Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada is pledging $1-million to support Israeli victims of sexual violence during last October’s“I think it is going to take years to uncover everything that happened,” said Kelly Aizicowitz, a former political aide who is helping co-ordinate with various Jewish organizations in support of Israeli women.
The announcement meets a request made three months ago by a cross-partisan group of women who have held political office in Canada, including former federal Conservative leader Rona Ambrose and former Ontario Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne. Israeli women’s organizations have criticized their global peers for being slow to acknowledge sexual violence by Hamas, and Canada’s envoy for combatting antisemitism chalked that delay up to anti-Jewish attitudes.
Joly made the announcement while in Israel as part of a tour of the Middle East to advocate for humanitarian relief for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and for the release of hostages held by Hamas.