Trudeau minister, other MPs met with known anti-Semite, holocaust denier

The Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group, chaired by Liberal MP Salma Zahid, hosted Nazih Khatatba and others from his Meshwar Media group on Parliament Hill in what was described as a "solidarity ceremony."

Meshwar Media, an Arabic-language news outlet based in Toronto, has a history of anti-Semitism, having referred to the Holocaust as the "Holohoax" and "the biggest lie in history."

In 2015, the newspaper called Judaism a "terrorist religion," in which killing is ingrained, while also having been known to speak positively about Palestinian terrorists and murderers.

The media outlet praised the 2014 synagogue massacre in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood, in which Canadian citizen Chaim Rotman was murdered, as "courageous."

Just last week, Khatatba praised the heinous nail-bomb murder of 16-year-old Aryeh Schupak as a "quality operation" by Palestinians.

The event on Parliament Hill, in recognition of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, was attended by numerous Canadian politicians as well as advocacy groups and civil society leaders.

One of the politicians in attendance, NDP MP Niki Ashton, has previously received criticism for meeting with Khatatba in 2017 during an NDP leadership race fundraising event in Mississauga. The following week, Ashton made a statement rejecting Khatatba's endorsement of her leadership campaign.

"It is reprehensible that Canadian elected officials meet with those who praise the antisemitic slaughter of Canadian citizens," the advocacy group Documenting Antisemitism said in a tweet. "Who invited Khatatba to this event? How did he obtain a security pass? What ties does this Parliamentary Group have to Meshwar Media?"

"The Laith Marouf scandal has shown us that there is zero accountability in this country," Documenting Antisemitism followed with on Twitter, "and that antisemitism will continue to go unchecked until we do something about it."

Trudeau's Liberals got in hot water over the summer after it was revealed that senior consultant of the government's anti-racism action program, Syrian-born "pro-Palestinian" activist Laith Marouf, had previously made numerous anti-Semitic comments on Twitter.