Israel’s war in Lebanon is another example of the criminal impunity of a rogue, terrorist state

Israel’s actions have destabilized Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. They have inflamed regional tensions, fuelled extremism, and undermined diplomatic efforts.  

By Fareed Khan
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

While the genocide in Gaza continues unabated Israeli leaders have now expanded their war crimes regime to Lebanon, where the 2026 invasion is not an aberration, not a sudden eruption of violence, and certainly not a defensive reflex. It is the latest chapter in a decades‑long pattern of criminal impunity—an extension of the same tactics, doctrines, and policies that have devastated Gaza. What is unfolding today in southern Lebanon is not merely a “spillover” from Gaza or a confrontation with Hezbollah. It is the exportation of the Gaza model of military aggression—the systematic destruction, mass displacement, territorial engineering, and steady normalization of Israel’s annexationist ambitions that have animated its leaders’ strategic thinking for decades.

Since the beginning of the Israeli invasion Lebanese authorities have reported more than 4,300 killed and over 12,000 wounded, with over one million displaced—roughly one‑fifth of the country forced from their homes. Israel has conducted thousands of airstrikes, bulldozed entire villages, bombed the suburbs of Beirut, and expanded operations far beyond its self‑declared “Yellow Line,” pushing up to ten kilometers into Lebanese territory. These are not temporary incursions, and this has been confirmed by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in conversations with Israeli soldiers. They are in effect the creation of “facts on the ground,” the same methodical approach Israel has used for decades in the West Bank to transform an illegal occupation into a permanent presence.

The Gaza model exported

Israel’s military leaders have openly described their Lebanon campaign as a replication of tactics used in the Gaza genocide. Defence Minister Israel Katz referenced the “Rafah and Beit Hanoun model,” promising to demolish homes, flatten neighborhoods, and prevent civilian returns until Israel’s objectives are met. Soldiers have told reporters they are “operating exactly as we do in Gaza,” with daily destruction quotas and target lists.

Satellite imagery confirms the scale of devastation. Villages such as Bint Jbeil, Ayta al‑Shaab, and Khiam have been razed through controlled demolitions and bulldozing of buildings, mirroring Gaza’s obliterated districts. Additionally, Israel has struck civilian infrastructure—bridges over the Litani River, water facilities near the Qaraoun Dam, hospitals, schools, mosques, and farmland—all considered war crimes under international law. Furthermore, reported use of white phosphorus against civilian targets—already documented extensively in Gaza—have emerged again in Lebanon.  Another instance of Israel committing a war crime.

These actions are neither counterterrorism nor acts of self-defence. They are collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and territorial reconfiguration intended to support long-term occupation. It is the Gaza doctrine applied against a sovereign state.

A historical pattern of territorial ambition

While Israel’s defenders insist that these operations are purely defensive, aimed at neutralizing Hezbollah, the scale, the systematic razing of villages, the infrastructure destruction, and the establishment of a de facto occupied buffer zone suggest something far more ambitious, demographic engineering with the intent of effectively annexing territory.

This ambition is not new. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978, again in 1982, and occupied southern Lebanon until 2000. It launched a massive war in 2006, destroying swaths of the country. Each time, Israeli leaders spoke of “security zones,” “buffer areas,” and “temporary measures.” Each time, those measures hardened into long‑term territorial claims.

These actions align with a broader ideological project often referred to as “Greater Israel”— a maximalist vision proposed by Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl, rooted in biblical nationalism and embraced by elements of Israel’s political and religious right. This project imagines Israeli control stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, and from Turkey to northern Saudi Arabia. While not official state policy, its influence is unmistakable in settlement expansion, annexation rhetoric, and repeated military incursions into neighboring states.

Lebanon, characterized by political fragmentation, deep economic crisis, a weak military and the overwhelming impact of incessant and highly destructive attacks by Israel, is uniquely vulnerable to such ambitions. Israel’s current operations—creating cleared zones, establishing military outposts, and preventing civilians from returning to their homes and properties—mirror the early stages of territorial absorption seen in the West Bank. The logic is clear. Israel weakens the state, depopulates strategic areas, and normalizes Israeli presence, all in violation of international law.

