HonestReporting Canada

Since being approved by dozens of countries and mainstream Jewish communities around the world in 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism has become widely accepted around the world, Canada included and increasingly by Canadian provinces and cities with Vancouver being the latest to adopt it. But the IHRA definition is aggressively opposed by anti-Israel groups, who misrepresent it. This leads to the ultimate question: why are these groups so threatened by the IHRA definition?

Each year, the World Cup attracts legions of fans in person, and viewers worldwide cheer on their home country. The games also attract a massive amount of media attention. This year, the World Cup takes place in Qatar, the small oil-rich kingdom in the Persian Gulf. And while the country's immense oil wealth has attracted widespread attention, it's critically important that the news media doesn't ignore the kingdom's true face: its abuse of foreign labourers, its support for the Hamas terrorist group, and its founding of Al Jazeera, the anti-Israel broadcasting juggernaut.

On the heels of the antisemitism controversy surrounding rapper Kanye West, now, Kyrie Irving, a basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets, is in hot water for sharing a link to a rabidly anti-Jewish “documentary” on his social media channels. Fortunately, his employer took action, and publicly called out Irving and suspended him without pay, showing what steps the corporate world needs to take when anti-Jewish hatred rears its ugly head.

On November 1, Israel underwent another election - its fifth in three years. And while many Israelis grumble at the electoral impasse, the ongoing voting is a stark reminder of the democratic rights that Israelis enjoy while hundreds of millions of people throughout the Middle East lack. Even in countries where elections take place, like Lebanon, the widespread lack of civil rights demonstrates that democracy does not only take place at the ballot box.

In mid-October 2022, Toronto police reported that they were searching for a suspect in connection with vandalizing dozens of cars with swastikas in downtown Toronto.While this incident is non-violent, it serves as a striking reminder of the need to respond to the appearance of public swastikas with haste and seriousness, as the symbol is an unabashed representation of antisemitic hate.

In early October, Kanye West – one of the world’s most powerful influencers on social media – made a string of antisemitic comments online and in television interviews. His baseless claims about Jews – including that they exert control over Black people – are without merit, but with such a significant following, his comments are a powerful reminder that poisonous comments targeting Jews must always be challenged, and not easily dismissed.

After nearly a month of anti-regime protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman arrested for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, the demonstrations show no sign of stopping. And that’s meant increasing pressure on governments like Canada’s to take action. On October 7, the Trudeau government announced it was sanctioning Press TV, the official broadcast mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And while it represents an important step, it should not be the end of Canadian sanctions on Iran’s regime.

An agreement is being negotiated between Israel and Lebanon to potentially partner in gas exploration off their respective coastlines, and even engage in sharing the ensuing profits. This agreement, regardless of whether it is ever finalized represents more than simply another Arab state widening its ties with Israel, but even more significant, given that Lebanon and Israel are still technically at war.

On September 12, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto held a major campaign launch, attracting thousands of donors, dignitaries and community members. Also in attendance was Firas al Najim, the anti-Israel provocateur who has built a reputation for disturbing pro-Israel events and protesting outside Jewish-owned grocery stories. At the event, Najim yelled at an elderly Holocaust survivor and berated attendees for their support for Israel. Despite Najim’s repeated verbal assaults, will the news media ever shine a light on this merchant of hate and demand authorities take action against him?

Since the recent death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman arrested and murdered by the country’s morality police for allegedly not correctly wearing a hijab, anti-regime protests have spread throughout Iran, as well as in Iranian diaspora communities in Canada and around the world. And while the news media is laudably covering this story now, it’s important that as long as the protests continue, so should the focus.

During her 70 years on the throne as the British sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed a close relationship with the Jewish community in the United Kingdom and around the world. The Queen showed sensitivity to Jewish concerns, and stood firmly against antisemitism. Each week, British Jews recite a prayer for the Queen, and now with her death, that prayer will now pivot to wishing for success and strength for the new monarch, King Charles III. British Jews are hopeful that their close relationship with Buckingham Palace will continue.

In early September, Hamas, the Gaza-based Islamist terrorist group, announced that it had executed five Palestinian men, two of whom for the alleged crime of “collaboration” with Israel. Hamas murders Israeli civilians and brutally oppresses its own citizens, and constantly instills fear to maintain absolute control over Gaza’s two million people. It’s time for the news media to show the true face of Hamas to the world.

