Anita Anand's West Bank statement called misguided by former Israeli envoy

Alan Baker, who served as Israel’s ambassador to Canada, criticizes a recent Global Affairs Canada statement that denounced ongoing West Bank violence and linked it to Israeli settlement expansion. He says the remarks ignore near-daily Palestinian terror against Israeli civilians and wrongly suggest that settlement violence is officially sanctioned by Israel. Baker points to customary international law and the Oslo Accords, which allow temporary land use and defer settlement status to future negotiations.

He further argues that settlements established under these frameworks are not illegal and do not undermine peace prospects, which he attributes instead to Palestinian leadership’s refusal to negotiate and external support for Hamas. The piece also notes a perceived decline in Canada-Israel relations and questions the selective focus of Canadian officials.