Crimes under international law

The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment, the destruction of civilian property and infrastructure, and the forcible transfer of populations—precisely the kinds of actions Israel has carried out in Lebanon. The Rome Statute defines war crimes as intentional attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and crimes against humanity as widespread or systematic assaults on civilian populations. Israel’s conduct in Lebanon falls squarely within these prohibitions.

The mass displacement of over one million people, the razing of villages, the destruction of essential infrastructure, and the establishment of a de facto occupation zone constitute grave breaches of international law. Additionally, UN experts and human rights organizations have warned of ethnic cleansing and potential crimes against humanity.  These warnings echo those issued during Israel’s Gaza campaign, where the International Court of Justice found a “plausible risk of genocide” and ordered provisional measures to prevent further atrocities. Enabled by its Western allies, the US in particular, Israel ignored them.

US backing fuels Israeli impunity

Israel’s ability to commit these crimes repeatedly—and expand them into new theaters—rests on one foundation: unconditional US support.

The United States provides billions in military aid annually, vetoes UN resolutions calling for ceasefires or accountability, and shields Israel from sanctions or international prosecution. This support persists regardless of the severity of Israeli crimes. It persisted through the flattening of Gaza, the mass murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians, and the destruction of hospitals, schools, and refugee camps, and it now continues with Israeli crimes in Lebanon.

The contrast with Western responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is staggering. Russia’s aggression triggered sweeping sanctions, diplomatic isolation, ICC arrest warrants, and massive military support for Ukraine. Israel’s aggression in Gaza triggered statements of “concern” and “alarm” followed by expedited weapons shipments. This double standard is not merely hypocrisy—it is blatant complicity. Under international law, states that knowingly provide material support enabling war crimes share responsibility for those crimes.

Israel as the region’s most destabilizing force

Israel’s defenders claim that as the only “democracy” in the Middle-East it is a stabilizing force in a volatile region. However, decades of evidence suggests the opposite.

Israel has launched major wars or invasions against Lebanon (1978, 1982, 1996, 2006, 2026), Gaza (2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2023–26), and repeatedly escalated tensions with Syria and Iran. It maintains an apartheid system in the West Bank, enforces a siege on Gaza, and conducts regular strikes across the region.  No other Middle Eastern state has initiated as many cross‑border conflicts, displaced as many civilians, or destroyed as much infrastructure in neighboring countries. No other state has repeatedly violated international law with such impunity, and yet the world has done nothing to stop them.

Israel’s actions have destabilized Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. They have inflamed regional tensions, fuelled extremism, and undermined diplomatic efforts. And because Israel can influence US military policy—through lobbying, intelligence partnerships, and political pressure—it can and has dragged the world’s most powerful military into regional escalations.

A state that repeatedly violates international law, destabilizes its neighbors, and wields disproportionate influence over US foreign policy is not merely a regional threat. It is a potential threat to world peace.

The biker gang analogy

If a biker gang rolled into a town, torched buildings, murdered residents, and declared parts of the territory off‑limits, the full weight of law enforcement would descend. No appeals to “self‑defence” against adversaries would excuse systematic destruction.

Yet when Israel does the same—flattening villages, displacing millions, occupying foreign soil—the international response has been muted, and there has been no effort to hold its leaders accountable. This selective enforcement of law reveals the moral bankruptcy of the so‑called international “rules‑based order” which Western nations so often invoke against their adversaries

Israel’s war in Lebanon is not an isolated conflict. It is part of a decades‑long pattern of aggression, territorial ambition, and criminal impunity. Without accountability—through sanctions, arms embargoes, ICC prosecutions, and diplomatic pressure—the cycle is bound to continue.

The world cannot afford another decade of Israeli exceptionalism. The credibility of international law, the stability of the Middle East, and the prospects for global peace depend on ending it.  

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.   

Zionism Is Canada’s Most-Successful Hate Movement

I don’t usually repost the writings in full written by others. But this article published on June 30, 2026 by Canadian journalist Davide Mastracci of the independent Canadian news outlet The Maple contends that Zionism has become Canada’s most successful and socially accepted form of hate motivated and supremacist politics. 

