For Jewish Canadians, the period after October 7 has been a lonely time.

The Biblical phrase from the Book of Numbers, describing the Israelites as “a people that dwells alone; not reckoned among the nations,” seems particularly apt today.

Fred Maroun, a Canadian of Lebanese origin, compares the lack of support for the Jewish people after October 7 to their abandonment during the Holocaust. Maroun also remarks on a truth rarely seen in Western media: Hamas’ use of Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages as human shields has resulted in the demonization of Israel around the world.

But not by everyone. A number of Indigenous Canadian activists have been outspoken in their support for Israel and the Jewish people. They have rejected the attempt to establish a point of intersection between their own efforts to assert their identities and cultures, and the aims and practices employed by Hamas and its supporters.

On October 16, 2023, just eight days after the Hamas attack on Israel, Meaghie Champion, an Indigenous Canadian from British Columbia, criticized the use of the term “decolonization” as a fig leaf for supporting Hamas.

“Decolonization is not about rape, kidnapping, hostage taking, mass violence and child-murder,” Champion said. Indigenous struggles in North America have been predominantly peaceful.

Six months later, Harry Laforme and Karen Restoule, prominent Indigenous Canadians, made the same point in the National Post. Describing themselves as Anishinaabe Zionists (Anishinaabe are Indigenous peoples from the Great Lakes region of North America), they emphasize that Jews are indigenous to the Middle East. According to them, accusations related to colonization and decolonization do not justify terror, violence, kidnapping and rape.

I live in Waterloo, a small city in Ontario that is home to two universities. Both of them are located on traditional territory of Indigenous peoples, a point acknowledged at all university functions and special events. Laforme and Restoule note the irony of pro-Palestinian university demonstrations and encampments taking place on Indigenous land for purposes of exclusion, antisemitism, lawlessness, and hate.

This past May, Laforme, the first Indigenous appellate court judge in Canadian history, gave a talk at Tel Aviv University’s Democracy Forum, in which he described how Indigenous history is weaponized to promote antisemitism. In effect, pro-Palestinian activists in Canada use Israel as a stand-in for colonial guilt as “a way to absolve and redirect collective shame over Indigenous suffering.”

Indigenous groups in other parts of the world have also voiced strong support for Israel, particularly those in New Zealand and Australia. The Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem, founded in 2024 by Sheree Trotter and Alfred Nagaro, both of New Zealand, is a platform for Indigenous nations to express their solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people. Indeed, Sheree Trotter and other Embassy representatives participated in Toronto’s impressive March for Israel last May.

Why this sense of kinship? Knowing what it is like to be targeted for extermination must have a lot to do with it. Indeed, the violent language used by pro-Palestinian protestors, the use of terms such as “by any means necessary” and “there is only one solution, intifada revolution,” are offensive and genocidal, and suggest the intent of extinction.

Indigenous Canadians know about genocide. Laforme and Restoule note that when questioned about the high death rate among Indigenous children in Residential Schools, one senior Canadian bureaucrat said, in 1910, “this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared to the final solution of our Indian problem.” Yes, another final solution.

When it comes to advocacy on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, perhaps Ryan Bellerose, a Métis activist from northern Manitoba, takes the prize. For more than a decade, Bellerose has been writing articles, giving addresses, and appearing on social media as an unwavering supporter of the indigenous claim of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

To Ryan Bellerose and Harry Laforme, Israel is an example, possibly the only one, of a people that achieved self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Bellerose also points out that indigenous rights are about respecting the rights of those who came before you.

A narrative based on the denial of Jewish history — and the lie that Zionists are merely European settler-colonialists — will never lead to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.