Gideon Sa’ar and Anita Anand, foreign affairs ministers of Israel and Canada respectively, agreed on Monday that they held a phone call. But readouts from Jerusalem and Ottawa appeared to emphasize very different aspects of that conversation.
Sa’ar stated at about 11:30 a.m. Eastern time that he had spoken with Ananad and that he “described the sole aim of the extremist, anti-Israel flotilla activists: provocation at the service of Hamas.”
“Just look at the what they did afterwards in Spain, Greece and Austria,” the Israeli minister stated. “Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza.”
“I also highlighted the horrific antisemitic wave in Canada—an average of 19 incidents a day,” he added. “The Canadian government must take steps against antisemitic incitement and attacks.”
Anand issued a readout nearly four-and-a-half hours later.
“Spoke this morning with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to raise Canada’s serious concern with Israel’s mistreatment of Canadian participants in the flotilla,” the Canadian minister stated. “I raised that denying Canadian citizens access to consular services while they were detained violates the Vienna Convention and must never happen again.”
“Canada is providing Israeli authorities with evidence of this mistreatment,” Anand stated. “We have asked for and expect an independent investigation and those responsible to be held to account.”
“We also discussed the deplorable rise of antisemitism in Canada and the steps that the government of Canada is taking to protect Canada’s Jewish community from hate and violence,” she added.
