Illustrative: People take part in “Shut it down for Palestine!” protest outside of Tyson’s Corner as shoppers participate in Black Friday in Vienna, Virginia, US, Nov. 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis

Jewish community leaders across Canada are pushing back against a campaign by anti-Zionist activists that seeks to pressure accrediting bodies to reconsider recognition of several Jewish children’s summer camps.

The controversy centers around at least 17 overnight camps in provinces including Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia, according to a statement circulated by the activist group.  A coalition of leftist and pro-Palestinian groups has identified the camps and is urging provincial associations to review and potentially revoke their accreditation.

Members of the anti-Israel coalition — which includes the Palestinian Canadian Congress, Just Peace Advocates, the Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, PAJU Montreal, and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign — claim that some of the camps promote or normalize support for Israel.

Organizers say institutions connected to Israel, which they falsely accuse of committing genocide against Palestinians, should face scrutiny.

“We have identified at least 17 overnight summer camps throughout Canada that support the State of Israel in some way,” the campaign says. “These camps are not problematic because they encourage connection to Jewish identity. Rather, they pose a problem because they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial state.”

Among the claims cited are that camps celebrate Israeli national holidays, incorporate Israel-focused educational content, or employ staff members who have previously served in the Israel Defense Forces, including in non-combat capacities.

The messaging reflects themes commonly associated with the BDS movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. The campaign against Jewish camps has been endorsed by the official Canadian BDS Coalition.

The campaign appears to represent a new front in a broader pattern of activism that has targeted universities, cultural organizations, and other institutions over perceived ties to Israel.

Camp leaders and Jewish organizations say the effort singles out Jewish institutions and risks politicizing spaces designed for children, while presenting a threat to effectively dismantle Jewish life. 

The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto described the campaign as harassment and intimidation directed at Jewish families. Community leaders have emphasized that summer camps are focused on youth development, cultural enrichment, and recreation, not political advocacy

“This direct targeting of Jewish campers and staff is a deliberate act of intimidation,” UJA wrote in a statement.

The Ontario Camps Association, which accredits camps in that province, also condemned the initiative. The association said accreditation decisions are based on health, safety, and program standards, not political views, and characterized the coalition’s allegations as discriminatory.

The dispute has unfolded amid a surge in antisemitic incidents over the past two years, following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

According to the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada, which tracks antisemitism across the country, antisemitic incidents in 2024 rose 7.4 percent from 2023, with 6,219 adding up to the highest total recorded since it began tracking such data in 1982. Seventeen incidents occurred on average every day, while online antisemitism exploded a harrowing 161 percent since 2022. As standalone provinces, Quebec and Alberta saw the largest percentage increases, by 215 percent and 160 percent, respectively.

Men carry Hezbollah flags while riding on two wheelers, at the entrance of Beirut’s southern suburbs, in Lebanon, Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Terrorist group Hezbollah rejected on Tuesday the Lebanese government’s decision to grant the army at least four months to advance the second phase of a nationwide disarmament plan, saying it would not accept what it sees as a move serving Israel.

Lebanon’s cabinet tasked the army in August 2025 with drawing up and beginning to implement a plan to bring all armed groups’ weapons under state control, a bid aimed primarily at disarming Hezbollah after its devastating war with Israel in 2024.

In September 2025 the cabinet formally welcomed the army’s plan to disarm the Iran-backed Shi’ite militia, although it did not set a clear timeframe and cautioned that the military’s limited capabilities and ongoing Israeli strikes could hinder progress.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem said in a speech on Monday that “what the Lebanese government is doing by focusing on disarmament is a major mistake because this issue serves the goals of Israeli aggression.”

Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos said during a press conference late on Monday after a cabinet meeting that the government had taken note of the army’s monthly report on its arms control plan that includes restricting weapons in areas north of the Litani River up to the Awali River in Sidon, and granted it four months.

“The required time frame is four months, renewable depending on available capabilities, Israeli attacks and field obstacles,” he said.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said, “we cannot be lenient,” signaling the group’s rejection of the timeline and the broader approach to the issue of its weapons.

Hezbollah has rejected the disarmament effort as a misstep while Israel continues to target Lebanon, and Shi’ite ministers walked out of the cabinet session in protest.

Israel has said Hezbollah‘s disarmament is a security priority, arguing that the group’s weapons outside Lebanese state control pose a direct threat to its security.

Israeli officials say any disarmament plan must be fully and effectively implemented, especially in areas close to the border, and that continued Hezbollah military activity constitutes a violation of relevant international resolutions.

Israel has also said it will continue what it describes as action to prevent the entrenchment or arming of hostile actors in Lebanon until cross-border threats are eliminated.

A large blue-and-white effigy bearing a Star of David is hanged and set ablaze during carnival festivities in Encamp, Andorra, on Feb. 16, 2026, in a ritual that has sparked international condemnation. Photo: Screenshot

A centuries-old carnival ritual in Andorra erupted into international controversy after an effigy of the State of Israel was symbolically put on “trial,” shot, and set ablaze during the festivities, with local and government officials present.

Part of an annual carnival tradition, the celebration features “Carnestoltes,” a mock king whose effigy is customarily put on trial, hanged, and burned in a symbolic ritual that marks the close of the festivities. 

Across Europe, many cities hold carnivals in the weeks before Lent — the Christian season of fasting that begins on Ash Wednesday — often blending centuries-old customs, including the ceremonial judgment or burning of a figure representing excess or wrongdoing.

However, this year marked the first time the effigy incorporated Jewish symbols and imagery associated with Israel — an act the local Jewish community condemned as antisemitic amid an already tense and hostile climate, warning it risks normalizing hatred and violence.

During Monday’s festivities in Encamp, a district of the tiny principality of Andorra between France and Spain, a large blue-and-white effigy marked with a Star of David was hanged, symbolically put on trial, shot, and set ablaze.

Images circulating on social media also captured an air rifle pointed at the hanging effigy, with onlookers gathered around the scene.

According to local media reports, public and government officials, including the mayor of Encamp and council members, also took part in the ceremony.

The president of Andorra’s parliament, Carles Enseñat Reig, strongly condemned the incident, calling it “unacceptable” and warning that it tarnishes the principality’s reputation and threatens the spirit of its traditional celebrations.

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) — the main representative body of French Jews — also denounced the incident, calling it “unworthy, outrageous, and provocative” and raising the possibility of sanctions or even a boycott of Andorra.

In a press release, the festival committee defended their actions, saying the Carnival King figure was meant to satirize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and draw attention to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

They further explained that the event aimed to spotlight the global rise of far-right movements, while stressing it was never intended to single out any religion.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) condemned the incident as “outrageous,” warning that such acts not only inflame antisemitism but also pose a serious threat to Jewish communities across Europe.

“Turning a festive tradition into the symbolic execution of imagery associated with the Jewish state is a deeply disturbing act that risks normalizing antisemitism and incitement,” EJC wrote in a post on X. 

“Such displays are incompatible with the fundamental European values of dignity, respect, and peaceful coexistence.”

While most countries across Europe and the broader Western world have seen a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Andorra — with its small Jewish community — had until now remained relatively quiet and largely safe.