National Public Radio (NPR) has refused to discipline one of its reporters for apparently violating the organization’s own guidelines on ethical reporting.

As CAMERA previously reported (“NPR’s Former Israel Reporter ‘Sad’ That Hoax Anti-Israel Agitprop Not Real,” Feb. 2, 2016), the network’s former Jerusalem bureau chief, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro said on Twitter that she was “sad” that a fake New York Times editorial distributed by anti-Israel activists wasn’t real.

The fake New York Times editorial apologized—absurdly enough given the paper’s documented anti-Israel slant (see, for example, “New York Times Tilts against Israel Whenever it Can,” CAMERA, Jan. 14, 2016)—for a pro-Israel bias in its coverage. As CAMERA’s Gilead Ini has documented, numerous journalists fell for the forgery despite it not appearing on The New York Times Web site and having several “farcical advertisements with anti-Israel messages.” Lourdes Garcia-Navarro didn’t—but on Twitter she did tell a believing colleague, Matthew Bell of Public Radio, that the material was “fake, sadly.”

The editorial falsely claimed that “during the period of September-October 2015, eighteen headlines depicted Palestinians, while none depicted Israelis, as instigators of violence.” Ini wondered: “Does Garcia-Navarro really want to see New York Times headlines cast innocent Israeli men, women, and children stabbed by Palestinian terrorists as ‘instigators’ of violence?”

During her time as a reporter in Israel, Garcia-Navarro exhibited a pronounced anti-Israel, pro-Arab tilt as CAMERA has noted (see, for example, “On Israel, NPR is No Perspective Radio,” July, 18, 2012).

Unsure if the government-subsidized network was aware of the offending tweet, CAMERA contacted Elizabeth Jensen, NPR’s ombudsman on February 3, pointing out that Garcia-Navarro seemingly violated the organization’s social media policy. The guidelines state that journalists should “refrain from advocating for political or other polarizing issues online” and should not “express personal views on a political or other controversial issue that you could not write for the air or post on NPR.org.” Further, the guidelines insist, “Our standards of impartiality also apply to social media.”

CAMERA asked Jensen what NPR intended to do regarding Garcia-Navarro’s display of bias. The ombudsman passed on the following response from the newsroom:

“Lourdes Garcia-Navarro no longer covers the Middle East and does not shape NPR’s coverage of the region. We do not think her two-word tweet—“fake, sadly”—was advocacy. But it was subject to misinterpretation. It’s particularly important to be careful when posting on social media.”

NPR did not say how the tweet could be misinterpreted nor did it specify how it did not amount to advocacy. Moreover, as CAMERA pointed out to Jensen, the organization’s claim that Garcia-Navarro no longer shapes NPR coverage of the Middle East due to her current posting in Brazil does not pass muster.

Brazil’s domestic and foreign policy have components strongly related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. And the claim that Garcia-Navarro, from Brazil, no longer covers news relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict is patently false, as her December 30 report “Brazil Rejects Israel’s Ambassador: Israel Threatens Relations Downgrade,” illustrates. Brazil, the reporter writes, “Has made a point of its policies on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.”

CAMERA noted these points to NPR’s ombudsman, who said she took note of them. Here the newsroom’s obfuscation turned to silence.

By its silence, NPR has answered the question whether or not it will reprimand a staffer for an apparent violation of its own guidelines against political advocacy. The network’s own written standards are explicit in this matter—even if enforcement of them is lacking. The next time listeners hear NPR invoke its commitment to impartiality, they would be wise to take it with a grain of salt. Or maybe the whole shaker.

Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, wants to “mend ties with Iran,” according to two analysts.

Grant Rumley and Amir Toumaj, researchers at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, note that Hamas is reaching out to Tehran.

Rumley and Tourmaj report that a “senior Hamas delegation,” including the movement’s international relations head Osama Hamdan, politburo member Mohammad Nasr and Khalid al-Qaddoumi, Hamas’ ambassador to Iran, went to Iran to attend celebrations of the 37th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution on February 11.