It argues that the ideology is inherently violent and colonial, and that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians—including Israel's actions in committing genocide in Gaza—is a direct expression of that ideology. In Canada, Mastracci says, Zionism is not fringe but fully mainstream, embedded in political culture, media institutions, and civil society.

He also focuses heavily on the Jewish Canadians, claiming that Zionism has eclipsed Judaism as a defining identity for many Jews. Citing polling and patterns of political mobilization, he argues that support for Israel among Jewish Canadians is unusually intense and unmatched by any other community’s alignment with a supremacist, extremist movement. Charitable funding, political organizing, and participation in Israel’s military by Canadian Jews are presented as evidence of deep ideological commitment.

Mastracci attempts to expose Zionism as a normalized form of hate and supremacy that enjoys protection from Canada’s political and media establishment. He warns that Zionism is “on the attack,” that criticism of it is often treated as bigotry, and that resisting it is a moral obligation. He tries to shift public understanding by reframing Zionism not as a Jewish national project but as a dangerous, state‑sanctioned ideology that demands scrutiny and opposition.

**************

© The Maple 2026. All Rights Reserved. 

Zionism Is Canada’s Most-Successful Hate Movement

The Jewish-supremacist ideology motivating genocide has widespread support among Canada’s elites.

by Davide Mastracci
June 30, 2026 
www.readthemaple.com/zionism-is-canadas-most-successful-hate-movement/

From its inception, Zionism has been a violent, colonial ideology.

The State of Israel, founded through decades of Zionist migration and anti-Palestinian violence, is a perfect distillation of Zionism, not a departure from it. Zionism is Israel’s state ideology.

In the 78 years since Israel’s creation, which was finalized in an organized and systemic ethnic cleansing campaign, Israel has terrorized its neighbours, swallowed up Palestinian land and devoured its inhabitants, and is committing a genocide to destroy the lives of those who remain.

Israel is an explicitly Jewish supremacist state, and perhaps the only one left in the world where supremacy is openly, proudly, and formally enshrined in law, and expanding in its scope.

There’s a range of opinions within Israel’s political leadership, but all factions believe in supremacy enforced through some level of violence.

In short: Zionism is a hateful ideology guiding a state that has committed the worst crimes of the 21st century in its name.

That Zionism is a state ideology doesn’t make it less hateful than if it were relegated to the fringes. Instead, it just means it has succeeded to the fullest extent.

This is undoubtedly true in Israel. It’s also true in Canada in a different way: Zionism has achieved more explicit, mainstream support than any other openly supremacist movement at this point in time.

Zionism And Jewish Canadians

Zionism is so rampant in Canada’s Jewish community that it has effectively become more important than Judaism, though many, if not most, Jewish Canadians say the two are actually one.

Many anti-Zionists dispute this assertion in theological terms, but I don’t care about these debates, in the same way that theological schisms in Christianity are of no interest to me outside of the odd late-night Wikipedia search.

What I am interested in, however, is examining how much of the community falls on each side. By this measure, it’s evident that anti-Zionists are losing the battle.

Nearly three years of genocide, involving some of the most depraved acts of violence and cruelty witnessed this century, has reduced the support Israel receives globally, with a recent poll finding it to be the “world’s most disliked country.” Mass support for Israel among Jewish Canadians, however, has persisted.

An assortment of polling of Jewish Canadians conducted between February 2024 and November 2025 has found:

·    94 per cent “support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state”;

·    84 per cent are “emotionally attached to Israel,” the highest level since the survey began in 2018;

·    71 per cent don’t believe Israel is committing genocide;

·    64 per cent believe it’s antisemitic to say Israel is committing genocide;

·    61 per cent oppose an arms embargo on Israel;

·    55 per cent categorize Israel’s actions in Gaza as either self-defence (34 per cent) or hostage return (21 per cent), compared to 24 per cent as either war crimes (10 per cent), ethnic cleansing (4 per cent), or genocide (10 per cent);

·    53 per cent disagree with the claim that “Canada should do more to protect civilians in Gaza”;

·    48 per cent (a plurality) believe Hamas is to blame for starvation in Gaza, while just 17 per cent blame Israel — another 13 per cent believe there was no famine or even widespread hunger;

·    1 per cent identify as anti-Zionists.

