I move that this House condemn the ongoing and reprehensible attacks being carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas, including the slaughter, rape and kidnapping of innocent Israeli civilians, including babies, children and seniors, and recognize the inalienable right of the State of Israel to defend itself and its people against this horrific violence.

October 7 was a tragic day for Israel, for the Jewish people, for the entire peace-loving world. Each of us watched in horror as children, the elderly, and even Holocaust survivors were stolen, beaten and slaughtered at the hands of Hamas.

Madam Speaker, these attacks are not just another conflict on the other side of the world; the impact is being felt throughout the country, including Ontario.

The Ottawa family of Adi Vital-Kaploun, a 33-year-old Israeli Canadian, is reeling from her senseless murder simply because she was Jewish. By all accounts, Adi was a beautiful person with a warm soul. She was an amazing mother to two boys, a four-year-old and a four-month-old, who will not have a mother now because the terrorists went and killed her. She had her whole life ahead of her. It’s so tragic and so unfair.

Sadly, there are others. Six Canadians in Israel are now confirmed dead in the Hamas attack. Two Canadians are still missing, and families are worrying about their loved ones in Gaza.

We must condemn Hamas and Hamas’s heinous terror acts—acts of terror that have brought turmoil to the region, acts of terror that are using innocent Palestinians as human shields. Do you believe that, Madam Speaker? They’re using Palestinians as human shields to go attack Israel and kill Israelis. Disgusting.

There is no excuse, no justification for the horror we’ve seen. This is terrorism in its darkest form.

We must be clear: Israel has an absolute right to defend itself and its citizens. We must stand firm in our support for Israel and the Jewish people, both abroad and at home.

Here in Ontario and across Canada, our Jewish friends and neighbours face the constant threat of violence. It’s another painful reminder of the work left to do to stomp out the cancer of anti-Semitism once and for all. It’s why our government is investing over $25 million, through our Anti-Hate Security and Prevention Grant, to address the rise of hate against religious and minority groups—including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It’s why our government is investing $150,000 to support the new Toronto Holocaust Museum. And through our great Minister of Education, it’s why we have mandated Holocaust education in our schools.

We cannot hope for a better future if we forget the past, and we cannot hope for a better future if we lose sight of who we are and who we aspire to be.

No one in Ontario should ever be targeted because of their faith. No one in Ontario should ever be afraid to pray to their God.

So today I stand in this House and call on everyone in Ontario to remember who we are as a province—peaceful, tolerant and respectful.

Now, more than ever, Ontario’s Jewish community needs our support—and I always say we will always have their backs. They need to be reminded of the best of us. They need to be reminded that there’s far more that unites us than divides us. And what unites us is rejecting brutal acts of terror from Hamas and other terrorists around the world

As we stand firm in our support for Israel, we pray for the safety of all innocent people. Hamas’s actions and its unrelenting dedication to terror show no regard for human life—Israeli or Palestinian. Now, more than ever, we wish for lasting peace and freedom for everyone in the region, and that can only be achieved by defeating the terrorist group Hamas for the good of Israel and the Palestinian people, and for the good of all humanity.

May God bless the memory of those we’ve lost. May He bring home those who were stolen. And may God bless the people of Israel.

I’m honoured to have the opportunity to stand in the Legislature today and to speak in support of Israel’s absolute right to unequivocally defend itself and its citizens.

I was devastated by the unimaginably appalling news coming out of Israel on Saturday, October 7. Innocent civilians, men, women, children, even babies and elderly—some of who themselves were Holocaust survivors—were kidnapped, raped, murdered, burned and mutilated.

Hamas terrorists gleefully paraded their war crimes on social media, showing a total absence of respect for the value of human life. By treating these innocent victims as though they were less than human, by dehumanizing these innocent Israelis, these terrorists displayed their own inhumanity for all the world to see. And all the world saw it for what it was: pure evil, the purist display or manifestation of moral evil in recent history.

Every bit of news of the atrocities committed by Hamas hits us viscerally, delivering a punch in the gut, leaving us gutted, as the descriptions from survivors echo the history of pogroms and the Holocaust.

As of Monday, at least 1,400 Israelis had been killed, including the 260 who were massacred at the Supernova Sukkot gathering. This weekend-long outdoor event was scheduled to coincide with Simchat Torah, a joyous day in the Jewish calendar, and billed as a celebration of friends, love and infinite freedom. The symbolism of Hamas’s decision to attack the event is unmistakable. These terrorists clearly stand against the values of freedom, tolerance and peace which Israel and our province will always defend.