The Hamas delegation met with the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani.
Relations between Hamas and its principal benefactor, Iran, have been shaky in recent years. As Rumley and Tourmaj note, the terrorist group “has historically enjoyed Tehran’s generous financial, material and political support, but relations soured in 2012 when the Hamas leadership—then based in Damascus—publicly sided with the largely Sunni rebels against the Iranian-backed Syrian regime.”

Had Hamas chosen to side overtly with Tehran in the Syrian civil war, it likely would have faced blowback in the Sunni Arab world. Hamas, like other Iranian-supported Palestinian Arab terror groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is comprised of Sunni Muslims, the dominant brand of Islam in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), and eastern Jerusalem. In this, it conflicts with the Shi’ite theocracy of the Islamic Republic. As Middle East scholar Jonathan Schanzer, among others, has pointed out, ties with Tehran have led to rivals and the Palestinian public questioning both PIJ and Hamas’ legitimacy (Hamas vs. Fatah, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

PIJ’s refusal to support Iranian backing of the Houthis in Yemen’s ongoing civil war also has led to a deterioration of that group’s relations with its Iranian benefactor—leading to Tehran reportedly cutting 90 percent of its funding for Islamic Jihad. In addition, the mullahs have supported a new Palestinian terror group called Al-Sabireen, which is Shi’te and as CAMERA has noted (“Journalist Profiles New Iranian-backed Palestinian Terror Group,” Oct. 29, 2015) is thought to be recruiting from disaffected members of Fatah, the majority movement in the Palestinian Authority.

In 2012, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh declared his support for opponents of Iranian-backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, saying he “salutes the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform.” Of course, Haniyeh’s praise for democracy and reform do not extend to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip where the group has refused to hold elections and routinely imprisons—and tortures—journalists (see, for example, “Hamas Cracks Down—on Palestinian Journalists,” CAMERA, Jan. 13, 2016).

Yet, Haniyeh’s stance was not unanimously supported within the terror group. Rumley and Tourmaj note that “several members affiliated with the military wing” of Hamas, “continued to court Iranian support and technology just as before. In March 2014, Israel intercepted a cargo ship bearing Iranian arms headed for Gaza.” In August of that year, the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stated that it had given Hamas advanced rockets for use during Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge against the movement, PIJ and similar groups.

According to Hamas’ Hamdan, the objective of the recent visit to Tehran was to reach an understanding on the Syrian civil war. Hamdan said that Hamas now supports a political resolution in the country—a reversal that is perhaps the result of recognition of growing Assad wins and strength following increased Iranian and Russian involvement to prop up the dictator.

Hamas member Khalid al-Qaddoumi said the Iranians pledged continued support against Israel. Hamdan told Iranian media that Iranian officials fully supported the ongoing terror attacks against Israelis that have occurred in Jerusalem and elsewhere.

The FDD analysts report that although Hamas has fissures and elements of the terror group have increasingly sought support from Iranian-rivals like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, nonetheless the group “knows it will find no more committed or generous patron than the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Grant Rumley and Amir Toumaj’s February 23 Jerusalem Post Op-ed can be found here.

So much of the news coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is tainted by bias and subjectivity. That is why it is notable when a major media outlet publishes an article on the topic that is informative and free from bias. Such was the case on Feb. 22, 2016 in Time Magazine. In “The Next War Between Israel and Hamas May Be Fought Underground,” correspondent Kate Shuttleworth (with help from Mohammad al-Zaharna) provides readers with the facts and refreshing insight from interviews in Gaza about the looming danger.

Shuttleworth describes Hamas’s expansive tunnel digging into Israel near the Gaza border in preparation for its next war with Israel. She manages to find unusually candid subjects to explore the diverging opinions among Gazans.

One of them, Mkhaimer Abusada, is a professor of political science at al-Azhar University in Gaza. Abusada “estimates that two-thirds of the Gazan population do not support another war with Israel,” but admits there are many who do. According to Abusada,

“The Palestinian community in Gaza is divided — those affiliated with Hamas are very comfortable with the strategy of digging tunnels and developing missiles. Hamas creates an illusion that Israel will be defeated and that people will be able to pray in al-Aqsa mosque — people buy this fantasy.”

