Liberal MP says she was shoved by Israeli officials at West Bank border crossing
Posted December 16, 2025 8:58 am.
Last Updated December 16, 2025 2:52 pm.
OTTAWA — A Liberal MP says she was shoved several times by Israeli border officials as her delegation was denied entry to the West Bank Tuesday morning.
Ontario MP Iqra Khalid said Tuesday she was pushed after trying to check on a member of the roughly 30-person delegation who was pulled aside for additional questioning after the group had been at the Allenby Crossing for several hours.
“I wanted to stay close by because there were three or four officers that were surrounding this young woman. And so I asked if I could be part of the conversation. They said no. So I took two steps back and I just was watching,” Khalid said in an interview from Amman, Jordan.
“An Israeli officer came up to me and he was yelling at my face and said, ‘Go away,’ and he pushed me. I took a step back into the wall and I said, ‘Don’t touch me, please.’ And he said, ‘I’ll touch you as much as I want,’ and he pushed me again. And at that point, another officer came and he pushed me further back.”
Khalid said another member of the delegation then came and pulled her back toward the rest of the group.
Khalid said the border officials would have known she was a parliamentarian because they had taken her special passport, which looks different from the standard Canadian document.
B.C. NDP MP Jenny Kwan and Quebec Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi, who are also part of the delegation, both told The Canadian Press they witnessed the shoving incident.
The delegation, sponsored by the group The Canadian-Muslim Vote, had planned to meet with displaced Palestinians in the West Bank, where the Israeli government recently approved the construction of 764 new homes in Jewish settlements.
Israel’s embassy in Canada says the group was denied entry because of CMV’s links to Islamic Relief Worldwide, which the Israeli government listed as a terrorist entity in 2014.
“The organizers are The Canadian-Muslim Vote, which receives the vast majority of its funding from Islamic Relief Canada, a subsidiary of Islamic Relief Worldwide. IRW was listed as a terror entity by the State of Israel,” the Israeli embassy statement said.
“The State of Israel will not allow the entry of organizations and individuals who are associated with designated terror entities.”
Khalid said she shared details of the incident with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and the minister promised to follow up.
Both Kwan and Khalid said that all of the delegates’ visas and electronic travel authorizations to enter the West Bank had been approved ahead of time. Kwan said the Canadian government had informed the Israeli government of the delegation’s travel plans and intentions.
Dr. Muhammad Munshi, a Mississauga, Ont. radiologist and delegation member, said they waited at a border crossing for “three to four hours” Tuesday morning before being denied entry to the West Bank by Israeli border officials.
“I believe they did list that, as ‘a potential security threat,’ on one of the papers that they handed to us. That was really very surprising and really no Canadian MP is a security threat,” Munshi said in an interview from Amman, Jordan.
“This was really a transparent fact-finding mission for the members of Parliament, as well as for the people that travelled with them. It’s just an opportunity for us to view and to witness and to see what’s happening in the region and to make policy decisions based on what’s being observed.”
Munshi said he believes the “public safety threat” wording was applied to the entire group, not to any specific individual.
In addition to visiting the West Bank, Munshi said the delegation planned to meet with Christian, Jewish and Muslim organizations in various sites between Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and Janine.
Munshi said the delegation is still figuring out what else they could do in the region before their scheduled return to Canada on Friday.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims says the Israeli government’s refusal to allow Canadian parliamentarians into the country raises serious concerns about transparency and accountability.
Canada formally recognized Palestinian statehood in September but said some conditions must be met first, including elections in the new year that Hamas can’t contest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press.
David Baxter, The Canadian Press
