Background

On June 2, 2025, The Toronto Star reported that Canadian law enforcement has been “investigating potential war crimes related to the Israel-Hamas conflict” since early 2024.  In response to the media reports, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued a statement that, at this stage, it was only conducting a “structural investigation” to “collect, preserve, and assess information potentially relevant under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. This includes gathering open-source material and voluntary submissions from individuals wishing to provide information.” It also stated that an online portal for public submissions is under development.

This is one of the forms of legal warfare against Israel (“lawfare”) in Canada: pursuing individual Israeli soldiers—a tactic infamously employed by the Belgian-based  non-governmental organization (NGO) Hind Rajab. A central part of this effort is the ongoing collection and dissemination of names and personal information of Jewish Canadians who have served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) by The Maple, an online platform that publishes viciously anti-Israel and antisemitic articles.

In addition, a network of NGOs exploit Canadian legal frameworks to delegitimize Israeli responses to attacks on its civilian population. These propaganda organizations seek   to isolate Israel politically and militarily, and block defence cooperation.

The Maple’s “Find IDF Soldiers” Database

The Maple, which claims to be “entirely reader funded,” was federally incorporated under its previous name, North99, on August 14, 2017. On October 24, 2017, it altered its incorporated name to 10363987 Canada Association.

On February 24, 2025, The Maple published a list of 85 Canadians alleged to have served in the IDF. On May 20, 2025, the database was updated to include an additional 78 names. Each name is hyperlinked to a biography of the (former) soldier, including personal information such as the synagogue they attend(ed) as well as their parents’ place of employment.

Davide Mastracci, who created this database, is Managing Editor of The Maple’s Opinion Section.

• On February 24, 2022, Mastracci tweeted, “If the Canadian government really cared about fighting the illegal occupation and annexation of land abroad, as it’s now claiming to, it would send weapons to Hamas.”
• On June 19, 2025, Mastracci wrote, “I would rather live next to one of the ‘Ayatollah’s people’ than the average Israeli.”
• On December 24, 2023, Mastracci wrote, “I would 100% prefer living beside a Hamas-supporting Gazan to an average Israeli, and I think most people around the world would agree.”
• On December 19, 2024, Mastracci tweeted that “Zionism has a stranglehold on [Canada’s] political system.”

On June 18, 2025, Mastracci, claimed that the RCMP “investigated a complaint about [him] after the publication of Find IDF Soldiers” and commented, “I have to say, it was a little sad to have people earnestly ask me if the RCMP had been in touch with me about the database, assuming they would be interested in my work. Turns out they were, just not for the reason many people assumed.” 

Alex Cosh is the Managing Editor of The Maple’s News Section.

• On February 18, 2024, Cosh reposted a tweet that stated that “the real ‘ethnic’ Jews are present-day Palestinians— colonised by Zionist converts.”
• On February 6, 2025, Cosh published an article titled “It’s Time To Treat America As The Menace It Has Always Been.”

Tara Alami is an author for The Maple.

• On December 30, 2021, Alami replied, “We’ll do better next year inshallah” in response to a tweet claiming that “This year there was [sic] 61 shooting attacks on Israelis and 18 stabbing attacks on Israelis … .”  She later defended this tweet with another in which she wrote that “they [Israelis] are occupying my land and killing my people so yeah i’m going to hope for their death[.]” (Account has since been suspended.)
• On February 28, 2023, Alami tweeted a celebratory image with the words “SETTLER DOWN” accompanied by PFLP insignia in response to a tweet announcing the murder of US-Israeli citizen Elan Ganeles.

Anti-Israel NGOs Engaging in Lawfare in Canada

CCAG Suing Canadian Government

In November 2024, the Coalition for Canadian Accountability in Gaza (CCAG), which consists of the Legal Centre for Palestine (LCP), International Centre of Justice for Palestinians – Canada (ICJP – Canada), Hameed Law and A. Dimitri Lascaris Law Professional Corporation, filed a lawsuit against the federal government of Canada. They accused the government of having “failed in its duty to prevent genocide, including by allowing military exports from Canada to Israel, and by refusing to exercise Canada’s influence over Israel.”

