Israeli companies misled Canadians about West Bank real estate, complaint alleges

A group of lawyers and civil society members have filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau over Israeli real estate events in Toronto and Montreal, alleging that illegal properties were marketed to Canadians under false pretences.

The complaint alleges at least four Israeli real estate companies and one Canadian marketing firm promoted properties in occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank while misleading consumers to believe they were in Israel.

The Competition Bureau says it will review the complaint filed by Global Echo Litigation Center and the Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights and determine if an investigation into the companies is warranted.

James Yap, president of the lawyers’ association and a Windsor university law professor, said Canadians who may have purchased West Bank properties could be opening themselves up to serious legal consequences under international law, such as complicity in war crimes.

Canada and much of the international community have long held that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal and an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

The territory has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but settlement activity has significantly increased since the onset of the latest war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced most of Gaza’s two million residents.

Ottawa advised Canadian businesses in August to avoid engaging with Israeli settlements, warning that failing to do so could open them up to legal and financial risk.

“The Canadian government talks a lot about upholding international law,” Yap said. “We have our prime minister bemoaning the deterioration of the international rules-based order. They condemn the settlements as illegal. They talk about taking steps, taking action. This is a chance for the Canadian government to actually take action.”

The complaint, filed on behalf of six Canadians, compiles photos, social media posts and promotional materials of condo projects in the occupied West Bank being marketed at various real estate events from 2024 to 2026.

One photo of an Israeli real estate company’s booth at the 2024 Great Israeli Real Estate Event in Montreal suggests the company promoted condo projects in Ma’ale Adumim and Adam, two Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, alongside Israeli real estate.

The company’s booth advertised the developments with the message of finding one’s “dream home in Israel.”

Another company’s booth at the same 2024 event advertised it as “your real estate agency in Jerusalem” while listing the locations of four Israeli settlements in the West Bank and two Israeli cities. The company is more explicit on its website, stating that its homes in West Bank settlements in Efrat, Mitzpe Yericho and Ma’ale Adumim are in Israel.

A Canadian marketing firm that helps North Americans buy Israeli real estate similarly lists a West Bank condo development as being in Israel on its website but it used more ambiguous language at a real estate event in Toronto.

The firm promoted a condo project in the Givat HaMatos settlement, located in East Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, at the 2026 Israel Real Estate Briefing in Toronto with the tagline “own a piece of Jerusalem.”

The lawyers behind the complaint to the Competition Bureau argue the ambiguity isn’t enough to absolve the companies.

Under Canadian law, courts use a “general impression” test to determine if an advertisement is false or misleading. If an ad is literally true but omits essential information that would influence a consumer’s behaviour, it could violate the Competition Act.

The lawyers argue that by promoting these properties at events titled the Great Israeli Real Estate Event and the Israeli Real Estate Briefing, and omitting mention of their true location in internationally-contested territories, the real estate companies misled Canadians.

Ariel Katz, a competition law expert who reviewed the complaint but was not involved in its filing, said he finds the evidence compelling, but couldn’t say if the Competition Bureau would be likely to launch an inquiry.

“This is a highly politically charged topic, right? So whatever decision they make, they might be under enormous pressure,” Katz said.

Israel contends that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not illegal because of Jewish people’s historic connection to the land.

While the complaint deals with allegations of false advertising, Katz said the West Bank properties that were allegedly promoted at the events are considered illegal under international law, and Ottawa could ban the marketing of such properties altogether.

The lawyers behind the complaint say they’re leaving the door open for future legal action that could target the illegality of the properties themselves.

The Canadian Press asked Global Affairs Canada if the sale of West Bank property is illegal in Canada and whether Canadians could be legally liable if they purchased such property but did not receive an answer before publication.

Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, founder of Global Echo Litigation Center, said her law firm has been monitoring a “circuit” of Israeli real estate events in the United States, United Kingdom, France and other countries.

She said the complaint before the Competition Bureau gives Canada a chance to “pave the way” for other countries to follow suit in cracking down on these kinds of sales.

Marlee Wasser, one of the complainants, said she’s a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and sees the sale of Israeli settlement property in Canada as normalizing genocide in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers have attacked and displaced Palestinians.

She added that protests outside Israeli real estate events have been used to justify restricting peoples’ right to protest in Canada.

The mayor of Vaughan, Ont., proposed a bubble zone bylaw – which ultimately passed – restricting protests near places of worship, schools and hospitals shortly after protesters demonstrated outside a local synagogue where an Israeli real estate event was being held in 2024.

For Basel Adra, an Oscar award-winning documentarian and community engagement manager at Global Echo Litigation Center, the complaint before the Competition Bureau is a chance for Canada to do “what’s right.”

The Palestinian filmmaker of “No Other Land,” a documentary about the destruction of a West Bank community, says there’s daily construction in the West Bank, building homes and roads for Israeli settlers.

While he’s never personally seen a Canadian settler in the West Bank, Adra said there are settlers from all over the world, especially America, in Israeli communities in the region.

Adra said he’s been attacked by settlers several times, and last week a group of settlers invaded his family’s land and cut down olive trees.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in June there was an average of six settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank each day of 2026 thus far that caused casualties or property damage, higher than any other year on record.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.

Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press