Nova Scotia NDP candidate out after criticism for ‘troubling’ posts about Israel

By The Canadian Press on November 9, 2024.

Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender speaks at a campaign event at Ocean Breeze apartments in Dartmouth, N.S. on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. Nova Scotia's New Democratic Party says a candidate criticized by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for "troubling" and "damaging" social media posts is no longer running for the party in the Nov. 26 general election. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Riley Smith

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s New Democratic Party says a candidate criticized by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for “troubling” and “damaging” social media posts is no longer running for the party in the Nov. 26 general election.

In a news release today, the provincial NDP said Tammy Jakeman is no longer running as a party candidate in the Eastern Passage district.

The release says Jakeman apologized “for the harm her comments have caused.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs issued a news release Friday which included pictures of two posts by an account bearing Jakeman’s name on the X platform.

One, from November 2023, responds to a World Children’s Day post from the Auschwitz Memorial by saying that children in Gaza will die because “Israel is obsessed with killing all Hamas, regardless of the human expenses.”

In another, also from 2023, the same Jakeman account – which no longer exists on X – retweets a post that says “Apartheid Israel is at its happiest when terrorizing Palestinians.”

In Friday’s release, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Atlantic Jewish Council said the statements were “inflammatory” and “hurtful.”

“Statements of this nature often have real-world impacts, contributing to a climate of fear and hostility experienced by Jewish community members,” the release said.

The groups called on provincial NDP Leader Claudia Chender to say why Jakeman was allowed to run for the party, and to dissociate the party from her “damaging remarks.”

Jakeman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.