The survey that found 94 per cent effectively support Jewish supremacy in Israel also found that “only” 51 per cent explicitly identified as Zionists, which led some anti-Zionists to declare victory. They were wrong to do so. As I quipped in response to reporting on the survey: “‘Poll: Vast majority of Canadian whites say Canada has right to exist as a white state, but half don’t identify as racists.’”

In addition, the community:

·    is represented by and made up of explicitly Zionist organizations, from synagogues, to schools, to camps, to community groups;

·    is the largest sender of charitable donations from Canada to Israel (at least $1.7 billion in donations were sent from 2018 to 2024, and an examination of contributors per year reveals them to overwhelmingly be Jewish charities);

·    supplies a stream of members as soldiers willing to die and kill for the Jewish supremacist State of Israel, a pipeline unlike any other that exists among Canada’s hundreds of demographic groups.

In May, nearly three years into the genocide, an estimated record-breaking 60,000 people marched in Toronto’s annual pro-Israel walk. I view this with the same sort of scorn as the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden organized by the German American Bund, which drew more than 20,000 people.

One difference does stick out, though: unlike any other genocide before it, including the Holocaust, the Gaza genocide has been live-streamed since day one and broadcast to all of us.

This hasn’t shattered Jewish Canadian support for Israel. In fact, it has strengthened the support and emotional attachment of many, as seen in the open radicalization of some prominent Jewish figures.

Zionism And The Broader Establishment

It’s clear Zionism has wide support among Jewish Canadians, to an extent unrivalled by other communities relative to whatever form of extremism and supremacy may exist among them. ISIS, for example, was broadly reviled by Muslims globally, and they fought, killed, and died to defeat it.

But this level of support for Zionism among Jewish Canadians isn’t enough to call it the most successful hate movement in Canada. That claim becomes justified upon examining how Zionism is treated by Canada’s elite in politics, media and civil society.

In June 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney called for the establishment of a “Zionist, if you will, Palestinian state,” which is about the same as urging German Jews be ruled by a new Nazi government after the Holocaust.

In March 2025, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau said, “No one in Canada should ever be afraid to call themselves a Zionist. I am a Zionist.”

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s opposition party, said in an October 2024 statement: “We won’t bow to the radical, woke, anti-Zionist Jew haters. [...] We unapologetically stand with Israel through fire and water.” The party’s deputy leader has explicitly identified as a Zionist.

The federal government, seven provinces and at least 20 towns and cities have adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which, according to a federal handbook, classifies opposition to Zionism as antisemitism.

A Senate study released in December 2024 included among its recommendations that “it is unacceptable in Canadian society to target Zionists or to deny them fair and equitable access to public spaces for the sole reason that they are Zionists,” effectively calling for the treatment of Zionism, a political ideology, as a protected category.

This framing has also been pushed in lawsuits launched by Jewish students against universities and backed by major Jewish community organizations.

The editor-in-chief of the National Post, the flagship publication of Canada’s largest newspaper chain, stated in a 2024 email to subscribers: “I feel privileged to be editor-in-chief of the National Post right now, leading a paper that has been Zionist in its commentary since it was founded 25 years ago.”

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s only other national newspaper, recently published an article from the editorial board arguing that Carney should have declared himself to be a Zionist in a speech he gave at a Toronto synagogue.

A co-founder and former head of an organization dedicated to combating hate groups has described themselves as a Zionist and written that Zionism is essential to Jewish identity.

So, to sum it up...

Zionism is not condemned by those in power; it’s openly supported.

Prominent Zionists feel no pressure to conceal their ideology in the way proponents of supremacy usually do; they are encouraged to share it, and applauded when they do so.

Zionists aren’t seen as proponents of hate; they’re treated as a victimized group to be protected by limiting the freedoms of others.

Jewish Canadians aren’t expected to condemn Zionism or Israel in the way Muslims were for extremist forms of Islam; non-Jewish Canadians are expected to support or at least not oppose Zionism because it’s positioned as an essential part of Jewish identity.

