OTTAWA — Israel is pursuing a sweeping diplomatic and public relations marketing campaign to persuade Canada to alter the best way it tackles acts of antisemitism.
From the workplace of Israel’s president right down to its ambassador in Ottawa, the message is identical: Canada should do extra to curb threats towards Jews.
However whereas the nation’s ambassador is suggesting Ottawa ought to restrict sure “freedoms” as a way to cope with threats his authorities hyperlinks to Iran, he hasn’t mentioned which freedoms must be restricted.
“We have now a really clear goal this 12 months, and that’s to create a major change in the best way antisemitism is being handled right here in Canada,” Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed informed a digital discussion board final week.
“It’s exhausting for a liberal particular person to suppose that now we have to restrict different individuals’s freedoms, in order that our freedom can be protected. However that’s the place we’re proper now.”
Carleton College political scientist Mira Sucharov, who researches Israeli-Palestinian relations and Jewish politics, mentioned there “are two issues taking place” — Israel is attempting each to enhance safety for Jews worldwide and to generate help for the battle it has launched with the U.S. towards Iran.
Moed spoke after Israel issued a collection of high-level statements following shootings at three Toronto-area synagogues.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog convened a name with Toronto-area Jewish group leaders on March 9 — a uncommon transfer by a rustic whose head of presidency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to talk with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We should be taught the teachings of earlier antisemitic assaults, together with the horrific Bondi Seashore terror assault,” Herzog wrote on social media, citing the mass taking pictures final December at a Hanukkah occasion in Australia.
“All eyes are on Canada: it’s time to halt the unprecedented wave of Jew-hatred that has erupted ever since Oct. 7,” Herzog added, referencing the 2023 assault by Hamas and its allies towards Israel which began the battle in Gaza.
On March 8, Israeli Overseas Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke with Overseas Affairs Minister Anita Anand concerning the synagogue assaults and referred to as for particular measures to guard Jewish communities and “Israeli diplomats serving in Canada.”
Sa’ar once more referred to as out Canada two days later, linking photographs fired on the U.S. consulate in Toronto with the synagogue assaults.
“When antisemitism goes unchecked, violence inevitably escalates. Canadian authorities should act instantly and decisively earlier than this harmful pattern results in additional assault,” he wrote.
Israeli junior minister Sharren Haskel, who was born in Toronto, has made comparable statements about Canada.
“When antisemitic terrorism is allowed to develop and the Iranian regime’s world terror networks are dismissed as a distant downside, the implications won’t stay abroad,” she wrote on March 8.
Sucharov mentioned Israel’s determination to single out Canada may replicate the truth that antisemitic assaults maintain taking place right here, regardless that the variety of individuals bodily harmed in these assaults has been small.
“We don’t normally see particular person, single nations recognized publicly by the Israeli authorities, until there are main assaults there,” she mentioned.
“What’s very alarming and disturbing is … when Canadians who’re indignant about Israel, about Israel’s actions, blame Jews individually or collectively right here for what Israel’s doing. And that’s clearly the most important downside we face.”
Throughout a digital panel held final Thursday by Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith, Moed advised Canada has to constrain sure freedoms as a way to cease the affect of nefarious actors.
“Some persons are on the market to abuse our democracy and our values in order that they will dominate,” Moed mentioned.
“I’m conveying to the federal government a really clear message that Jews really feel deserted and Jews in Canada really feel that they aren’t protected sufficient and folks perceive this in authorities.”
The ambassador mentioned components associated to Iran are energetic in Canada and “a few of them positively can be attempting to push for no matter harassment of the Jewish group could be, simply to make some extent that Jews will not be protected when Israel is at battle.”
He claimed that others linked to the Muslim Brotherhood search to “silence supporters of Israel,” including that “it’s more durable to level at particular actions” by the motion.
Moed singled out al-Quds Day protests, which proponents say advocate for Palestinian rights and for sovereignty over Jerusalem. Jewish teams argue they’re hateful occasions and level out that they had been pioneered by the Iranian regime.
Moed described al-Quds Day protests as “hate” marches.
“It’s nothing else than an try and brazenly and massively delegitimize the state of Israel,” he mentioned.
His feedback got here a day earlier than Ontario Premier Doug Ford introduced a last-minute courtroom submitting that unsuccessfully sought to ban these protests.
Moed mentioned the rise in antisemitism in Canada is why his nation has been “bringing delegations of representatives of police to Israel to share with them our expertise in combating hatred, in coping with counterterrorism.”
Knowledge from Canadian police and Jewish organizations exhibits reviews of anti-Jewish hate, together with violent acts similar to firebombings, have risen dramatically lately.
B’nai Brith has referred to as on Ottawa to launch a fee on antisemitism.
In December, Carney mentioned throughout a Hanukkah occasion that Canada has a “necessity to behave” on two years of rising hate.
He linked that with Invoice C-9, an act that creates new offences for intimidating or obstructing somebody exterior a spiritual or cultural establishment, whereas eradicating a spiritual exemption to some hate speech legal guidelines. The invoice is predicted to go to 3rd studying within the Home of Commons as early as subsequent week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed March 17, 2026.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press