If the sale of Suncor’s stakes in three of Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil projects goes through, this province could end up contributing to Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.
This month Suncor announced a “definitive agreement” with UK-headquartered Ithaca Energy to sell its 48 per cent interest in the Terra Nova project, its 40 per cent interest in the White Rose project, and its 38.6 per cent interest in the West White Rose project, for CAD $1.2 billion and up to an additional $350 million contingent on oil prices. Under the agreement, Ithaca would also take over Terra Nova’s operations.
Ithaca Energy is majority-owned by the Delek Group, an Israeli oil and gas company and a major supplier of natural gas to Israel. The corporation is named in a United Nations database for its involvement in “activities that raised particular human rights concerns” in the occupied Palestinian territories. In Delek’s case, it is accused of providing “services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport,” and of using “natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes.”
Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva is Delek’s controlling shareholder. According to Forbes, Tshuva has “served in the Israeli army and worked in Israel’s Ministry of Defense,” and today is worth an estimated USD $6.9 billion.
Carney should ‘stop this acquisition’: NDP Global Affairs Critic Heather McPherson
Ithaca’s involvement in Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil industry could contradict Prime Minister Mark Carney’s September 8 commitment to ban trade in goods with Israel’s illegal settlements in Palestinian territories. “Settlements are illegal under international law,” Carney said in a statement that day. “Canada, France, and the UK will therefore take steps to ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them.”
Human rights advocates in Canada are cautiously optimistic. Details of the new measures haven’t been made public.
“If Canada is serious about taking action against those who facilitate and profit from settlements, then these sanctions could have a real material and political impact,” states Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East on its website, in response to Carney’s announcement. “However, the effectiveness of Canada’s trade ban will ultimately depend on the details: how comprehensive it is, the specific mechanisms involved, and Canada’s willingness to enforce it.
“Under no circumstances should a company on a United Nations blacklist be permitted to have a stake in any Canadian projects. Delek Group has been accused of supporting and supplying illegal settlements.”
“That is why the restrictions must not be limited to the import of goods and also include a comprehensive ban on trade with services, investment, property. For example, it must take action not only against the settlements but also the Israeli banks that finance them, the companies that insure them, and the politicians who approve them.”
NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Heather McPherson says with or without Canada’s official policy around banning trade with the occupied territories, the federal government should stop Ithaca’s acquisition of Suncor’s stakes in Newfoundland and Labrador’s oil sector.
“Under no circumstances should a company on a United Nations blacklist be permitted to have a stake in any Canadian projects. Delek Group has been accused of supporting and supplying illegal settlements,” the Edmonton-Strathcona MP says in a written statement to Ricochet. “Given the Government of Canada’s announcement that it plans to ban trade with illegal settlements – a ban that we think should include services, not just goods – the federal government should step in here to stop this acquisition.”
Ricochet asked Global Affairs Minister Anita Anand for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Ithaca and Delek’s international controversy
A similar controversy is unfolding in the United Kingdom, where Ithaca has a 20 per cent stake in the proposed development of the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea. Carney’s September announcement of impending sanctions was made alongside UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Environmental groups and the UK’s Green Party have asked the Burnham government whether Delek’s involvement in the occupied Palestinian territories put Delek and Ithaca in violation of the country’s commitment.
Delek Group did not respond to Ricochet’s request for comment. According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, however, the corporation has claimed it is no longer involved in the settlements and was wrongly named in the UN database.
According to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the commission “took into consideration alleged involvements” that took place between August 2, 2019 and April 15, 2026 “for inclusion in the current update of the database,” which was released September 25, 2026. “The present update reflects a factual assessment of involvement in one or more of the listed activities that took place” between those dates. “Business enterprises in respect of which OHCHR found reasonable grounds to believe that they were involved in one or more of the listed activities during the assessment period were included in the database.”
Last year, the Who Profits Research Centre claimed the Delek Israel Fuel Company Ltd., a subsidiary of Delek Group, “operates gas stations and convenience stores in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan.” The self-described independent research body also alleged that, in 2020, Delek Israel “won a tender for refueling services for the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) and the Israeli military, estimated at hundreds of millions of (New Israel Shekels) per year, and that Delek Israel “provides refueling services for the IMOD and military vehicles that are equipped with devices that enable automatic refueling at the company stations.”
In late 2024, Norwegian energy giant Equinor faced a lawsuit over its ties to Delek. While the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, human rights advocates have continued highlighting Equinor and Norway’s ties to Israel’s war on Palestine, which governments and human rights groups around the world have argued amounts to genocide. The matter is currently before the International Criminal Court.
In 2021, Norway’s biggest pension fund, KLP, announced it was divesting from Delek and other companies named on the UN’s blacklist.
“Settlements are illegal under international law,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said. “Canada, France, and the UK will therefore take steps to ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them.”
“Our assessment is that there is unacceptable risk that the excluded companies contribute to violations of human rights in war and conflict situations through their affiliation with the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is supported by the rules concerning occupation in the Hague Regulations and the fourth Geneva Convention,” KLP Senior Analyst Kiran Aziz said at the time. “Conflicts can entail a particularly high risk of human rights abuses. Companies that have operations in conflict areas should therefore exercise particular caution to avoid becoming involved in violations of human rights and protect vulnerable individuals.”
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund also divested from Delek, in 2023.
Province needs legislation ‘preventing such a thing from happening,’ says NDP leader
Despite Ithaca’s growing global controversy due to Delek’s activities in Israel’s illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories, Newfoundland and Labrador Energy Minister Lloyd Parrott did not respond to Ricochet’s questions on the matter and instead pointed to the joint provincial-federal offshore oil regulator, which Parrott said in an email “would be responsible for ensuring that the operators meet regulatory requirements.”
In a written statement, Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Energy Regulator (C-NLOER) spokesperson Lesley Rideout said the C-NLOER’s role “is to regulate offshore energy activities in the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area in accordance with the legislative and regulatory framework established under the Atlantic Accord Acts. The Regulator’s responsibilities include oversight of safety, environmental protection, resource management and benefits requirements associated with offshore activities.
“The C-NLOER’s decisions are based on whether proponents and operators meet those regulatory requirements,” Rideout said.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s Progressive Conservative government has touted the province’s offshore oil as being “ethical” compared to other countries’ resources. In March, Minister of Jobs and Growth Lin Paddock said the province has “the most ethical and the most environmentally sound oil that’s out there.”
In light of the alleged human rights violations, if the PCs do nothing to stop Ithaca Energy from becoming a stakeholder in Newfoundland and Labrador’s oil industry, then “they are being hypocrites,” says NL NDP Leader Jim Dinn.
Dinn says the province, with or without federal participation, “needs new legislation preventing such a thing from happening.
“These are our resources and they’ve got to benefit the people,” he says. “So wouldn’t it be prudent then for the government to have some say, especially if they’re going to be promoting ‘ethical oil’ — shouldn’t they have some oversight before this deal is approved?”
Justin Brake is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter based in Newfoundland, on a new beat covering Atlantic Canada for Ricochet Media and The Independent. Contact him with tips and story ideas at justin.brake@theindependent.ca.