If another hate movement took over almost an entire community, it would be treated as a serious problem; Zionism is often defended precisely because it’s so widespread among Jewish Canadians.

The past three years have increasingly turned Canadians against Israel. This has resulted in those in power using increasingly heavy-handed attempts, many of them successful, to protect Zionism.

Zionism is on the attack, not retreat.

Zionists are coming for any and all of us willing to oppose their ideology.

The fight continues.

© The Maple 2026. All Rights Reserved. 

How do we live with this? One man’s lament about the Gaza genocide

As a human rights activist living safely in Canada, I ask: How can Western leaders live with the knowledge of Israeli atrocities? What is so broken in them that they don’t act to stop genocide?

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

I live 8,965 kilometres from Gaza, in a country that claims to be a defender of human rights and international law, and professes to be a moral leader on the world stage. Yet every day for more than two and a half years, I have seen images and read stories coming out of Gaza that have hollowed out something inside me. I have seen bloodied bodies, children with limbs torn away, parents carrying what remains of their babies in small plastic bags because an Israeli missile or bomb left nothing else to bury. The people of Gaza are not soldiers or combatants. They are Palestinian civilians—families—targeted by the military of a fascist, genocidal state that has long ceased to see them as human beings, a people who have been abandoned by Canada and other nations that claim to champion human rights, but refuse to intervene when the crime of crimes—genocide—is being committed by Israel in front of our eyes.

Despite all I’ve seen and read, despite my knowledge of the cruelty inflicted by Israel on Palestinians for decades, nothing prepared me for the story of the Palestinian father trapped beneath the rubble of a building bombed by and Israeli fighter jet.

I first saw the image last night on social media, of a man with only his head sticking out of the rubble, and read the short description that went with it.  In the quiet of the night, I read about rescuers digging frantically through the debris trying to save him. Above a small gap in the rubble was a look of agony and terror on the father’s face.  His body was pinned beneath the ruins of what had once been his home. His daughters were deeper below, their small hands still clinging to his fingers in the darkness. He could hear their fading breaths and their grip weakening. When the rescuers began to dig away at the rubble around him he looked at them with a gaze so full of exhaustion and horror that it pierced through the screen and lodged itself in my chest.

“Leave me,” he told the rescuers.  He told them his daughters were also under the rubble, holding his fingers, and that he didn’t want to leave them alone.

These words haunt me. They echo in my mind and when I tried to sleep last night I couldn’t. So I decided to write about this Palestinian father, the nameless man in the social media post, whose face is now imprinted on my brain.

By the time you read this, and hopefully share it on social media, I will be trying to live a normal life again, as I have so many times since the Gaza genocide began, as I’ve heard or read a particularly horrific story.  But what is considered normal in such a scenario? I wonder, what parent—what human being—could bear to survive while his children die beneath him? What words can capture the agony of someone who feels the life draining from the small hands they once held while crossing the street, while tucking them into bed, while promising them safety?

And as I sat with the weight of his plea to the rescuers—to be left under the rubble so he could die beside his daughters—I found myself thinking of the tens of thousands of Palestinian parents who have endured this same nightmare. Not only during the current genocide, but in the years before, every time Israel sent its warplanes to bomb homes, apartment blocks, and refugee camps. I thought of the parents who have carried the limp bodies of their children through the streets, their faces frozen in shock. I thought of the children who have clawed through rubble with their bare hands, screaming the names of their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. I thought of the Palestinians who have found only fragments of their loved ones—pieces so small they could fit into a shopping bag. And I thought of the fathers and mothers who have buried entire families in mass graves, not because they wanted to, but because they had no choice, because even in death, they could not risk gathering for a proper funeral without fearing another Israel bomb or missile would land on them.

This is not an isolated tragedy. It is a pattern, a system, a deliberate and calculated destruction of a people, in full view of the world.

As a human rights activist living in the safety of Canada, I ask myself: How can Western leaders live with this knowledge? What is so broken in them that they can’t take action to stop the non-stop carnage committed by Israel? They receive daily briefings. They see the same images the public sees. They know that the vast majority of those killed in Gaza are civilians. They know international human rights organizations have documented war crimes and crimes against humanity, and have declared Israel’s actions as a genocide. They know that Israeli soldiers themselves have admitted in recordings posted to social media that they “felt like Nazis” while carrying out operations in Gaza. They know all of this and yet they do nothing.

