.”
    • In September 2024, following a complaint from CJPME Media Analyst Fatima Haidar, Radio Canada changed a video interview with a Middle East analyst discussing the deaths of Druze children in a Hezbollah strike on Majdal Shams. CJPME insisted that Majdal Shams is located in internationally-recognized Syrian territory.
    • In October 2024, CJPME wrote a letter to the Canadian Press stating that “referring to the genocide in Gaza” after October 7th “as a ‘counter-offensive’ is not merely misleading; it is an egregious euphemism that journalists should avoid…This is not merely an Israeli ‘counter-offensive.’ It has been a year of genocide. Name it genocide, or at very least, please do not perpetuate Israel’s euphemistic language that downplays a year of brutal attacks on Gaza.”
• In April 2023, CJPME was a signatory on a letter to the UN Secretary-General urging him to reject the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. According to the letter, the IHRA definition “opens the door to labeling as antisemitic… findings of major Israeli, Palestinian and global human rights organizations that Israeli authorities are committing the crime against humanity of apartheid against Palestinians.”
  • The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, adopted by nearly 30 countries and counting, represents the international consensus definition of antisemitism, as well as how to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. An example of the latter includes denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Lawfare

• In May 2024, following the ICC Prosecutor’s announcement that he was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, CJPME “applaud[ed]” the decision: “The ICC Prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants is a huge step towards holding Israeli officials to account for crimes against humanity, and Canada has a responsibility to support it…At the same time, Canadian officials shouldn’t assume that only Netanyahu and Gallant are culpable in the war crimes committed against Palestinians.  Many others in Israel’s extreme right-wing administration and military bear responsibility for these crimes.”
  • In November 2024, CJPME published a statement that “These arrest warrants provide a rare and urgent opportunity to hold Israeli leaders accountable for their brutal and ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and Canada has a legal duty to enforce them. Prime Minister Trudeau must announce that he will arrest Netanyahu and Gallant and turn them over to the ICC if they ever step foot on Canadian territory.”
• In January 2024, CJPME sent a letter to Justice Minister Arif Virani “urging the Canadian government to investigate Canadian nationals who are serving or volunteering with the Israeli military in its war on Gaza.”
• In January 2024, CJPME was a signatory on a statement calling on Canada to “support Gaza genocide case at the ICJ.” According to the statement, “We applaud South Africa for honoring the fundamental legal imperative to prevent and stop genocide, and exhort Canada to fulfill its own obligations by supporting South Africa’s timely and necessary initiative at the ICJ.”
• In October 2023, CJPME was a signatory on a letter to Karim Khan calling on the ICC Prosecutor to “Issue Arrest Warrants, Investigate Israeli Crimes and Intervene to Deter Incitement to Commit Genocide in Gaza.”

