'Rogue state behaviour': Israel carrying out covert influence operations in Canada, report says

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.

"This rogue state behaviour has taken place within Canadian borders with a total lack of accountability, and requires immediate intervention by authorities."

While most countries are known to lobby one another in their own interest, Israeli activities cross a line because they are largely undisclosed, the report said. 

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. 

Influence operations

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.

Liberal Party insiders also discussed sharing the results with then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office before the poll's publication, the report noted.

The second example follows the federal court's ruling in 2019 that "Product of Israel" labels on goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are "misleading".

The report said that Israel’s Ministry of Justice "secretly" hired a law firm in Toronto to intervene in the legal dispute and had staffers from that firm draft talking points for Canadian officials on the issue. 

The objective was to pressure Canada into appealing the ruling and preserving the labelling system favourable to Israel, CJPME said. 

The third example pertains to "propaganda junkets" by the Israeli government that "use Canadian entities as proxies" to send politicians and other influential figures on all-expense-paid trips to Israel.

"The lack of transparency around these delegations is a major issue, as the entire purpose... is to build support for Israel and influence Canadian politics," the report said, pointing to unelected Canadians who are not bound by the same disclosure policies as lawmakers.

"Even if these junkets were fully transparent, they would still be unethical, which is why [former] Prime Minister Brian Mulroney banned his colleagues from accepting paid trips to Apartheid South Africa in 1985 (although some Conservative MPs defied the voluntary ban)," CJPME said. 

A 'campaign of transnational repression'

The fourth example is of a mass disinformation campaign aimed at Canadians by the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, first revealed in 2024.

"Israel commissioned a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv to create fake English- language websites, including one called United Citizens for Canada, as well as hundreds of fake social media accounts powered by ChatGPT, to spread racist and pro-Israel messages," the report said.

The messaging portrayed Muslims as threats to western society, and the report highlighted "Israel’s strategy of repressing global pro-Palestinian movements outside its borders". 

At the time, Ottawa admitted that the fake platforms were considered interference, and corroborated "elements" of the allegations when it raised its concerns with Israel, but no known accountability measures were taken. 

Finally, CJPME's report described what it called "a campaign of transnational repression" by Israel, which includes surveillance, profiling, and doxxing of activists in Canada who criticise Israel.

"Recent efforts by Israel through the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs have sought to brand any opposition to its illegal blockade of Gaza as a conspiracy of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood," it said, also citing Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, who has said that the Canadian government should "limit" certain "freedoms".

To that end, it recommended banning the procurement of Israeli spyware, which aids in tracking critics. 

The report named NSO Group's Pegasus, Cytrox’s Predator, and Paragon Solution’s Graphite. 

"The Government of Canada has many legal and diplomatic tools available to fight foreign interference," the report said, and recommended that Ottawa expel the Israeli ambassador and other diplomats, and sanction all actors involved in covert influence campaigns. 

"A holistic approach to countering illicit Israeli influence will require holding Israeli state officials accountable while finding ways to discourage Canadian participation in these schemes," it concluded.