Abusada also asserts that building materials intended to help rebuild homes destroyed in the last round of fighting are diverted by Hamas to help in the construction of the tunnels.

Shuttleworth also interviews a Gazan mother of a tunnel digger who firmly supports Hamas. Shuttleworth writes,

Yousra al Shobaki, mother of 22-year-old Ghazwan, who dug tunnels and fought for Hamas’s military wing, al-Qassam, told TIME she supports Hamas’ efforts. “We will win in the end. I ask all the mothers in Gaza to support the jihad and to go to the mosques to teach them how to defend their country — and to teach their sons what jihad means. I wish all the young Qassam men the best in their work, and I hope they will win in the end of all these conflicts with the Israelis. There is no such thing as Israel — these people occupied our land, there is nothing called Israel.

The Time piece puts the Gaza population at 1.2 million. This estimate is in line with figures calculated by a group of Israeli demographers, whose controversial study asserts that the official Palestinian Authority figures exaggerate the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza by more than a million.

Shuttleworth’s informed and objective reporting contrasts with that of longtime correspondent Karl Vick, whom CAMERA has criticized on several occasions. It also demonstrates more of a commitment to journalistic standards in covering the Israeli-Arab conflict than found at the struggling news magazine Newsweek, once regarded as Time’s main competitor.

A Reuters article about the demolition of the homes of 2 Palestinian terrorists who murdered several innocent civilians — Israelis, an American and a Palestinian — adopted the Palestinian position about recent violence.

While the article presented both the Israeli claim that such demolitions serve as a deterrence to would-be terrorists and the Palestinian claim that the demolitions are collective punishment, when it came to explaining the recent wave of Palestinian terrorist stabbings, shootings, slayings and rioting, the article relayed the Palestinian position as fact, not claim. It asserted that:

The recent violence has been stoked by various factors, including a dispute over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory.

This indirect shifting of the blame for violence onto Israel may be what the Palestinian leadership claims, but it is not what the Israeli leadership believes and is certainly not a given fact, as the article suggests. It is not an agreed upon fact that the failure of peace talks is what motivates terrorists to kill innocent cvilians, or that Israelis visiting the “al Aqsa mosque compound” has caused Palestinians to attack Israelis with knives and guns. Indeed, Israelis view the “al Aqsa mosque compound”, otherwise known as “The Temple Mount,” as the holiest site in Judaism and they cling to their right under the status quo to visit, just like members of any other faith. Israelis do not see this as the issue stoking Palestinian violence, despite efforts by the Palestinian leadership to claim it is.

Although the article’s last paragraph notes that “Israel says young Palestinians are being incited to violence by their leaders and by Islamist groups calling for Israel’s destruction.” this is presented as a “claim” by Israel, unlike the earlier paragraph where the Palestinian position is presented as fact.

It is just these sort of subtle difference that can tinge an article with bias and skew the story toward one side’s position.

The Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has done the right thing and deleted a page that promoted a dishonest and hateful Lenten Reflection edited by one of its missionaries who works for the YWCA of Palestine. Evidence of the deletion can be seen here. Also, screenshot of the now defunct page can be seen at the top of this entry.

Global Ministries has also deleted the link to the page promoting the document from its newsfeed.

The action came after CAMERA published an article highlighting the problems with the Lenten document (which was in turn covered by The Jerusalem Post).

In addition to highlighting the problems with the text, CAMERA also contacted all of the Conference Ministers in the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ alerting them to the problems with the Lenten Reflection.

The YWCA of Palestine was the first institution that stopped promoting the document. Global Ministries promoted the text for approximately another day after the YWCA stopped promoting it.

CAMERA commends Global Ministries for doing the right thing.