BDS

• CJPME “encourages all Canadians to take concrete steps to support the BDS campaign.”
• CJPME’s website has a “BDS Hub” that includes “essential resources to participate in BDS in Canada.” These resources include educational material such as a banner, brochures, BDS sticky notes, and factsheets.
• In February 2025, CJPME was a signatory on a statement calling on “governments producing F-35 fighter jets to immediately halt all arms transfers to Israel, including the F-35 jets.”
• In September 2024, CJPME was a signatory on a letter to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs urging Canada to “stop all arms transfers to Israel.” 
• In August 2024, CJPME called on Canada to “block $83.7M transfer of explosives to Israel.” CJPME urged Canada to “block this export of explosives, close the US loophole in Canada’s arms export regime, and impose a real two-way arms embargo on Israel.”
• In July 2024, CJMPE sent a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau “urging Canada’s compliance with the ICJ Advisory opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation,” including supporting efforts to end “Israel presence in the OPT,” imposing sanctions on Israel, cancelling the Canada-Israel free trade agreement, suspending all military trade and cooperation with Israel, and recognizing the state of Palestine.  
• In May 2024, CJPME was a signatory on a joint statement titled “Arms Embargo Now.”
• In May 2024, CJPME sent a letter to the Canadian government accusing Israel of “scholasticide” and demanding “an academic boycott of Israel.”
• In April 2024, CJPME called on McGill University to “respond to the student encampment by respecting their demands, and divesting from companies that are complicit in Israel’s genocide.”
• In April 2024, CJPME launched a petition that called on Canada to:
  • “Impose a two-way embargo on arms between Canada and Israel;
  • Investigate whether Canadian weapons or weapons components have been used against Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories, including during the current war on Gaza; 
  • Review all military and security cooperation between Canada and Israel; and
  • Close loopholes that allow the unregulated and unreported transfer of military goods to Israel through the United States.”
• In February 2024, CJPME stated, “Ultimately, we believe that Canada should suspend all military trade with Israel at least until the International Court of Justice rules on the genocide case brought by South Africa, and Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian territory. Canada must follow the example of Italy and Spain by imposing an arms embargo to ensure our weapons parts, components, and munitions are not used by Israel to further slaughter Palestinians.”
• In November 2023, CJPME was a signatory on a statement urging states to issue a “Two-Way Arms Embargo on Israel,” demanding that “The US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and other States that authorise the continued transfer of arms, and other forms of military support to Israel to immediately bring an end to such transfers….” 
• In October 2023, CJPME published a report demanding “products from occupied Palestine must be properly labelled.”
• In February 2023, CJPME was a signatory on a statement “welcom[ing] the historic announcement by the Barcelona City Council to suspend all institutional relations with apartheid Israel.” The statement called for “arms embargo against apartheid Israel, stopping trade with Israel’s illegal colonial settlements, and ending projects and agreements that sustain the illegal situation, including the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the EU-Israel Association Council, international agreements for gas pipes through the Gaza coast, and the Euro-Asia Interconnector project receiving electricity from Israel’s colonial settlement enterprise.”

Staff

Thomas Woodley – President

• According to Woodley’s LinkedIn, “I co-founded this non-profit organization in 2004…led its growth from a small Montreal-based organization to become a pan-Canadian organization with 150,000 adherents, and 8 local chapters.I developed and implemented the organization’s strategy in political advocacy, media advocacy, research and publications, publicity and marketing, and Internet, technology and social media.”
• In January 2025, Woodley resigned from CJPME due to “ongoing opposition to his leadership ‘as a non-Palestinian’ among activists.”
• In September 2024, Woodley asserted that “Canada’s reluctance to immediately implement an arms embargo to end Israel violence in Lebanon is absolutely disgraceful. This government’s most meaningful contribution to a ceasefire would be to stop arming Israel’s war machine.”
• In October 2023, following Canada projecting an Israeli flag on the Parliament;s Peace Tower, Woodley tweeted, “Who, on behalf of Canada, decides to project the flag of an apartheid state onto our Parliament buildings. Yes, we are horrified by the recent Israeli civilian deaths, but cozying up to an apartheid state is something entirely different.”