How do they sit in their offices, smile as they shake hands at political events, hold press conferences, and speak of democracy and human rights, while Palestinian children are deliberately shot, and babies suffocate under the rubble of a bombed out building?  And how can we, living safely in Canada, go about our days as though nothing is happening? How do can we casually sip our coffee, scroll through our phones, and laugh at trivial things, while a father in Gaza begs rescuers to let him die so he will not abandon his daughters in their final moments?

I don’t ask this with without judgment. I ask it with grief, with bewilderment, with a sense of moral disruption that has become impossible to shake.

Because all of us who fight to uphold and defend human rights cannot live normal lives anymore. We carry the weight of every image and video we’ve seen, every scream and cry of grief we’ve heard, every story we’ve read. We carry the trauma of being witnesses to genocide in real time, played out on the screens of our devices. We carry the depression and anger that comes from shouting into a void where leaders pretend not to hear what we’re saying. We carry the despair of knowing that morality—once claimed as a Western virtue—is a lie and has been traded for political convenience and military alliances.

For the past two and a half years we have marched, we have written to our political leaders, penned op-eds, held media conferences, commented on social media, protested, pleaded for our leaders to find their humanity and take action. Yet still, those who lead our governments refuse to listen or act.

If this is now the norm—if this is how the world responds to a fascist state committing genocide—then what hope is there for how nations will respond to other conflicts where the innocent are slaughtered? What hope is there for humanity when the most powerful nations on earth, who have the power to stop Israel’s crimes, watch and do nothing as children, women and men are murdered simply for who they are? What hope is there when museums dedicated to human rights, like the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, face pressure to silence Palestinian history because the stories of Palestinians are deemed too “controversial” by Zionist groups who cannot tolerate the true story of their suffering and subjugation, or being portrayed as human beings?  What hope is there when even our grief and the truth about history is policed?

The father under the rubble will haunt me for a long time because he represents more than one man’s tragedy. He represents the collapse of the world’s moral order and the degradation of international law. He represents the unbearable truth that Palestinian suffering has been normalized, minimized, and dismissed for generations, but especially now. He represents the question that should shake every conscience on this planet:

How much more Palestinian pain must the world witness, how many more bodies must be buried under Gaza’s rubble, before it hears the cry of the Palestinians who live there?

As a Canadian, I am both angry at and ashamed of my government’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal crimes. As a human rights activist, I am exhausted by the endless fight to make the people in power care. As a human being, I am shattered by the knowledge that Palestinians are still dying, despite a so-called ceasefire which Israel has violated thousands of times since last October, while the world debates their worth.

But as someone who refuses to give up, I say this. To Palestinians suffering under the longest and most brutal occupation of modern history—you are not forgotten. You are loved. You are never alone, and your courage in the face of ultimate evil will go down in history. There are millions around the world who stand with you, who carry your grief in their hearts, who refuse to let your stories be erased. Your suffering is not invisible. Your resistance is not in vain. And your humanity shines brighter than the darkness that seeks to destroy you.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Canada’s moral collapse on Gaza, and the dangerous rise of anti-Palestinian racism in Canada

Canada’s refusal to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel is a diplomatic misstep, a profound moral failure, and a breach of Canada’s legal obligation under the Genocide Convention.

By Fareed Khan
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In late April and early May 2026, more than a dozen Canadian human rights activists — including Ko Tinmaung and Marie Tota — were abducted in international waters by Israeli forces while participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian mission carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. Their boats, which were part of a 40 boat fleet crewed by over 400 activists, were intercepted more than 250 nautical miles from Gaza’s shores, far outside Israeli territorial waters, in what international law experts have described as an act of state piracy and a blatant violation of international law.

The Canadians were unarmed and posed no threat. Yet they were beaten, humiliated, sexually assaulted, and tortured. Their accounts mirror the testimony of scores of other flotilla participants and align with decades of documentation by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Special Rapporteurs, and Israeli human rights organizations.

