Your Daily Spiel For May 18

Mahmoud al-Zahar, senior Hamas member, said “peaceful resistance,” is a deception. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International/ Wikimedia Commons)

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior member of Hamas and former foreign minister of the Hamas government, said that when his organization talks about “peaceful resistance,” it is a deception. He described this as “a clear terminological deception” and in no way a “peaceful resistance” in an interview last Sunday.

Canada was slow to respond to the May 14 violence in the Gaza Strip. Finally, two days later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a statement referring to the attack and the Canadian-Palestinian medic who was shot in the legs, but failed to acknowledge Hamas’s role. Jewish organizations were upset that Trudeau contradicted his claim to be a close ally of Israel.

The Israeli UN Human Rights Council representative called for an inquiry into how Israel has dealt with the violence in the Gaza Strip. The UN session revealed that Hamas has been using civilians as human shields at the front lines. The IDF has made an effort to warn residents of the danger at these violent protests.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved two bills on Thursday; one to enhance the role of the anti-Semitism monitor and the other to combat genocide. The latter was named for Elie Wiesel. Jewish organizations are urging U.S. President Donald Trump to name someone as the anti-Semitism monitor, since the position must be filled within 90 days of the bill passing.