Ontario NDP Distances Itself From MPP’s Tweet In Support Of Palestinian Terrorist

The Ontario NDP has distanced itself from a tweet made by Hamilton Centre’s MPP, Sarah Jama, on May 4, in support of a Palestinian terrorist who died during a hunger strike while in Israeli custody. The party released a statement that said the tweet does not reflect the views of MPP Jama or the Ontario NDP. Jama had retweeted a post by American academic Noura Erakat, who called the deceased Khader Adnan a “martyr for freedom.” Adnan was arrested by Israeli authorities as a member of the Islamic Jihad, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government.

This is not the first time Jama’s statements about Israel and the Hamilton police have caused controversy. During the byelection in March 2021, Jama’s past comments became a political issue. She accused the Hamilton police of protecting “Nazism” and “targeting Black Muslim Palestinians saying we don’t have the right to push to exist” in a video of her speech at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square. She also called Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli prime ministership illegitimate and said that there was a group funding the “killing of people here locally and globally.” Jama apologized for her statements shortly before the election, saying she made “a poor choice of words.”