Israel is running a widespread and deeply embedded, covert influence operation in Canada, and the government has refused to treat it as interference by a foreign actor, a new report by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) has said.

The group is now calling on Ottawa to designate Israel as a “key threat actor” alongside the likes of China and India, expel Israeli diplomats, and ban Israeli spyware, among other recommendations published on Wednesday.

“The pattern of deception and disinformation outlined in this report demonstrates the malicious role of the Israeli state in interfering in Canadian public affairs, undermining the rights and safety of Canadians,” CJPME said.

Five examples are provided in the document, all of which are designed to shape Canadian public opinion, government regulations, and media narratives via local intermediaries, as CJPME described.

The citations rely on reporting from the Canadian investigative outfit, The Breach, the left-leaning news site, Press Progress, and papers such as The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Haaretz, and The New York Times.

The first example is of “secretly” funded polling in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, “which used biased language to sway results in support of Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza [and] was conducted by Toronto public relations firm Aurora Strategies Global without disclosing that it was on behalf of the Israeli consulate”, the report said.

    • iocase@lemmy.zip
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      4 hours ago

      That’s their entire world view. They have to follow 613 rules from God, and lots of them believe that if there’s a loophole to how the rule is written that’s ordained by God as well, since he’s perfect he wouldn’t make mistakes with his own rules.

      They do it to their most holy book… Everything else is fair game.

    • youcantreadthis@quokk.au
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      5 hours ago

      They demonstrably are and they’ll kill you if you try to change that then rape your loved ones and laugh