Despite repeated requests from Canadian flotilla participants for meetings with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand — to speak directly about the torture they endured in Israeli custody and the mistreatment Tinmaung and Tota faced at Pearson International Airport upon their return — the government has shown a consistent unwillingness to meet with these brave Canadians.

Carney and Anand did condemn a grotesque video posted by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, in which he taunted abducted flotilla activists in custody. But beyond those social media statements — beyond the PR — the government has taken no action in response to the allegations of torture. No formal protest. No demand for accountability. No sanctions. No consular investigation. No meeting with the survivors or their families. No justice.

Thirteen Canadians were abducted and tortured by a foreign state, and one was left to drown in the Mediterranean in a boat severely damaged by Israeli military personnel, and yet Canada has done nothing.

This is not a diplomatic oversight. It is a moral failure — and a political choice.

We must ask why the Canadian government is refusing to meet survivors of Israeli torture.

The answer lies in Canada’s long‑standing political alignment with Israel. For decades, Canadian governments — Liberal and Conservative alike — have treated Israel not as a nation to be held accountable, but as an ally beyond reproach. Even as Israel has violated the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and countless Security Council resolutions for decades, Canada has rarely wavered in its support, issuing only occasional slaps on the wrist.

Meeting torture survivors would force the government to confront the truth about how Israel is committing atrocities — including genocide — in Gaza. That conclusion has already been reached by the UN Commission of Inquiry, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.  So Carney’s and Anand’s refusal is not about diplomacy. It is about denial.

Now let’s turn to the matter of why at least two of the Canadian flotilla activists were intimidated and threatened by security officials and police when they landed at Pearson International Airport.

When Tinmaung and Tota returned home, they expected to be reunited with their families at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Instead, they were met by customs officers, airport security, and Peel Regional Police who subjected them to aggressive interrogation, isolation, intimidation, and threats — conduct disturbingly similar to what former UN Special Rapporteurs Richard Falk and Hilal Elver described when they were detained and interrogated at Pearson in 2025 for their pro‑Palestinian advocacy.

Anti-Palestinian racism in Canada

This is not a coincidence. It reflects a deeper, long‑standing pattern of institutional anti‑Palestinian racism in Canada — one so entrenched that even as a genocide unfolds in plain sight, our political leaders still refuse to name the crime for what it is.

Reports from the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, York University, and The Conversation have documented systemic anti‑Palestinian racism across Canadian institutions — including policing, education, media, and government. This racism manifests as:

• Silencing Palestinian advocacy; 
  
• Treating Palestinians and their allies as security threats;
  
• Defaming activists as extremists or “terrorists”;
  
• Erasing the story of Palestinian suffering and oppression;
  
• Denying Palestinian humanity.

This is exactly what happened at Pearson Airport. Canadian authorities treated at least two of the torture survivors as threats, not victims. They were intimidated, isolated, detained for hours, with Tinmaung threated with with being charged as a “threat to public safety”, before being pressured to leave the airport on terms set by police and security officials without seeing their families — a violation of their rights and a chilling message to all pro‑Palestinian activists.

This begs the question, how deep does anti‑Palestinian racism run in Canada’s political class?

The answer is it runs deep enough that the Canadian government still refuses to acknowledge the Gaza genocide — even as the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, leading genocide scholars, along with hundreds of human rights and legal scholars, have concluded that Israel is committing genocide. It runs deep enough that Canada has condemned genocide in Myanmar, China, and by Russia in Ukraine — but not in Gaza.  It is deep enough that the  government warns that calling Israel’s actions “genocide” might provoke antisemitism, rather than confronting the reality of mass murder, starvation, and ethnic cleansing. Anti-Palestinian racism is so entrenched that Canada (conditionally) recognized the State of Palestine in 2025 — but still refuses to hold Israel accountable for destroying it.

Anti‑Palestinian racism is not a fringe phenomenon. It is embedded in Canadian political culture.

Despite decades of Israeli crimes Canadian leaders still defend them

The record of Israeli crimes over the decades is overwhelming:

• Illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian land;
  
• Decades of a campaign of ethnic cleansing
  
• Systematic violations of the Geneva Conventions for almost eight decades;
  
• War crimes including collective punishment, targeting civilians, and starvation as a weapon of war;
  
• Apartheid, as documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem;
  
• Genocide, as concluded by UN experts, major human rights organizations, and genocide scholars.
  
