Gerry Chidiac is a high school teacher in Prince George, British Columbia and opinion columnist for the local newspaper, the Prince George Daily News, where he has repeatedly used his platform to fixate on Israel, a country located some 10,000 kilometres away, even going so far as to appear in our eyes as comparing Israel’s counter-terrorism operations to the Nazis.

His social media activity, meanwhile, is almost exclusively filled with radical anti-Israel propaganda, including sharing posts again appearing to compare Israel to the Nazis, a post stating that “Israel is unadulterated evil,” spreading the conspiracy theory that Israel manipulated the U.S. into bombing Iran, sharing a video from the controversial Irish band Kneecap featuring an image of convicted Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti, with the caption “Free Marwan,” as well as sharing a post saying “I love Francesca,” referring to UN official Francesca Albanese, who has peddled antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Click below to view the shared posts:

In his August 5 opinion column in The Prince George Daily News entitled: “Israel must think beyond the current crisis,” (click here to view the article in full) Chidiac in our view attempted to frame Israel as the obstruction to peace in the Middle East, asking rhetorically whether Israel can achieve security “primarily through military power while remaining in seemingly permanent conflict with millions of other people who share the Levant?”

He then shared in detail allegations from two anti-Israel authors, Omer Bartov and Ilan Pappe, who have accused Jerusalem of genocide, before making his ultimate case that Israel has shown no interest in making peace with its neighbours.

While he offered passing mention to Islamic extremism and Hamas’ October 7 massacres, comparing them to Israeli counter-terrorism operations, Chidiac provided readers with no insight whatsoever into the openly genocidal worldview of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah or other groups, and their patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, who make no secret of their vision to destroy Israel.

This is a particularly curious omission for Chidiac, whose biography in the newspaper claims that he specializes in “genocide studies.”

It is those who seek to destroy Israel that are the ultimate obstacle to anything even remotely resembling peace in the region. What possible peace can arise when terrorist groups like Hamas – who, according to polls, have historically enjoyed widespread support in Palestinian society, including for its October 7, 2023 massacres – openly call for the annihilation of Israel?

For a columnist who previously claimed that “anti-Jewish sentiment has been largely absent in the pro-Palestine rallies,” this failure to recognize and acknowledge the genocidal worldview of Hamas and its supporters is inexcusable in our opinion.

Indeed, Chidiac exhibited little interest in introducing readers to this reality and instead continued to promote the narrative that Israel is an obstructionist country that has refused to meaningfully make peace with its neighbours.

Israel has signed peace agreements with multiple Arab & Islamic states, including Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Somaliland, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and it has repeatedly offered enormous swathes of land to the Palestinians for the creation of their own state (offers which have been rejected in favour of terrorism).

Once again, Chidiac made no mention of these central facts, either, instead relying on his consistent yet absurd message that Israel is the problem.

For a columnist who claims to specialize in genocide studies, Chidiac’s analysis displays a remarkable blind spot in our view: he scrutinizes Israel’s actions while largely ignoring the stated genocidal ambitions of those committed to destroying it. Does Chidiac employ this same kind of selective omission in his high school classroom?