Michael Bueckert – Vice President 

• Following Woodley’s resignation, Bueckert was appointed interim president of CJPME.
• In September 2024, Bueckert tweeted, “Canada was quick to repeat the line from Israel/US that Israel did not bomb the al-Ahli hospital, claiming to have ‘independent’ analysis, but they still refuse to release their data. How many hospitals has Israel bombed in the subsequent 11 months?”
  • Bueckert ignored the videos, images, and intelligence materials demonstrating that an Islamic Jihad rocket had “misfired” (i.e. detonated in Gaza instead of Israel) and hit the hospital parking lot.
• In August 2024, Bueckert tweeted, “It is absurd that Canada is standing up for Israel’s right to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the United States’ nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, while its ministers casually call for dropping the same weapons on civilians in Gaza.”
• In November 2022, Bueckert tweeted that he went to Ramallah to meet with BDS activists to “continue to build the movement for economic pressure against Israeli apartheid.” 
• In November 2022, Bueckert met with Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) and Addameer. According to Bueckert, “Leaving Ben-Gurion after meeting human rights groups in Palestine-Israel (incl @DCIPalestine & @Addameer) I was accused by a security agent of meeting with “PFLP” and was given a warning that doing so could affect re-entry. A clear threat against meeting human rights defenders.”
  • On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared Addameer and DCI-P as “terror organizations” because they are part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.” In June 2025, the US Department of Treasury sanctioned Addameer for “being owned, controlled, or directed by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the PFLP.”
• In May 2018, following Canadian opposition leader Andrew Scheer’s condemnation of Hamas’ role at violent protests in Gaza, Bueckert tweeted, “I’m glad that Andrew is rightly speaking out against criticizing Israel for shooting protestors and journalists and doctors. After all, Hamas was armed with ‘weapons of terror’ like… children… and disabled civilians… what were they supposed to do?”

Lynn Naji- Office Manager

• On October 4, 2024, Naji sent a letter to the Canadian Press in response to an article titled “Israel has the right to defend itself but wider war must be avoided: Trudeau.” Naji criticized the article for failing to provide context for Iran’s missile attack on Israel, describing it as a “response to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut, as well as the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.” Naji claimed that “This context is essential for your readers to understand the motivations behind Iran’s retaliation, and I urge you to include it.”

Jason Toney– Director of Media Advocacy

• Toney, Director of Media Advocacy at CJPME, was a member of the Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative and a co-founder of Palestine’s first university-level Model United Nations conference at Al-Quds University. 
• In October 2024, Toney tweeted, “I’d say Israel’s attacks on Lebanon far outweigh Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel in both frequency and force.” 
• In October 2024, Toney tweeted: “Justin Trudeau falsely claims that all of the victims of the Hamas-led attack on October 7 were ‘innocent.’ Over 300 of those killed in Israel were soldiers, police, and security. These grim lies obfuscate the conditions of apartheid and domination that pre-date October 7.”
• In August 2024, Toney tweeted, “Wearing an IDF-style dog tag should also remind you of the genocide in Gaza and, more broadly, Israel’s brutal system of apartheid. Who cares if it says, ‘Bring them home’? A Canadian gov’t official wouldn’t last 5 minutes if they wore a Hamas headband that said ‘ceasefire now’.”

Board members

Nadia Abu-Zahra

• In 2013, Abu-Zahra published a book titled Unfree in Palestine: Registration, Documentation and Movement Restriction on “the role played by identity documents” in Israel’s alleged “apartheid policies towards the Palestinians.”
• On June 13, 2024, Abu-Zahra was a speaker for “Palestine Day on the Hill” in Ottawa under the slogan “From Nakba to Genocide.” 

Libby Davies 

• Davies was a Member of Parliament for Vancouver East from 1997 to 2015, and Deputy Leader of the Federal NDP from 2007 to 2015. She was a member of the Canada Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Association and “helped plan events on the Hill to foster awareness of Palestine.” 
• In 2009, Davies introduced a statement and report to Parliament calling on Canada to support the discredited Goldstone “investigation” of the 2009 Gaza conflict.
• In 2010, Davis was recorded on video at an anti-Israel rally in Vancouver, saying that the Israeli “occupation of Palestinian territories” began in 1948. In the same video, she expressed support for the BDS campaign against Israel.  
• On January 5, 2024, Davies signed a petition calling upon the Government of Canada to impose a two-way arms embargo between Canada and Israel. 

Ghada Sasa

• In October 2023, Sasa was suspended as a board member shortly after October 7 for embarrassing CJPME by publicly arguing that Nova music festival concertgoers were killed by Israeli forces and not Palestinian terrorists. Sasa claimed she “was reading a lot of the people who were killed were actually killed by Israel…Hamas was not trying to kill (Israelis).”