• Yet Canada continues to defend Israel or remain silent. The million‑dollar question is why.

Because Canadian foreign policy in the Middle East has been shaped for decades by pro‑Israel lobby groups such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and B’nai Brith Canada — organizations documented as promoting anti‑Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, genocide denial, and the conflation of anti‑Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

CIJA’s own conferences have pushed the government to adopt definitions of antisemitism that silence criticism of Israel. Their lobbying efforts have influenced every major political party, convincing party leaders to adopt policies that effectively silence pro‑Palestinian voices within their membership. This influence is so strong that Canada’s political class often appears more accountable to CIJA, which acts as an agent of the Israeli government, than to international law.

Canada refuses to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

However, there are nations in the world with a moral compass that are standing on the right side of history and pursuing justice for Palestinians.  One of those nations is South Africa, which launched a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023 over its brutal military assault on the people in Gaza.

Regrettably, and over the objections of many Canadians, the federal government has refused to join South Africa and 20 other nations supporting their case, including NATO allies Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Turkiye. Instead, Canada has dismissed the case as lacking merit despite the ICJ stating that it was plausible that Israel was committing genocide in a January 2024 preliminary ruling.

Canada’s refusal to join South Africa is not just a diplomatic misstep — it is a profound moral failure. It is also a breach of Canada’s clear legal obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide wherever it occurs. The decision is so indefensible that it raises an unavoidable, unsettling question — has Canadian Middle East policy become so deferential to Israel that Ottawa might as well be taking instructions directly from it? While that is not literally the case, the pattern is impossible to ignore. Again and again, Canada’s positions on the Middle East — especially where Palestinians and their rights are concerned — line up almost seamlessly with those of the apartheid state.

Canada may not take its marching orders directly from Israel, but it unquestionably takes its political cues from a familiar constellation of forces — pro‑Israel lobby groups, a political culture that treats Israel as beyond criticism, and a foreign‑policy establishment that reliably elevates strategic alliances over basic human rights, while wilfully ignoring obligations under international law.

This country’s deference becomes even starker when we examine whom our officials choose to engage with most often on issues related to Israel and Palestinians. CIJA, for one, is among the most active lobbying organizations in Ottawa — a fact reflected in the federal Lobbyist Registry. Its influence is unmistakable as the organization enjoys frequent access to ministers and MPs, helps shape policy priorities, and exerts significant influence over the Canadian narrative on issues affecting Palestinians. Yet multiple Jewish scholars and human‑rights organizations have documented how pro‑Israel organizations have promoted harmful stereotypes about Palestinians and Muslims, marginalized dissenting Jewish voices, and defended Israeli actions described by critics as grave violations of international law.

So when Canadian officials make time for these groups while refusing to meet with Canadian victims of Israeli torture, the message is unmistakable — some lives count and others do not.

What kind of nation do Canadians want this country to be?

Canadians must decide what kind of country we want to be and convey that forcefully to our leaders. Canada cannot claim to champion human rights yet ignore the torture of its own citizens, nor wrap itself in the language of justice while turning its back on Canadians tortured by a foreign state. It cannot profess to oppose genocide while refusing to acknowledge one unfolding in real time, or claim to fight racism while enabling the most entrenched and politically sanctioned form of racism in this country — anti‑Palestinian racism.

Tinmaung, Tota, and the eleven other Canadians abducted and tortured by Israel deserve justice — not silence, platitudes, or carefully crafted political statements that maintain a business as usual attitude with the genocidal state. They deserve a government that recognizes their humanity, and that of Palestinians, without reservation. Canadians deserve leaders who confront atrocities committed by allies — not ones who decide which victims matter and which to sacrifice on the altar of political expediency.

History will judge Mark Carney and Justin Trudeau for their morally bankrupt response to the Gaza genocide and for how their governments treated Canadians who stood on the side of justice for Palestinians. That judgment will not be kind. On the most basic questions of human rights, international law, and the duty to protect the innocent, both men failed — and they failed by choice.

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