Attendees at this event began fleeing in panic as Hamas terrorists arrived and began shooting indiscriminately. The few who managed to reach their vehicles were met with gunfire and blocked roads. Those that hid were hunted down, raped and then were taken hostage or murdered. This attack and all of the other acts perpetrated by Hamas deserve nothing less than our unequivocal condemnation.

This is why the government of Ontario, under the leadership of Premier Ford, has called for moral clarity. We must condemn this evil unequivocally. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself and its citizens against such heinous acts of violence.

Two days after the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel, I joined Premier Ford and several members of our caucus at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Emergency Rally for the People of Israel. I continue to receive emails daily from my constituents thanking the Premier, myself and our colleagues for recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself.

Some constituents have noted that the ideology and aims of Hamas have been advanced through a culture of anti-Semitism and Jew hatred disseminated by the school system in Gaza. This system is supported and funded by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, which has a long and well-documented history of providing classrooms with materials teaching Palestinian students to hate Jews and Israel and encouraging students to commit violent acts, which are glorified by these UNRWA-provided textbooks as acts of martyrdom and which advocate pursuing the elimination of Israel and any Jew who stands in the way. Under the strong moral leadership of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada cut off funding in 2010 to UNRWA in its entirety, citing it as an unchecked avenue for terror indoctrination. However, the federal Liberals reinstated the funding in 2016 and increased it just five months ago. This is despite numerous reports demonstrating that these textbooks promote hate and terrorism, including an extensive 2021 report funded by the EU which itself is now reviewing all of its aid to Palestine. The only way that conflict in the Middle East will end is when Palestinians are not indoctrinated from birth with hate and terrorist ideas because, as Golda Meir said, if Palestinians laid down their arms today, there would be two states in the Middle East. But if Israelis did, there would be no Israel.

Sadly, over the last several days, we have been reminded that even here in Ontario, we have much work to do to stamp out anti-Semitism and hate in all its forms. There have been reprehensible, disgusting hate rallies here and in other cities around the world, glorifying this indiscriminate violence and terrorism against innocents. These rallies demonstrate that the insidious hatred for Jews and terror taught in the UNRWA schools has infected and spread like a cancer.

My Jewish neighbours are living in fear, with children asking whether they will be attacked in their sleep and fathers sleeping by the front door, wearing their boots, here in Toronto. There cannot be any justification for what has happened to the victims of these atrocities, including the six known Canadians who were killed by Hamas: Netta Epstein, Shir Georgy, Adi Vital-Kaploun, Ben Mizrachi and Alexandre Look as well as Tiferet Lapidot. All of them were in their early twenties except for Alexandre and Adi who were 33. May their memories be a blessing.

Anyone who cares about humanity and human rights should condemn unequivocally the unspeakable atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists and join the call for them to face justice. As a concerned citizen, Dan Levy of Toronto wrote with great insight in a letter to the editor published in the Post a week after the attack: “Here are some truths for those Canadians, media members, academic institutions and members of government who constantly claim the moral high ground in the ever-present culture wars and yet now voice pro-Hamas sentiment and justification.

“You cannot truly claim that every child matters then stay silent when terrorists kidnap and murder children and decapitate babies.

“You do not care about the safety of women when you turn a blind eye to terrorists raping and torturing them.

“You do not truly fight for LGBTQ+ rights when you stand with fundamentally oppressive regimes.

“If the attacks by terrorists at the music festival in Israel did not horrify you, then neither did the Las Vegas and Orlando attacks.

“If you can’t use proper terms like ‘terrorists’ or ‘terrorism,’ the news industry is not for you.

“You cannot be anti-racist and be complicit in anti-Semitism.

“It is time to call out the hypocrisy of those who mask their self interest as supporting human rights.”

That’s the end of Dan Levy’s great letter. And I agree with Dan Levy: There is something wrong with us and our cultural institutions if we do not share his moral clarity on this. There is no room for hate in Canada and in Ontario. As Canadians and Ontarians, we are proud of the multiculturalism and inclusive society we have built together where all peoples of all faiths and all backgrounds are welcomed and respected. However, these ideals can never be confused with or justify anti-Semitism, racism or hatred towards any group.