With all of the incredibly important issues requiring reporting, it is hard to understand why The Washington Post chose to highlight a 10-day trip to Israel being included in the Oscars gift bag (“This Year’s Oscar Swag Bag Includes a $55,000 Trip to Israel“). Many countries use the opulent, high profile Oscar night as a promotional tool to boost tourism, with tours, hotel stays, and vacations. Specifically, the quarter-million-dollar gift bag includes a private 15-day walking tour of Japan valued at nearly the same price as the Israel trip, $54,000, as well as stays at the Golden Door Resort & Spa in San Marcos, California, at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria in Sorrento, Italy, and at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como, Italy. The choice by Israel’s Ministry of Tourism to do the same is neither unique nor compelling. Yet, Post Israel Bureau Chief William Booth labels the Israel package as “part of an effort to sell Israel as a travel destination and not a conflict zone,” overlooking the many other trips in the “bag” and the fact that Israel is a travel destination, drawing over 3 million visitors per year. There is nothing revolutionary in the Ministry’s move to promote its appeal to an international audience.

Furthermore, though the news of the $55,000 Israel package being offered in the gift bag sparked efforts by advocates of the “Boycott, Divest, Sanction” (BDS) movement to have the certificate removed, Booth overstates the movement’s success. He uses Omar Barghouti, founder of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, as a credible source on the matter, despite Barghouti’s hypocrisy. While advocating boycott of Israel even in academia, Barghouti himself obtained a graduate degree from Tel Aviv University. His explanation of this? “My studies at Tel-Aviv University are a personal matter and I have no interest in commenting.” Barghouti has repeatedly obfuscated the fact that the intention of BDS is not a two-state solution, but dissolution of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state in its place. According to Barghouti, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism’s move to have this trip included on Oscar night is proof of the State “desperately trying to fight its increasing isolation through bribes and intimidation rather than ending its occupation and apartheid.” In fact, this is a non-story of a country going about normal governmental and promotional business, yet Booth does not question Barghouti’s statements. There is not any suggestion that, perhaps, such a conclusion is unfounded and biased.

Booth does not point to the overwhelming evidence that directly contradicts Barghouti’s claim that BDS is successfully isolating Israel. There is no mention of Israel having recently signed a new trade deal with Russia, of Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, making an official visit to the State during which she stated her unequivocal support of Israel, or of the EU’s decision not to remove “Made in Israel” labels from products originating beyond Israel’s 1967 lines. All of this despite the unceasing efforts of BDS to seal Israel off from the international community. Rather than finding itself in “increasingly isolation,” as Barghouti and Booth would have readers believe, Israel continues to make and be recognized for its vital contributions to research in technology, medicine, and other industries.

So, why is Israel singled out for taking identical promotional actions as several other countries? Is this evidence of some bias when it comes to Post reporting on Israel? Well, is any other country impugned or maligned in a story as unimportant as the gifts actors and directors can expect to receive at the Academy Awards?

–Rachel Frommer, CAMERA Intern

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is hoping to upgrade its ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a non-profit organization that translates Arab media in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), the Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem, the PA is making a concerted effort to court Tehran.

PMW notes that PA President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offering congratulations on the 37th anniversary of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, Feb. 11, 2016. Abbas Zaki, a central committee member of Fatah, the movement that dominates the PA, traveled to Iran to celebrate the anniversary. On his way to the Islamic Republic, Zaki stopped at the Iranian embassy in Amman, Jordan to celebrate.

Once in Iran, Zaki told Lebanese TV station Al-Mayadeen (which claims objectivity but reportedly reflects Syrian and Iran governmental views): “Iran is treating the Palestinian cause as an internal [Iranian] cause…Iran should be available for its primary mission, which is Palestine.”

Previous statements by Zaki seem to indicate that the “primary mission,” as the Fatah leader may conceive it, it is the destruction of the Jewish state.

On March 12, 2014 Zaki said, “Israelis have no religion and no principles. They are nothing but advanced tools for evil…Allah will gather them so that we can kill them.”

