Israel acts with a sense of impunity, without fearing significant international consequences. Within Western governments there are members of parliament, diplomats, and senior officials who have become advocates for Israel. Any criticism of Israeli government policies is then immediately portrayed as a new form of antisemitism.

In “The truth about Nakba: Propagandizing the antisemitism agenda in Canada”, Cotler wrote that the tiny “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” exhibit at the Canadian human rights museum ignored how the “Jews also suffered a ‘Nakba’”. According to Cotler and former Conservative minister Joe Oliver, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine was in fact a story of Jewish suffering.

Two weeks ago Cotler also co-authored a Globe and Mail commentary labelling a museum exhibit he hadn’t seen “propaganda masquerading as scholarship”

A new report details how the Israeli government is covertly and illicitly trying to influence public affairs in Canada. While countries regularly lobby one another, four cases of Israel’s actions crossed a line because they were done in secret, according to Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (CJPME), the advocacy group behind the report.

Religious nationalism in Israel, commonly referred to as religious Zionism, is an ideology that combines Orthodox Judaism with Zionism and has become an increasingly influential force in Israeli politics, particularly among supporters of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.