As violent anti-Israel demonstrators block access to airports in the United States, harass Christmas shoppers in Canadian shopping malls and glorify Hamas terrorism on streets across the Western world, a recent Globe and Mail article shed sympathetic light on pro-Palestinian activists who have spread hatred.

In a December 28 article in The Globe & Mail entitled: “Israel-Hamas war roils campuses, workplaces as online campaigns target ideological opponents,” International Correspondent Nathan Vanderklippe presented a compassionate portrait of Dalida Alhaddad, a 24-year-old student living in Ottawa, writing that she “feels so strongly about Palestinian issues” because she was born in the Gaza Strip and witnessed the impact of war first-hand.

In the article, Vanderklippe wrote that Alhaddad has been profiled by Canary Mission, a website aimed at exposing anti-Israel students and academics, and says her actions, according to the website, include recommending “a book written by a terrorist” and that she “advocated to free a Palestinian man who has spent long periods in Israeli prison isolation after chasing a man through the streets of an Israeli settlement with a knife as a teenager.”

As Vanderklippe wrote near the end of the article, Alhaddad “does not deny making the comments the website attributes to her.”

In reality, Alhaddad’s anti-Israel venom stretches far beyond those statements, though Vanderklippe’s descriptions downplay their significance.

The “book written by a terrorist” is Men in the Sun, a novel written by Ghassan Kanafani, a senior leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a banned terrorist organization in Canada.

On September 10, 2021, Alhaddad posted on her Instagram page a video of Palestinian prisoners who had escaped an Israeli prison being re-arrested, alongside the caption: “This is the moment when Isr*eli (sic) army arrested two of the six heroes who freed themselves from the Gilboa prisons. This is the moment when we all became prisoners again.”

The prisoners who Alhaddad referred to as “heroes” were in actuality six convicted members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, also banned terrorist organizations in Canada. The prisoners were arrested for their involvement in terrorist attacks against Israel.

Vanderklippe’s article quoted or paraphrased representatives from four anti-Israel organizations for their take on Canary Mission, including one interviewee who described the campaign to expose anti-Israel activists as “doxing tactics, these intimidation tactics, these bullying tactics,” while another derided such efforts as “smear campaigns.”

While Vanderklippe cited “online discussions (which) have grown toxic,” the article failed to underscore the level of unbridled anti-Israel hatred and explicit antisemitism which have infested North American campuses, particularly since October 7. Additionally, nowhere in his article did the author once quote a dissenting voice who offered support for the efforts to expose those spreading hateful anti-Israel disinformation on college and university campuses.

Instead, Vanderklippe referred to the exposure of anti-Israel activists messages as “in retaliation” for expressing pro-Palestinian views.

The moral necessity in exposing the hateful bile produced by anti-Israel activists, particularly those who are post-secondary students or faculty at such institutions, is vital to holding them accountable. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides the right to free expression, but it does not protect people from the natural consequences of making hateful speech.

As anti-Israel activists continue to physically harass the general public and seek to intimidate them into silence, shining a critical light on those who promote hatred in society is a worthy cause. After all, sunlight is the best disinfectant.