Israel seeking ‘significant change’ to how Canada tackles antisemitism

OTTAWA — Israel is pursuing a sweeping diplomatic and public relations campaign to convince Canada to change the way it tackles acts of antisemitism.

From the office of Israel’s president down to its ambassador in Ottawa, the message is the same: Canada must do more to curb threats against Jews.

But while the country’s ambassador is suggesting Ottawa should limit certain “freedoms” in order to deal with threats his government links to Iran, he hasn’t said which freedoms should be limited.

“We have a very clear objective this year, and that is to create a significant change in the way antisemitism is being dealt with here in Canada,” Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed told a virtual forum last week.

“It is hard for a liberal person to think that we have to limit other people’s freedoms, so that our freedom will be protected. But that’s where we are right now.”

Carleton University political scientist Mira Sucharov, who researches Israeli-Palestinian relations and Jewish politics, said there “are two things happening” — Israel is trying both to improve protection for Jews worldwide and to generate support for the war it has launched with the U.S. against Iran.

She said this stems from Israel’s decades-long policy of advocating for Jewish people around the world, and it reflects Israel’s efforts to convince other states that the Iranian government poses a threat far beyond the Middle East.

Moed spoke after Israel issued a series of high-level statements following shootings at three Toronto-area synagogues.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog convened a call with Toronto-area Jewish community leaders on March 9 — a rare move by a country whose head of government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has yet to speak with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Israel’s embassy insists Netanyahu hasn’t refused a call with Carney but Moed said last October there was not “much appetite from Israel to reach out” to the prime minister due to his focus on Palestinian statehood. Canadian officials have said they’ve tried multiple times to arrange a call.

On social media last week, Herzog summarized his call with Canadian leaders by mentioning the mass shooting last December at a Hanukkah event in Australia.

“We must learn the lessons of previous antisemitic attacks, including the horrific Bondi Beach terror attack,” Herzog wrote on social media.

“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 attack by Hamas and its allies against Israel which started the war in Gaza.

On March 8, Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand about the synagogue attacks and called for special measures to protect Jewish communities and “Israeli diplomats serving in Canada.”

Sa’ar again called out Canada two days later, linking shots fired at the U.S. consulate in Toronto with the synagogue attacks.

“When antisemitism goes unchecked, violence inevitably escalates. Canadian authorities must act immediately and decisively before this dangerous trend leads to further attack,” he wrote.

Israeli junior minister Sharren Haskel, who was born in Toronto, has made similar statements about Canada.

“When antisemitic terrorism is allowed to grow and the Iranian regime’s global terror networks are dismissed as a distant problem, the consequences will not remain overseas,” she wrote on March 8.

Sucharov said Israel’s decision to single out Canada might reflect the fact that antisemitic attacks keep happening here, even though the number of people physically harmed in those attacks has been small.

“We don’t usually see individual, single countries identified publicly by the Israeli government, unless there are major attacks there,” she said.

“What’s very alarming and disturbing is … when Canadians who are angry about Israel, about Israel’s actions, blame Jews individually or collectively here for what Israel’s doing. And that’s obviously the biggest problem we face.”

During a virtual panel held last Thursday by Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith, Moed suggested Canada has to constrain certain freedoms in order to stop the influence of nefarious actors.

“Some people are out there to abuse our democracy and our values so that they can dominate,” Moed said.

“I’m conveying to the government a very clear message that Jews feel abandoned and Jews in Canada feel that they are not protected enough and people understand this in government.”

The ambassador said elements related to Iran are active in Canada and “some of them definitely will be trying to push for whatever harassment of the Jewish community would be, just to make a point that Jews are not safe when Israel is at war.”

He claimed that others linked to the Muslim Brotherhood seek to “silence supporters of Israel,” adding that “it’s harder to point at specific actions” by the movement.

Moed singled out al-Quds Day protests, which proponents say advocate for Palestinian rights and for sovereignty over Jerusalem. Jewish groups argue they are hateful events and point out that they were pioneered by the Iranian regime.

Moed described al-Quds Day protests as “hate” marches.

“It is nothing else than an attempt to openly and massively delegitimize the state of Israel,” he said.

His comments came a day before Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a last-minute court filing that unsuccessfully sought to ban those protests.

Moed said the rise in antisemitism in Canada is why his country has been “bringing delegations of representatives of police to Israel to share with them our experience in combating hatred, in dealing with counterterrorism.”

Data from Canadian police and Jewish organizations shows reports of anti-Jewish hate, including violent acts such as firebombings, have risen dramatically in recent years.

B’nai Brith has called on Ottawa to launch a commission on antisemitism.

In December, Carney said during a Hanukkah event that Canada has a “necessity to act” on two years of rising hate.

He linked that with Bill C-9, an act that creates new offences for intimidating or obstructing someone outside a religious or cultural institution, while removing a religious exemption to some hate speech laws. The bill is expected to go to third reading in the House of Commons as early as next week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2026.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press