As CAMERA has noted (“‘Pragmatic’ and ‘Self-Critical’ Palestinian Official Claims the U.S. Created ISIS (Again),” Jan. 20, 2016) Zaki, once called “self-critical” by The Washington Post and “pragmatic” by The New York Times, has claimed that the United States created the terrorist group ISIS.

PMW reports that speaking to Al-Mayadeen, Zaki extolled the virtues of the theocratic, totalitarian dictatorship in Tehran:

“This anniversary has significance for us Palestinians, as it influenced life in Iran and the entire region, and created changes which still exist in the consciousness and in politics…we need to update them [Iran] about it [the Palestinian cause], especially since Iran is a key player in the Middle East.’”

Perhaps referring to role of Iranian-backed terrorist groups like Hamas (the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Zaki then claimed that Palestinian Arabs are “firefighters in the case of conflicts here or there.” Hamas and PIJ are sometime rivals of the PA and its ruling Fatah bloc.

PMW notes that a visit by Palestinian officials to Iran was talked about by PA President Abbas last August. At the time, Abbas said PA-Iranian relations “haven’t been good.” According to a PMW translation of PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Abbas said Tehran would welcome a visit by Palestinian officials and the possibility of improved relations “especially after the nuclear agreement between Iran and the countries of the world has been achieved.”

According to the U.S. State Department, Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism, including backing groups that call for Israel’s destruction like Hamas, Hezbollah, PIJ and Al-Sabireen, among others. In January 2016, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that some of the estimated $100 billion or more in sanctions relief given to Iran as part of the agreement between the United States, China, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Iran over the latter’s presumed and if confirmed illegal nuclear weapons program is likely to go to terrorism.

Perhaps with these funds in mind, Zaki told Al-Hayat Al-Jadida in August 2015 that he would go to Iran to prepare for a future visit by Abbas. The “development of our ties with Iran is an inevitable step if we want to confront the Israeli occupation,” Zaki said.

Zaki did not specify who he expected to foot the bill for such a “confrontation.” Sometimes travel itineraries speak louder than words.

The YWCA Chapter located in Jerusalem, which bills itself as the YWCA of Palestine has, as of this writing, removed a hateful Lenten Reflection produced by an American missionary from the United Church of Christ.

CAMERA exposed and documented the hostility and falsehoods included in the reflection, edited by Rev. Loren McGrail in an article posted on Friday, February 19, 2016.

The Lenten Reflection was posted on the WYCA’s website here, but readers who click on the link will not find the document.

The Jerusalem Post covered the controversy with this article.

The image above shows how the URL in question is currently displayed.

CAMERA commends the YWCA in Jerusalem for doing the right thing.

Update 10:44 a.m.: The document in question is still available on the YWCA’s website, it’s just that the link to the document has been removed. The URL for the PDF still provides access to the document in question.

1. A form of treating Leukemia pioneered by Israeli immunologist Zelig Esshar cured 94% of cases of Leukemia in a recent trial. Eshhar has been conducting T-cell research for over a decade, and in 2014 was recognized by leading industry publication Human Gene Therapy along with Dr. Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania for their work in the field. Their immune-based treatment is especially effective against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, the most common and once the most deadly childhood cancer, that only a few decades ago was considered incurable.

Israel is a world leader in the treatment of Leukemia. For example, the Herzliya Medical Center boasts of extraordinary cure rates for Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (claiming up to 91%), a form of Leukemia that was once a virtual death sentence. Breakthroughs in Leukemia are of particular significance because of the blood cancer’s occurrence in all age groups including the very young.

2. Apparently such life-saving breakthroughs do not impress everyone. Seveny-one British physicians have called for the expulsion of Israeli physicians from the World Medical Association (WMA). This is not the first time this group has demanded the expulsion of Israel from the world medical body. None of the letter signers can claim to have pioneered a breakthrough in treating childhood Leukemia, but they wear their self-proclaimed humanitarianism ever so ostentatiously.