This isn’t a matter of political ideology—it is a matter of our shared humanity. If you do not respect the fundamental dignity and right to life of every human being—because they are a human being—how can you claim that respect for yourself? We must call out hate directed at any group or individual every time we see it. We must enforce the laws on the books against hate, and if the laws on the books cannot be used to combat the hate we see, then we need to put better laws on the books and we need to enforce them. If we do not do so, then our cherished multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-faith society will be torn apart.

Hamas—these terrorists—neither represent the Islamic faith, nor the Palestinians in Gaza, nor elsewhere. Indeed, Hamas has demonstrated that it prioritizes genocide over the lives of its own Gazan people. Gazans are being prevented from leaving the danger zone and are being held hostage as Hamas uses them to protect their weapons rather than using weapons, as Israel does, to protect its people.

Let me quote my friend, former Canadian finance minister, the former member of Parliament for my riding, MP Joe Oliver, from an article published this week:

“It is long past the time to get rid of delusions, myths and ethical relativism harboured by some Westerners who are variously naive or wilfully blind to reality and indifferent or hostile to a homeland for the Jewish people....

“There can be no moral equivalence between a terrorist organization that commits crimes against humanity and a democratic country it wishes to destroy by violent means.”

Hamas’s “strategic goal is to delegitimize Israel.... That explains why it filmed its atrocities, in spite of the revulsion it generated around the world. The purpose was to outrage the Israeli population to make an invasion of Gaza inevitable, since return to the status quo is strategically intolerable....

“Israel is defending its sovereignty and population against depraved terrorists who massacred its citizens. That means eliminating Hamas as a military and governance menace, which cannot be achieved peacefully. Israel merits Canada’s unwavering support during the very difficult time ahead.”

Let me just close by saying words matter. A number of media organizations have editorial guidelines, for example, directing them not to use the term “terrorist” in their reporting of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and these guidelines may be borne out of well-intentioned aspirations to appear accurate and impartial, but there is a point at which a failure to use the term “terrorist” is itself a failure of accuracy and impartiality. The depth of the terror that Hamas has inflicted upon innocent people across Israel in recent days is not in doubt. The murder of babies where they sleep is not an act of a freedom fighter. The performative desecration of dead bodies for the benefit of social media, the rape of women and the beheading of civilians in their homes are not acts of militants.

The true motives of Hamas could not be clearer: It seeks the murder of Jews and the annihilation of the Jewish state. Their charter says as much. Hamas is no different to ISIS—at least the Nazis were embarrassed by their crimes and tried to hide them, but these guys aren’t. It should be painfully obvious that there is no moral equivalence between those whose motive is to deliberately target innocent civilians in cold blood and those whose motive is to remove the threat of such murderers. The fact that this discussion is necessary at all is a clear sign that we are losing our moral compass and of the warped nature of the depths to which discourse on Israel has sunk.

I call upon everyone with me to reiterate the demand for the immediate release of the 200 people still being held hostage: mothers, daughters, sons, husbands, aunts, uncles, grandparents—from five months old to 95 years old. I join with all of those praying for their safe and swift return.

As we mourn the victims and stand with the citizens of Israel, we come together to remind the world that “never again” is now. As Sheryl Saperia in my riding wrote in an article in the Toronto Sun, if you have ever wondered what you would have done in the Holocaust, if you would have stood up against the inhumanity of terror, now is the time to show what you are made of, to stand like the righteous among the nations, to stand up for the victims of Hamas’s terror attacks and for Israel’s right to defend itself against further attacks.

Today and always, we stand with Israel and with the Jews here and around the world in the face of these acts of war.

Good afternoon. I want to begin by acknowledging the pain being felt by the thousands of Ontarians who have connections to Israel and Palestine. For Jewish people in our province and all around the world, the heinous attack on Israel was felt acutely, both by people with family and friends in Israel and by those who felt this as an attack on all Jews.

Six Canadians were killed in these terror attacks that we know of so far and two are missing. They are among the more than 1,400 people murdered in these acts by Hamas. We mourn them all. Some 3,400 others—that we know of so far—were injured; 199 Israelis remain hostages of Hamas, a terrifying reality that leaves their families in agony. I know some of their families, Speaker, are right here in our communities, in our province, and they are feeling that pain.

We in the NDP official opposition unequivocally condemn these terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. There can be no justification.