In March 2024, the Government of Canada filed a motion to dismiss the case on the basis, inter alia, of the Claim containing “radical defects.” The Legal Centre for Palestine has since committed to appearing in court to “[argue] against their motion in November 2025, with a decision expected on the motion to dismiss by the end of the year or in early 2026.”

Legal Centre for Palestine (LCP) and International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP)

LCP files annually with Canada but does not identify its donors. 

ICJP does not disclose information about its funding. In addition to its lawfare campaigns in Canada, ICJP “supports and helps to coordinate legal work being conducted in the Middle East, UK, EU…and USA.” In the UK, on January 16, 2024, ICJP filed a criminal complaint with Scotland Yard accusing a number of British government officials of facilitating “alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza under applicable UK legislation.” On May 17, 2024, expanding on the January dossier, ICJP submitted a complaint to Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Team alleging the crimes of “starvation as a weapon of war” and “wilfully causing great suffering to a civilian population.” The document also “named nine British citizens who travelled to Israel to fight in the Israeli military- as well as senior Israeli government officials, such as members of Israel’s war cabinet, and high-ranking military personnel.”

Community Justice Collective (CJC)

Toronto-based CJC is not a registered charity. It directs supporters to the Jur-Ed Foundation, which “partners with us on some parts of our work, and can issue tax receipts for donations.” 

In 2020, CJC received foundational funding from Harvard Law School’s Public Service Venture Fund. CJC has also received funding from the Law Foundation of Ontario in 2021 ($41,960), 2023 ($94,740), and 2024 ($264,000). Additionally, in 2024, the Catherine Donnelly Foundation issued a “three-year grant totaling $100,000 per year” to the CJC.

In June 2024, Sima Atri, Co-Director of CJC and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Toronto Law Faculty, represented CJC and a student group calling itself “UofT Occupy for Palestine” in hearings regarding the injunction to remove the campus encampment. In Atri’s speech before the hearings, she invoked the “Israeli genocide” libel. 

In February 2024, CJC partnered with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which has links to the PFLP terror group, to organize a “Know Your Rights” workshop in Toronto.

CLAIHR and Al-Haq’s Lawfare

In January 2024, Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR) and terror-linked NGO Al-Haq sent a letter to the Canadian Minster of Foreign Affairs alleging that “Israel has committed and continues to commit such violations and acts in its military operations in Gaza and in the West Bank, including the real and imminent risk that Israel is violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.” 

In March 2024, these NGOs submitted an application for judicial review to the Federal Court regarding the issuance of export licenses to Israel.

In September 2024, Canada announced it had suspended approximately 30 active export permits to transfer materiel to Israel. (Transfers of F-35 components to Israel through the US are exempt from Canada’s individual export permit requirements.)

Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR)

CLAIHR publishes basic financial information but does not identify its donors.

In addition to launching multiple legal efforts to sanction Israel and force Canada to enforce an arms embargo, as described above, CLAIHR has supported campus protestors:

• • In July 2024, CLAIHR, along with Amnesty International, intervened against an injunction to clear the encampment at the University of Toronto. The NGOs argued that “peaceful assembly may be disruptive, provoke a hostile reaction from members of the public, or take place on private property, however this does not, on its own, justify restriction of the assembly.”

In November 2023, CLAIHR signed an Open Letter claiming that “We reject the notion that it is antisemitic, hateful, or illegitimate to contextualize the October 7th, 2023 attack. Similarly, we reject the notion that it is antisemitic, hateful, or illegitimate to express support for Palestinians in the face of ongoing Israeli apartheid and genocide.”

Al-Haq

Al-Haq leads anti-Israel efforts at the ICC and related BDS efforts through claims of Israeli violations.

