Canadian Prime Minister To Make His First Trip to Israel
Image by Getty Images
“Israel will always have Canada as a friend,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in announcing his first visit to Israel.
The staunchly pro-Israel Harper made the announcement of his visit set for the beginning of 2014 Sunday night at the Jewish National Fund of Canada’s annual Negev Dinner, where he was honored.
Calling Israel “a light of freedom and democracy in what is otherwise a region of darkness,” Harper told the 4,000 in attendance at the gala: “We understand that the future of our country and of our shared civilization depends on the survival and thriving of that free and democratic homeland of the Jewish people in the Middle East.”
“And I tell you friends, we understand that. And that’s why Israel will always have Canada as a friend in the world,” the prime minister said to wide applause and cheers.
Harper also will visit Jordan and the West Bank.
He is not the first sitting prime minister to visit Israel. Prime Minister Jean Chretien visited the Jewish state in 2000.
In September, JNF in Canada announced that a project in Israel would be named after Harper. The Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary Visitor and Education Center will be built in the Hula Lake Nature and Bird Park.
In a videotaped greeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Harper for “unabashedly, unapologetically,” standing up for Israel.
“For your clarity of conviction and thought, I salute you, Stephen,” Netanyahu said.
Outside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the dinner was held, dozens of protesters turned out to protest Harper’s political agenda, his stance on Israel and his environmental policies
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