We have seen the ripple effects of this violence across the globe, including right here in Ontario, where Jewish and Arab and Muslim communities have seen a rise of hatred, increased police presence near Jewish community spaces and places of worship, the vandalism of mosques.

People in Ontario are very worried. Now, as the war between Israel and Hamas continues, they are watching in absolute horror as Palestinian civilians, who bear no responsibility for the actions of Hamas, are caught in a devastating siege. Some 2,778 Palestinians have been killed at this moment. A significant number of them were children. That number is already out of date as I say this, because we have reports coming in that thousands of Palestinians were killed just this afternoon in an air strike on a hospital in Gaza.

Nearly 10,000 people are wounded in Gaza and hundreds of thousands more displaced by an evacuation order, going without food, without water, without electricity and unable to leave. Here in Ontario, people are desperately trying to reach their loved ones, family and friends in the area. Others have already received devastating news and are mourning their loss and experiencing real pain. Members of this assembly, our staff, our constituents are all deeply impacted by this, and my heart is with them during this impossibly difficult time.

The region is spiraling, and Canada must act now to save lives. We are watching potential war crimes in real time, and the pain and the suffering we are witnessing is only going to get worse. As provincial legislators, it can feel sometimes like we are powerless to affect conflicts on a global scale, even as we see the reverberations here in our own communities. We can’t resolve this war in this chamber, but we can use the power we do have to bring people together, to acknowledge the hurt and work together in healing. This is a moment that this government could use our time here in this place to do just that.

I have to say, Speaker, unfortunately I don’t believe that this motion accomplishes that. That’s why we in the opposition worked in good faith. We put in a lot of time to put forward an amendment to this motion to recognize the scale of what’s happening and who is affected. It was an amendment that takes nothing, absolutely nothing, away from the motion that we are debating. I want to reference that addition because I think it will inform our debate on the main motion. It reads as follows:

“The House calls on the government of Canada to advocate for the immediate release of all hostages, the protection of all civilians in accordance with international law, an end to the siege and bombardment of Gaza, and for humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian civilians urgently and without restriction.”

That was added to the existing language. We didn’t try to change the language that exists there. We just wanted to add this because we think that by omitting this aspect of the current conflict, this motion that’s before us risks obscuring what’s happening in the region right now as we speak. Without this, I fear we won’t be meeting the moment we are in. Instead of bringing people together, we risk raising the temperature here in Ontario and, with it, the very real impacts on people in our communities. I urge the government to support our amendment or withdraw the motion and work with communities and all parties in this Legislature to bring forward a motion that truly unifies people. That would be true leadership.

Speaker, we cannot look away from what is happening in Israel and Gaza right now, and we need the federal government to be a voice for peace. Anything less would be a betrayal of our values as Canadians. Israel has suffered one of the most horrific tragedies in its history. They are still experiencing rocket attacks and evacuating parts of the country. People remain in a state of fear and vigilance. Palestinians are suffering on a scale we have never seen as a result of this siege of Gaza.

Canada must today insist on the respect of international law, of humanitarian principles and urge Israel to rescind the evacuation order as the United Nations has called for. Canada must continue to call for immediate release of all hostages and the protection of all civilians in accordance with international law. We must call for a ceasefire and an end to the siege and the bombardment of Gaza. With the rest of the international community, we must work to ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians urgently and without restriction.

It’s about humanity, like finding the humanity in all of us in this moment, in a really difficult time. It’s a challenge for a lot of people who are hurting. I feel it. But all of us in this chamber, in our communities, we must condemn all acts of anti-Semitism and all anti-Palestinian racism. That includes any glorification or calls for the killing of innocent people, Israeli or Palestinian. These are difficult and perilous times. It’s difficult for many of us to even imagine the pain and the devastation—you know, when I wrote that, I thought to myself, actually, there are many people in this chamber who themselves I’m sure have experienced war and oppression. And I will say I think it’s inevitable that we bring those experiences with us and that they inform much of who we are. But things are not without humanity, because so many Israelis and Palestinians—medical workers, human rights advocates, humanitarians and just ordinary citizens—are doing what they can to preserve life in the face of such horror.

I want to challenge those of us in this chamber to look at what we can do to end the scourge of war and terror; to fight for peace; to bring people together, not tear them apart; and to never use this horrific conflict for domestic political gain.

