LILLEY: NDP MPP Sarah Jama blaming Israel for terror attacks part ...
NDP MPP has a history of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic statements and actions
Get the latest from Brian Lilley straight to your inbox
Published Oct 12, 2023 • Last updated 40 minutes ago • 3 minute read
On Monday, two days after Hamas terrorists launched their reign of terror in Israel, NDP MPP Sarah Jama joined a march that called for an intifada and wiping Israel off the map.
THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Article content
The next day, she posted a statement to social media blaming Israel for the atrocities that had unfolded, the rapes, the murders, the kidnappings, the desecration of bodies.
Article content
That this woman is still in the Ontario NDP caucus is shocking.
That Jama would act in this way isn’t shocking for anyone who has looked at her activism over the years.
Jama was an active member of the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights while she was a student at McMaster University. As a member of the group, she was active in projects like Israeli Apartheid Week and the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, both of which target Israel and are widely considered anti-Semitic.
The group was active in calling for the release of prisoners including people like Marwan Barghouti, one of the founders of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade and a convicted murderer and terrorist.
By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Article content
Article content
Jama’s activism in denouncing Israel and supporting her terrorist enemies didn’t end with her youthful university days –she kept it up as she grew into an adult. In 2021, while attending a rally in Toronto, Jama began denouncing Hamilton Police for alleged brutality before bizarrely turning and attacking Israel and Jews as a force for evil.
“Over and over again, the Hamilton Police protect Nazism in our city and continue to target Black Muslims and Palestinians,” Jama said before moments later turning to Israel.
“It’s fine that Israel is illegitimate because Netanyahu isn’t there and we know that’s not true because the same people will continue to fund the killing of people here, locally, and globally.”
On its face, those comments sound like she is accusing Jews of funding “the killing of people here, locally, and globally.” Even when denouncing Hamilton Police, it always comes back to Israel for Jama, she is obsessed with denouncing the country, the only democracy in the Middle East, at every turn.
Article content
When confronted in the past, Jama has issued blanket statements denying she is anti-Semitic but she hasn’t taken questions directly, or answered them directly, it’s always through the party. When left to her own devices, Jama makes the kind of comments that got her in trouble once again this week.
In her statement Tuesday, Jama called Israel an apartheid state and accused them of war crimes.
“Especially with this context in mind, the news coming out of Israel and Palestine is deeply concerning. For 75 years, violence and retaliation rooted in settler colonialism have taken the lives of far too many people,” Jama wrote.
And just like that, she blamed Israel for the attack it had just suffered and with the term “settler colonialism” tried to claim that Jews have no place in the Middle East. Part of the strange view of some supporters of this cause is that Jews have no connection to Israel, to Jerusalem, despite millennia of history to say otherwise.
Article content
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
These statements and her participation at a rally where the Hamas flag was flown, where chants to wipe Israel off the map were loudly proclaimed, should have been enough to have her kicked out of the NDP caucus.
Instead, she issued a half-apology via the party that was described as “far too little, and far too late.”
Ontario’s interim Liberal Leader John Fraser called on Tuesday for NDP Leader Marit Stiles to remove Jama from the NDP caucus. On Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford called for Jama to resign from the legislature, saying her views “have no place in the legislature, and they have no place in this province.”
Jewish groups across the board have denounced Jama’s comments and have called for her to be removed from the NDP caucus. But the party that has struggled for years with candidates making anti-Semitic comments, to the point of losing Jewish executive members, decided to keep Jama in the fold.
In doing so, Stiles failed her first test of leadership and emboldened the wing of her party that doesn’t believe in denouncing terrorism when they see it.
Article content
