Canada has revoked the electronic travel authorization of Arieh King, the far-right settler and deputy mayor of occupied Jerusalem, blocking him from entering the country for a scheduled speaking engagement in Toronto, after Palestinian rights groups filed criminal complaints against him over war crimes and incitement to genocide.
The Legal Centre for Palestine announced that King would not be able to enter Canada after the authorities revoked his travel authorization, welcoming the decision as evidence that Canadian officials had acted on the facts laid out in its submissions. The group, working in collaboration with the Hind Rajab Foundation, had filed a criminal complaint that morning with the war crimes section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, days ahead of King's planned public appearance on August 25.
The Hind Rajab Foundation said it had also filed a request for King's prosecution, citing his record of war crimes and incitement to genocide. As the founder of the Israel Land Fund, King has been directly involved in the campaign to dispossess Palestinians of their homes and land in occupied Jerusalem, working to force Palestinian families out of neighborhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan and replace them with settlers. Rights groups describe him as one of the most prominent figures in the organized settler drive to Judaize the occupied city.
Canadian advocacy groups had campaigned for King to be barred, with Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East describing him as an extremist Israeli settler and anti-Palestinian racist directly responsible, through his Israel Land Fund, for illegal efforts to dispossess Palestinians. The organization had urged the Canadian government to deny him entry, arguing that admitting a figure central to the forced displacement of Palestinians would make Canada complicit in his agenda.
