Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks was questioned this week over an official photograph of her “holding hands” with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that sparked criticism.
Sen. Leo Housakos challenged the Jewish cabinet minister about the photo during the Senate Question Period on March 20, as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter. The senator asked her to explain the March 14 incident.
“As a Jewish Canadian and as an Israeli Canadian who is dedicated to ensuring the safety of my family and many others in the region I do believe I have an opinion to share here,” Ms. Saks said, adding that she is “proud” of her heritage. She did not explain why she chose to pose for the photograph.
Sen. Housakos continued to question Ms. Saks about the photo.
“You claim it is protocol to take a photo shaking hands,” he said. “Minister, I’ve been to a few of these meetings. It is not protocol to hold hands, which is what you did. Perhaps that is why you didn’t post the photo yourself on any of your own social media sites. My question is this: Did you ever consider how this would impact the families of Canadians killed or impacted on Oct. 7?”
She replied by describing herself as “a proud Israeli and Jewish Canadian.”
“My voice at those tables is to remind the Palestinian Authority they have accountability to the Jewish people,” she added.
Sen. Housakos said she and the Liberal government as a whole are more worried “about not offending these mad tyrants” than they are “about offending our Canadian victims.”
“I take offence to your comments,” Ms. Saks replied.
Photo Backlash
Ms. Saks, who holds a master’s degree in diplomacy from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has drawn criticism since the photograph surfaced on social media last week. Ms. Joly posted the photo in a March 14 X post, formerly Twitter, which showed her shaking hands with Mr. Abbas while Ms. Saks appeared to be holding the Palestinian leader’s other hand.“In the West Bank, we met with President Abbas to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the future governance of the Palestinian Authority and the work to advance towards a two-state solution,” Ms. Joly said in the post.
The state’s Martyrs Fund pays monthly cash stipends to the families of Palestinians who are killed, injured, or imprisoned while carrying out violence against Israel.
The president of the Palestinian Authority is infamous for comments made last August that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s slaughter of six million European Jews was because of their business practices, not their faith.
“These people were fought because of their social function related to money, usury,” Mr. Abbas said in a speech to senior members of his Fatah movement. “From Hitler’s point of view, they were sabotaging, and therefore he hated them.”
In his doctoral thesis in the 1970s, he downplayed the Holocaust, questioning the extent of the Nazi genocide. He has since distanced himself from those assertions but has continued to make remarks that many have called anti-Semitic.
In one such incident in 2022, he accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians. Mr. Abbas apologized after being chastised by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