An anti-Zionist web site published what it claims is a copy of the letter sent to the WMA. The letter rehashes the sort of allegations made in a similar letter seven years ago accusing Israeli doctors of using “torture as an instrument of state policy.” Such allegations have previously been exposed as lacking substantiation.

In fact, despite the state of war that exists between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip, Israeli hospitals provide life-saving medical services to thousands of Gazans. This continues despite the risk that Gazan patients will carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli medical personnel providing them with critical care. Such an incident occurred in 2005, when a Gazan woman, Wafa al Bass, undergoing treatment at an Israeli facility for severe burns from a cooking accident, tried to detonate a concealed bomb in order to kill the nurses and doctors attending to her.

One of the letter’s co-signers, British psychiatrist Derek Summerfield, has campaigned for decades to ostracize Israel. The fact that Palestinians stricken by intractable illnesses and devastating childhood conditions benefit enormously from Israeli medical interventions is apparently unimportant to these anti-Israel doctors who through their political agitation against Israeli doctors expose the emptiness of their hippocratic oath.

Members of Canada’s government have acknowledged that the country’s humanitarian aid can end up in the hands of terrorists, including the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and Hamas.

According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), Canada’s International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said the country’s aid goes to “whoever needs help” and could help both sides in a conflict, potentially including terrorists.

Minister Bibeau’s parliamentary secretary, Karina Gould, said that the policy of dispersing aid in a “neutral, impartial fashion” is in line with the Geneva Convention and previous Canadian policy.

IPT reports that on Feb. 16, 2016, the ruling Canadian government was asked about plans to give $15 million in new funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Rona Ambrose, the interim Conservative party leader, asserted that Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Canada, the United States, European Union and Israel, among others, has ties with UNRWA.

Ambrose stated that UNRWA hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip have been used by Hamas as shields to launch indiscriminate missile attacks at Israelis. Such attacks are war crimes under international law.

Publically available Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) footage has shown Hamas using schools for this purpose. On several occasions, stockpiles of rockets also have been found during inspections of UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip. In one instance, in July 2014, 20 rockets were found in an UNRWA school—only to be given to what the organizations spokesperson called “local authorities.” As an Israeli official pointed out that meant, “The rockets were passed on to the government authorities in Gaza, which is Hamas. In other words, UNRWA handed to Hamas rockets that could well be shot at Israel (“Rockets found in UNRWA school, for third time,” Times of Israel, July 30, 2016).”

A 2015 investigation by the U.N. found that Hamas used UNRWA schools as arsenals and launch pads (“U.N. Report Confirms Hamas Stored and Fired Weapons from U.N. Schools,” The Tower, April 28, 2015).

IPT notes that in 2004, UNRWA’s then Commissioner-General, Peter Hansen, “confirmed the U.N. connection to Hamas to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.” Hansen stated, “I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime.”

Although one doesn’t have to be a Hamas member to be an UNRWA employee, being antisemitic may help.

Elder of Ziyon, an American blogger who researches and writes about Israel and antisemitism, has documented how UNRWA’s Facebook for the Rameh school depicts cartoon Jews with hooked noses and Stars of David, being run over by Palestinian Arabs. Other UNRWA images similarly glorify vehicular assaults and praise terrorists.

U.N. Watch, a non-profit organization that seeks to ensure the United Nations is operating according to its own charter, launched a petition calling for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to investigate. In response, UNRWA Director Chris Gunness closed down the Facebook page, didn’t answer questions regarding the posts and sought to publically intimidate U.N. Watch on Twitter.

In the Canadian parliament, Ambrose noted the above issues with UNRWA and asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau why “he was restoring funding to an organization that has been linked to Hamas?”

Trudeau said that he had been “happy to welcome the U.N. Secretary General in Ottawa last week and to highlight that Canada is open to reengaging with the world in an open, positive, constructive way. Quite frankly, Canadians expect us to be helpful in the world.” Trudeau than went on to herald the “good work” of the U.N.

The prime minister did not specify how that included UNRWA’s Hamas connection.

A video of the exchange between Trudeau and Ambrose can be found here.