On August 25, the office of Robin Wettlaufer, Canada’s diplomatic representative to the Palestinian Authority (PA), posted on Twitter a photo with Jibril Rajoub, describing him as a “great friend of Canada.” Rajoub, current head of the Palestine Olympic Committee, is a convicted terrorist with a long history of conducting armed violence against Israel, glorifying terrorism, and inciting hatred. Rajoub is certainly no friend of Canada and should be treated as a pariah.

During recent meetings in Berlin, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Massacre, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was asked if he would condemn the attacks when the Palestinian terrorist group Black September murdered 11 Israeli athletes and one West German police officer. In response, Abbas refused to do so and subsequently accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against the Palestinians. Is this really the Palestinian leader the world and our media expect Israel to negotiate with?

Amidst the recent violence between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), anti-Israel rallies have popped up around the world, including in some Canadian cities. And some of these rallies have featured more than simply anti-Israel rhetoric; they have included praise for PIJ terrorists and calls for the destruction of Israel. It’s time the media and the government condemn these words of incitement.

Hamas may be the better-known Islamist terrorist group operating out of the Gaza Strip, but its peer, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is no less violent and fanatical. Created more than 40 years ago, PIJ, better known as Islamic Jihad, fired over a thousand rockets into Israel in early August, only the latest in many decades of carrying out violent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Funded and armed by Iran, Islamic Jihad is a ruthless terrorist organization that like its patron, seeks Israel’s destruction.

On July 25, Miloon Kothari, a member of a United Nations (UN) commission tasked with investigating Israel’s alleged crimes, made comments widely seen as anti-Israel and antisemitic, in a podcast interview with Mondoweiss, an anti-Israel website. Though his comments were widely condemned by many UN officials, and member states including Canada, he was defended by none other than his colleague and renowned anti-Israel activist, Navi Pillay. The fact this his defenders pose as unbiased researchers is an important story that has eluded the media.

In addition to funding terrorism, inciting hatred against Israel and Jews alike, and suppressing political dissent, Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) commits an even more medieval form of abuse on its own people: the brutal torture of prisoners. According to the testimonies of past inmates, Palestinian security forces viciously abuse prisoners, sometimes even leading to their death. It’s time for the news media to uncover this important story.

Thanks to her diary which survived World War Two, Anne Frank has become one of the most recognizable names and faces of the Holocaust, but in recent weeks, a trend on Twitter has sought to reframe her memory as something else entirely: as a recipient of “white privilege.” This heinous rewriting of history is not only an assault on reality, but on the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and serves as a reminder of why accurate reporting on history is as important as it’s ever been.

On June 23, the Turkish government announced that it had arrested a group of Iranians suspected of planning a terrorist attack in Istanbul targeting Israelis for assassination. While the plot was foiled, it shined a spotlight on the nefarious influence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran’s military, which Canada has still not recognized as a terrorist entity and which has evaded the scrutiny by our media.

Adbusters, a Vancouver-based magazine, recently produced a graphic comparing Marwan Barghouti, a convicted Palestinian terrorist, with late South African anti-Apartheid advocate Nelson Mandela, and called Barghouti a “political prisoner.” This is not only disconnected from reality but a whitewashing of Palestinian terrorism.

The Iraqi parliament recently passed a law restricting its citizens from creating ties with Israelis, under the threat of the death penalty. Despite a growing trend in the Arab world of states creating closer ties with Israel, Iraq has chosen a path not of progress, but of regression.

Since their inception, Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad have targeted Israeli civilians to maim and murder innocents. But they also abuse Palestinian civilians, both by using them as human shields and by using teens and sometimes even small children in their terrorist machinations. It's time for the news media to start telling the whole story about how Palestinian terror groups cynically use child soldiers.

For the third time in about 20 years, Joseph's Tomb, an ancient Jewish religious site located in the biblical city of Shechem, or Nablus, has been desecrated by Palestinian extremists, who attempted to set the site ablaze. Joseph's Tomb, said to be the burial place of the biblical Joseph, was attacked by Palestinian rioters in 2000, as well as in 2015. While Israel guarantees religious freedom to all faiths, the Palestinian extremists who desecrated Joseph's Tomb are a stark reminder that religious protections in the region come only from Israel.

Anti-Israel activist Firas al-Najim, the founder of the non-profit group Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR), recently spoke at an anti-Israel rally in Guelph, Ontario, where he baselessly accused “Zionists” of bullying and blackmailing Canadian news media and politicians into supporting Israel. Al-Najim has shared antisemitic tropes in the past, including accusing ‘Zionists’ of being involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and accusing a Jewish Member of Parliament of being a secret Israeli agent.