The horrific terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas has evoked historical memories of anti-Semitic hatred. There is immense sorrow and fear being felt around the world. Nothing justifies the organized, targeted slaughter of civilians, and it must always be condemned.

Hamas does not accept the existence of Israel and employs violence as a means to achieve their end.

Israel has a right under international law to defend itself and, in the coming days, it will try to rescue the hostages and neutralize Hamas.

In Gaza, there are innocent civilians who are in harm’s way. The governments of Israel and other countries, including Canada, have a responsibility to uphold international law and to minimize innocent civilian casualties. Canada has called for unimpeded humanitarian access and a humanitarian corridor to civilians in Gaza, which would be a good step. For the good of the entire international community, the governments of Israel and other countries must keep in mind the need to retain prospects for peace in the long term.

Here at home, our social bonds and political sympathies may lie in different places, but we have an obligation to live together respectfully. Respect can begin with acknowledging the pain and anguish on all sides of this conflict. Perhaps it is in our own communities where many are grief-stricken, but relationships between different diaspora communities within the Canadian social fabric are not yet broken. Perhaps it is there that the seeds of future peace may find fertile ground. There is no place for hatred towards each other in Ontario.

Let’s work against division at home. Salaam. Shalom. Peace.

Madam Speaker, I stand here with a very heavy heart. Every single one of us in this chamber is reeling in shock and dismay at what is transpiring at this moment in the Holy Land, which began early Saturday morning last week when the vicious terrorist group Hamas broke through the border fence from Gaza to Israel and massacred hundreds of civilians. They killed men, women and children, young and old, Jew and Bedouin Arab alike.

This was terrorism. This was cruelty, not only to strike civilians, but to strike Jewish civilians on Shabbat—an echo of countless violent moments throughout the history of the Jewish people.

Israel has a right to defend itself within the confines of international law, much like any other sovereign state. In the comfort of this House and the stability of Ontario, we can say that with ease. We are safe here, far away from marauding gunmen and exploding of rockets. Over there, it is war, and all war means is that thousands of people—Israelis, Palestinians, Canadians, Americans, United Nations personnel, Doctors Without Borders volunteers—will die.

What are we doing to stop the bloodshed? It was an Ontarian—a Torontonian—who came up with the UN’s peacekeeping initiative: the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson. That is who we should aspire to be, but all we can offer today is words. We could be debating sending funds to assist, medical personnel, material support to civilians and to the federal government as they try to get Canadians home.

I came to Queen’s Park to make the world a better place, so let’s all work to accomplish that. I stand against hate which divides, which only ever leads to suffering. I stand for peace. We must all stand for peace for the innocent civilians of Israel and Palestine, because as we give our speeches here, thousands of innocent men, women and children are dying, and that is a tragedy for all.

I rise to support this motion and the House’s condemnation of the ongoing and reprehensible attacks being carried out against the people of Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas.

To my friends in the Palestinian community, I stand with you and your concern for those loved ones who are back in Gaza who are being used as human shields by these terrorists.

As of today, over 1,400 Israelis lie dead at the hands of Hamas. An additional 3,400 have been injured. Hamas’ terrorist attack on October 7 resulted in the highest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust. Among those killed are six Canadians: 22-year-old Shir Georgy, who was killed while enjoying a music festival; 33-year-old Adi Vital-Kaploun, who has been described by her family as a beautiful woman who brought love and lightness to the people around her; 22-year-old Ben Mizrachi, described by his teachers as being a kind, wonderful and community-minded young man who had a positive influence on everyone around him; 33-year-old Alexandre Look, who was described as a hero wanting to protect the people he was with, by his father; 21-year-old Netta Epstein, who jumped on a grenade to save the life of his fiancée; and Tiferet Lapidot, a brilliant young woman who had just celebrated her 23rd birthday.

We will keep them in our prayers, and we will not let their names or their stories be forgotten.

Speaker, in 2019, I supported the passage of an Act to combat antisemitism, and I thank my colleague from Eglinton–Lawrence for putting forward that legislation with me. This act utilizes the working definition of anti-Semitism and the list of illustrated examples adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance plenary on May 26, 2016. Jewish Ontarians have been protected from discrimination and hate amounting to anti-Semitism under this act.

