Marty York: Carney has only doubled down on Trudeau’s Israel failures

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his underlings joined leaders of Britain and France and chose to restrict imports of goods from Israeli “settlements.” This, of course, was a slap in the face to many who had taken comfort in the long history of mostly positive diplomatic relations between Canada and the Middle East’s only democratic country.

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Oh, but this was merely the Liberal government pouring shakers of salt into the wounds of countless Canadian Jews whose kissers already have been smarting from Carney’s backhands and forehands. Only a year ago, Britain, France and Canada decided to recognize “Palestine” as a state. Even though many luminaries worldwide, such as American comedian Jerry Seinfeld, have said Palestine does not actually exist, and even though Canada formally recognized Israel in 1949, relations have deteriorated woefully between Canada and Israel since Carney became prime minister.

Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.

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It’s reached the point where Carney has never even spoken with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, Carney has publicly reiterated what previous Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau pledged: that he would arrange for the arrest of the Israeli leader if the latter set foot in Canada.

Some Israeli spokesmen and diplomats, with whom I continue to chat after more than a decade as former chief media officer and chief communications director at B’nai Brith Canada, view Carney as a foe rather than a friend — not just to Israelis, but also to Jewish people in general. They feel the same way about the minister of foreign affairs, Anita Anand, and others in Carney’s cabinet.

What particularly burns Carney’s critics is that Canada, in a multi-million-dollar policy initiated by Trudeau and continued by the current prime minister, sends megabucks to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

UNRWA describes itself as a necessary support system for Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The belief among many Israelis and others worldwide, however, is that UNRWA is corrupt, has misused funds and has employed people responsible for a multitude of crimes — including kidnapping Israelis and starving them after the heinous, murderous attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said in a release earlier this month that UNRWA boasts of sweeping progress “on paper” but, “on the ground, its employees continue to be exposed as members and supporters of terrorist organizations, hateful educational content persists, and Hamas-dominated unions continue to obstruct neutrality and discipline.”

In August, the inspector general’s office of the U.S. Agency for International Development announced that it was investigating multiple former UNRWA employees for collaborating with Hamas, the de facto governing group in Gaza.

In addition, in 2023, B’nai Brith Canada documented numerous instances of educational materials, such as textbooks, containing antisemitic caricatures and rhetoric glorifying terrorism and violence to promote the erasure of Israel.

Yet, unfathomably, the tax dollars of Canadians (and other countries), have been consistently handed over to UNRWA.

As someone who investigated and revealed a great deal of information about UNRWA for the better part of the past 10 years, I’ve never understood why UNRWA is permitted to function, let alone thrive on unfathomable amounts of money. And now that Canada has essentially doubled down in its recognition of “Palestine” and with its sanctions against Israel, there doesn’t appear to be justification for continuing to feed UNRWA money.

UNRWA, as stipulated by the UN, operates under a specific mandate focused on Palestinian refugees. Since Carney and his government have ostensibly decided that “Palestine” is a state and not specifically a territory laden with Palestinian refugees, it shouldn’t get refugee funding.

“(Canada) should cease sending taxpayer funds to UNRWA,” Mike Fegelman, executive director of Honest Reporting Canada, told me in a recent email. “UNRWA has spent decades perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem rather than solving it. Canada should stop financing this failed institution with the dollars of hard-working Canadians.”

B’nai Brith Canada, under the late/great CEO Michael Mostyn, collected plenty of evidence against UNRWA, but most of the organization’s pleas to refrain from funding the agency fell on deaf ears in the Liberal government.

“How in the world can Canada’s government possibly contribute funds to UNRWA at this time?” Mostyn asked in a news release dated Dec. 1, 2023, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel. The release divulged news of an UNRWA employee being involved in keeping an Israeli civilian hostage in Gaza.

Despite abundant evidence of misappropriation of international aid in Gaza, Canada pledged a further $10 million to UNRWA.

Since then, a few countries, convinced UNRWA’s evil outweighs its good deeds, cut off their aid to the agency. The United States is one such example. Donald Trump ensured U.S. taxpayers would no longer fund UNRWA when he replaced Joe Biden as president in 2024. Finland announced in August that it would be cutting off its contributions to UNRWA, after an agreement with Israel stipulating that the latter has vowed to provide Finland with its advanced technology and military/defence assistance.

Canada needs to follow suit. Carney needs to smarten up. As Michael Mostyn said back in 2023, “Our government must finally hold UNRWA accountable and cease all funding to the agency until its compliance with international law can be assured.”

National Post

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