Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to focus today on the impacts of the violence in Israel and Palestine on the people of this territory. I know it feels far away to some of us and irrelevant to be discussing in this House to some of us. Certainly it's hard to see how our statements or our motions could affect anything that goes in the region. But it does affect people in this territory. We have immigrants who have made their home here in the NWT from many parts of the world, including Israel, Palestine, and surrounding countries. We have children born here and being raised here whose identity is also Palestinian or Israeli or Jewish or Lebanese or Syrian, and they want to be proud of their nationalities and cultures, and they want their family members over in the Middle East to be safe and their human rights to be recognized and protected.

Every day in the news, we see horrific violence. We see children being killed, civilians attacked, schools and hospitals being bombed, and our fellow community members with family and ties to the region may wonder why no one seems to be standing up for those peoples' human rights. Then they may wonder if anyone would stand up for their human rights since they share an identity with those people over there who are being dehumanized and killed.

And yet we in Canada are often so afraid to talk about this conflict and this region in particular. It is a minefield. We fear being accused of saying the wrong thing. There's a constant demand for balance that if we call for one side to do something, we must call for the other side to do the exact same thing; that if we condemn one side for something, we must condemn the other side for the exact same thing regardless of whether they're actually doing the same thing and regardless of the fact that the two sides are anything but balanced. Only one side, Israel, is an internationally recognized state with recognized citizens and a legitimised military force. Palestine has none of those things.

Anything that strays from this rigid idea of balance is seen as taking a side. Any criticism of Israel might spark accusations of anti-semitism. Lately, even calls for a ceasefire might be seen as questioning Israel's right to exist. We are being told by the extremists and the hardliners on each side that if you defend one group's right to exist, that means wiping the other group -- the other group off the map. And that is a truly terrifying situation. So there's tremendous pressure for us in Canada to say nothing at all, to try to ignore the conflict, to throw up our hands and say it's way too complicated, it's too far away, the conflict has been going on for millennia, nothing can be done, nothing can even be said about it. But when we are silent, the extremists on both sides win. When we are silent, the children in our community who see themselves in the faces of those civilians and children being killed on the news, it leaves these children feeling invisible, vulnerable, worthless, and alone. When we are silent, it leaves us feeling helpless and angry and more likely to lash out and blame and scapegoat and eventually that's how we breed more extremism, both around the world and in our own communities, by letting frustration fester in silence. And yet hundreds and hundreds of people here in the NWT over the past several months have had the courage to speak up, to raise their voices in public demonstrations calling for a ceasefire, to show real support and solidarity for those amongst us who have felt invisible and vulnerable.

We can counter the extremists by speaking the language of human rights, by reminding everyone of the importance of international humanitarian laws, by reminding everyone about our obligations under the Genocide Convention as Canadians. We have a groundswell of NWT residents asking us as leaders to raise our voices too in support of human rights and international humanitarian law. It may just be words, but the simple act of speaking up when there is so much pressure to be silent can be a profound act of solidarity with our neighbours, our community members, even if the warmongering leaders never hear us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.