EDITORIAL: Why Hamas keeps praising Canada

Article content

Twice in the last two years, Hamas, designated by Canada as a terrorist entity since 2002, has praised Canada’s Liberal government for condemning Israel.

This time it was due to a joint statement by Prime Minister Mark Carney, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

It condemned Israel for its ongoing military operation in Gaza against Hamas, accusing it of using the deprivation of food to the Palestinians as a weapon of war and threatening targeted sanctions against Israel.

In December 2023, Ghazi Hamad, senior leader of Hamas, praised then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and the leaders of Australia and New Zealand for supporting a United Nations proposal for a ceasefire.

In the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamad said those attacks would continue until Israel was destroyed.

According to the Canadian government, Hamas “is a radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization that emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987,” using “political and violent means to pursue its goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel. Since 1990, Hamas has been responsible for terrorist attacks against both civilian and military targets. Hamas has been one of the primary groups involved in suicide bombings aimed at Israelis since the start of the Al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000 …  Hamas uses the Gaza Strip as a base for terrorist operations aimed against Israel.”

Given Canada’s description of Hamas, being repeatedly praised by it means you’re on the wrong side of history.

The reason Hamas praises Canada’s Liberal government is not because it hopes to defeat Israel militarily, but because it knows that such statements fuel antisemitism and attacks on Jews globally, by increasingly out-of-control pro-Hamas demonstrators, which is exactly what Hamas wants.

Hamas’ goal is to normalize Jew hatred both in Canada and globally, implicitly blaming Jews for the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza, using the same twisted logic that would blame Canadian Muslims for Hamas terrorism.

This strategy is clearly working, with our governments increasingly turning a blind eye to threats, intimidation, vandalism and violence aimed at Jews in Canada, at a level they would never tolerate for any other minority group.

It’s a disgrace.