I remember, Speaker, the first time I got to go to a Righteous Among the Nations ceremony at the Jewish consulate here in Toronto. They were honouring a Dutch family, teachers who hid Jewish people in the Second World War. Their daughter was there to accept the award on behalf of her parents, who had passed away. I remember people asking me, “Why did you bring forward this anti-Semitism act? You don’t have a large Jewish community in your riding. You are not Jewish yourself,” and I can’t help but think of the words of the daughter of these brave Dutch people who hid Jews. She said, “You know, it’s interesting. We never talked with my parents about why they did what they did. They never talked about it with their friends, why they did what they did. They just did it because it was the right thing to do.” And we stand here today with this motion in front of us because it is the right thing to do.

Here today, I pledge once again to stand with Jewish Ontarians, many of whom are grieving the losses of friends and family in Israel, and condemn the heinous crimes Hamas has carried out against Israel and the anti-Semitic rhetoric of those who support Hamas’s frenzied evil.

I spoke to a Jewish friend last week. She told me, though tears, that they had come to her cousin’s school with knives. That happens here. We cannot allow that to happen under our watch. I just listened to the Minister of Colleges and Universities call out names, and have them recorded in this House, of people who stand for this kind of terror in this province. That is unacceptable. We cannot allow that to happen in our nation and in this province.

Canada is home to the third-largest Jewish population outside of Israel, and the majority of these Canadian Jews live in Ontario. Over the course of the last week, Jewish Ontarians have shown remarkable resilience in the face of various anti-Semitic threats directed towards Jewish schools, including hate-fuelled threats made to Jewish high school students at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto. There have also been blatant displays of support for terrorists in our province, as some demonstrators flew both Hamas and Taliban flags at a protest in Mississauga this past week.

By condemning Hamas, our government will make it clear to Ontarians, especially Jewish Ontarians, that we unequivocally support Israel, rebuke the actions of terrorists and stand against anti-Semitism. To that end, there are those who have branded Hamas as freedom fighters or revolutionaries. Freedom fighters do not enter kibbutz after kibbutz, opening fire indiscriminately on civilians. Freedom fighters do not intentionally target civilians at music festivals. Revolutionaries do not rape innocent mothers and daughters, and revolutionaries do not kill innocent babies and children too young to even comprehend the fervid hatred that is being exacted upon them. These are the actions of terrorists, and we must not allow moral equivalences to be made between terrorists who descend on music festivals full of innocent young people with the intent to rape and kill as many Jews as possible, as Hamas has done, and the IDF soldiers who have retaliated against Hamas combatants who used civilian lives as shields and whose terrorist base of operations was once located underneath a hospital.

To compound their misery, those in Gaza are facing a water crisis in addition to the violence of war. Yet, in shocking video released by Hamas themselves, Hamas soldiers can be seen digging up water pipes in Gaza, which were then re-lathed and machined into missiles to fire at Israel.

If there was even a shred of doubt left in the mind of those still defending the barbaric actions of Hamas, recent photos have shown Hamas soldiers blocking the evacuation of Gaza residents from the conflict zone. The only people twisted enough to trap the people they claim to represent in what is becoming an inhospitable stretch of rubble can be described only as terrorists, and their actions hurt both Israelis and Palestinians alike.

We cannot negotiate or come to a peaceful resolution with terrorists. War is ugly and must be avoided at all costs. However, when a sovereign state is faced with an existential terrorist threat, defensive measures must be taken.

If Hamas stopped fighting today and released the Israeli hostages they still hold, peace could return immediately. In contrast, if Israel stopped fighting, Hamas would continue to rape, murder and torture every Israeli until the state of Israel and every Jew within it was totally and violently destroyed. Every drop of blood spilled needlessly in Gaza, both Israeli and Palestinian, is on the hands of Hamas. It is Israel’s inalienable right as a legitimate and sovereign state to protect its people and its border.

Israel and Canada have long stood as partners on the world stage. Our friendship with the Israeli people is rooted in our shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It is the duty of our government to condemn Hamas’ attempts to erode these values and support Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law and in Gaza.

While the situation in Gaza remains chaotic and shrouded by the fog of war, three things are clear:

—Hamas is a terrorist organization and must be condemned;

—anti-Semitism has no place in Ontario or anywhere; and

—I and we stand with the sovereign state of Israel and recognize its inalienable right to defend itself and its people against this horrific violence.

Madam Speaker, I will continue to pray for peace.