adam zivo: canadians stuck in israel abandoned by embassy that closes at 4:30 p.m.
don't expect more than an automated email response from global affairs canada
5 minute read
israeli soldiers search through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed by an iranian missile strike in bat yam, central israel, june 15, 2025. (ap photo/baz ratner, file)
jerusalem — after israel closed its airspace last friday due to the threat of iranian missile attacks, about 40,000 tourists — including over 6,600 canadians — were left unable to return home on their own. while many countries are scrambling to evacuate their citizens by land and sea, some canadians say that they have been abandoned by their government and left to fend for themselves.
with passenger flights indefinitely cancelled, options for leaving israel are limited. it is impossible to escape northward, into lebanon or syria, as the border areas of these countries are infested with violent militias, including the remnants of hezbollah and isis. the risk of being kidnapped, injured, tortured or murdered there is not insignificant.
the same goes for escaping southward into egypt’s sinai peninsula. while most of egypt is fairly safe for travellers, the peninsula is a sparsely populated desert plagued by islamist insurgencies — particularly in the lawless north. traversing this vast, lethally desolate region by car is not recommended, meaning that commercial airports are functionally inaccessible from the israeli border.
there are safer routes, though.
in the west, boats are transporting stranded tourists to cyprus, but the price tag is hefty — around $4,300 cad in some cases — and it can be difficult to discern whether some vendors are scammers.
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meanwhile, in the east, tourists are evacuating to jordan, a relatively stable country by regional standards. while some terrorist groups operate on jordanian territory, they are concentrated along the syrian and iraqi borders, far from israel, and attacks in major cities are rare.
still, the canadian government advises that citizens avoid non-essential travel to jordan, and individuals i spoke with in israel considered the jordanian routes to be somewhat unsafe.
they worried about being struck by the debris of intercepted missiles, and argued that the country’s political volatility, particularly in the context of this new war, means that the threat of violence is never truly far away. individuals who are visibly jewish face additional risks, including potential harassment from antisemitic border officials.
there are three crossings into jordan: a north, central and southern route. incidentally, the most popular and direct of these options (central) passes through the west bank, where violence is commonplace. the palestinian authority, which administers the area, lacks the capacity to guarantee visitors’ safety, but there have apparently been no reports of attacks against fleeing tourists yet.
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navigating these escape routes can be daunting and, in some cases, expensive, which is why many foreign countries — e.g. poland, greece, the united states — have already organized evacuations for their own citizens. this has typically meant chartering buses to transport evacuees to jordan and egypt, and then using government aircraft to fly them to commercial airports.
use of military aircraft has allowed greece to set up an evacuation point in egypt’s sinai region, bypassing the peninsula’s land-based security threats. the united states, on its end, is exploring using cruise ships in conjunction with flights.
some countries have been late to the game, though. japan and australia are just now launching their evacuation efforts and, according to several canadians i spoke to who are stuck in israel, ottawa has been doing almost nothing.
on wednesday night, i conducted phone interviews with three politically-connected canadians who are in the process of returning home. they had come to israel last week for a trip organized by the centre for israel and jewish affairs (cija), and were all dismayed by the canadian government’s lacklustre rescue efforts.
michelle ferreri and rick perkins, two former conservative mps, were in eliat, a small town at the southernmost tip of israel, where they were waiting to cross the border into jordan.
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“this is literally one of the most historical wars of our time and there’s nothing in place. there’s nothing happening,” said ferreri about the canadian government’s response. according to her, the canadian embassy has predominantly sent out automated emails containing superficial information on safety and evacuation routes (she provided copies of the emails to national post).
the former parliamentarian was particularly aggravated by the fact that, according to these emails, the embassy could only be contacted during regular office hours — 8:30am to 4:30pm on weekdays — despite the presence of an obvious emergency where lives are at risk.
“they had this same issue after october 7. they didn’t do a good job then … why wasn’t there something put in place to ensure, if and when this ever happened again, that there was a fast, rapid response to evacuate canadians?” she said.
perkins concurred that it was “ridiculous” that the embassy was only accepting phone calls during normal business hours, and criticized the government’s reliance on automated messages and its lack of human support.
ferreri told me that she was able to evacuate to jordan because of “friends who have stepped up and are taking care of me,” but worried about the vast majority of canadians in israel who lack comparable connections. “where is their canadian government?,” she asked, describing their situation as “screwed.”
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karen restoule, a senior fellow with the macdonald-laurier institute, had made it to jordan when we spoke over the phone. she said that she had originally been offered a speedy evacuation to egypt through an american friend, but it fell through after the canadian government failed to help her get an expedited egyptian visa. “i had to basically decline a relatively quick and easy exit from the country because everyone was largely unresponsive,” she said.
restoule did, however, receive a “wellness check” phone call from the canadian government. she wondered whether it was prudent to allocate limited resources on such check-ins when many other supports, and evacuation services, have been largely absent.
on tuesday morning, i spoke with two canadian hockey players who were stuck in tel aviv. an iranian ballistic missile had landed 200 metres away from their apartment the previous day, ravaging their building. as i am currently in israel reporting for the news forum (a canadian television station), i was able to witness the damage first hand: shattered windows, cracked ceilings, a door blown off its hinges and so on.
“the canadian government’s not really being clear with us on the embassy side of things. so we don’t know when we’re getting out of here,” said panagiotis mavridis, a greek-canadian dual citizen. while he found it impossible to get a hold of the canadian government, the greek embassy returned his call within hours and “explained everything in great detail.”
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his friend, joe martin, said that he felt abandoned by the embassy and was annoyed by their reliance on automated emails. his frustration towards the canadian government was palpable, yet he said that, even though his apartment had been damaged in the bombing, he felt safe in israel, because of the ubiquitous bomb shelters and organized system of alerts.
“i think we gotta put our trust more in israel’s hands than canada right now,” he concluded.
this thursday, amid rising pressure, foreign affairs minister anita anand said that canada will station consular officials on the other side of certain border crossings and facilitate commercial flights for canadians trying to return home. while the solution is a step forward, it nonetheless falls far short of what other countries have pledged to their own citizens.
global affairs canada did not respond to a request for comment by friday afternoon.
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