On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Al-Haq a terrorist entity, identifying it as operating “on behalf of the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine].” Moreover, in May 2018, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express shut down online credit card donations to Al-Haq due to the group’s ties to the PFLP.

Al-Haq has lobbied on behalf of Palestinian terrorist organizations:

• In March 2024, Al-Haq published a report asserting that Palestinian terrorism does not exist:

“Even if individual acts of struggle [terrorism] breach provisions of international humanitarian law in bello, never should the Israeli colonial power or the international community categorise the collective resistance of the Palestinian people in pursuit of their inalienable jus cogens right to self-determination as ‘terrorism’, and justify its policy of suppression accordingly.”

• In a July 2023 letter to members of the European Parliament, Al-Haq insisted that “by keeping democratically elected political parties on the EU terrorist list, the EU is perpetuating the denial of self-determination of the Palestinian people. Hamas needs to be removed from the terrorist list” (emphasis added).

Al-Haq’s staff’s has links to the PFLP and Hamas:

• The Israeli Supreme Court has identified Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s General Director, as a leading PFLP member on multiple occasions:
  • In 2007, the Court identified Jabarin as “apparently acting as a manner of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, acting some of the time as the CEO of a human rights organization, and at other times as an activist in a terror organization which has not shied away from murder and attempted murder, which have nothing to do with rights…” 
  • In 2008, the Israeli Supreme Court noted that Jabarin is “among the senior activists of the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] terrorist organization.” 
• Other sources have also noted Jabarin’s participation in PFLP-related events, as well as liaising with members of Hamas and other terror groups:
  • In February 2019, Jabarin participated in an event hosted by the PFLP in memory of “comrade fighter” Maher Al-Yamani. Al-Yamani was a PFLP “founder,” a “member of the Central Committee and one of its most prominent military commanders,” and “coordinated special operations…in particular the operation against an aircraft of the Israeli company El Al in July 1968 in Greece.”
  • In May 2019, Jabarin attended a memorial event organized by the PFLP. It centered on PFLP political bureau member Rabah Muhanna, who, according to information posted by the PFLP, “contributed to the establishment” of several PFLP-affiliated NGOs. The hall was decorated with PFLP paraphernalia.
  • In 2017, Jabarin participated in a panel discussion on “The requirement for supporting and the success of the national [Palestinian internal] reconciliation.” Jabarin joined the panel, which included Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, via video.
  • According to multiple Arabic-language media sources, Jabarin represented the PFLP at a December 2011 meeting of the Follow-Up Committee for Issues of Public Liberties and Trust Building.  This body served as a reconciliatory body between Hamas, Fatah, PIJ, the PFLP, and other Palestinian factions.

Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin (far right on screen) remotely addressing a panel with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (far right on dais).

For more information on additional Al-Haq staff members’ links to the PFLP, see NGO Monitor’s report.

In the Media

Jewish outrage at RCMP war-crimes probe of Canadian IDF soldiers | Dave Gordon | National Post | June 9, 2025

RCMP confirms investigation into possible war crimes in Israel-Hamas war | Joel Ceausu | Canadian Jewish News | June 4, 2025

Investigation: Who is behind the war crimes investigation in Canada? | Yoav Schuster | Walla | June 4, 2025 | (Hebrew)

Mocking the Canadian-IDF enemies list: Entering Bizarro world | Gil Troy | Jerusalem Post | February 26, 2025

85 Canadian Jews who served in Israeli military listed on publication’s website | Courtney Greenberg | National Post | February 26, 2025

‘We are moral and ethical soldiers, not monsters like Hamas,’ Canadians on anti-Israel site’s list say | Dave Gordon | JNS | March 3, 2025

Canadian veterans of the IDF profiled by an anti-Israel website are considering a class-action lawsuit | Jonathan Rothman | Canadian Jewish News | March 9, 2025