Dimitri Lascaris
Overview
Dimitri Lascaris [Alexander Dimitri Lascaris] has spread anti-Semitism and defended the terror organization Hamas. In 2016, Lascaris authored a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement divestment resolution that was later adopted by Canada’s Green Party (GPC).Lascaris has also expressed support for terrorists, promoted incitement and spread hatred of Israel.
In 2018, Lascaris filed a defamation lawsuit against B’nai Brith Canada, after the organization accused him of advocating “on behalf of terrorists who have murdered Israeli citizens.”
In March 2020, Lascaris announced his campaign for the leadership of the GPC. Lascaris ran for the GPC in Canada’s 2015 federal election and served as Justice Critic on the Shadow Cabinet of the GPC, until he was dismissed in September 2016.
Lascaris was a board member of the pro-BDS group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), which he joined in August 2017. He served as CJPME’s Chairman of the Board in 2018.
Lascaris is an administrator of the Facebook group “Canadian Solidarity with Palestine” and regularly shares posts and links on their timeline.
Lascaris is a correspondent and Board member [00:01:05] of The Real News Network (TRNN).
Lascaris attended Western University (Western) and graduated from the University of Toronto (U of T) law school in 1991.
Lascaris was a partner at class action law firm Siskinds LLP from 2004 to 2016, when he retired from lawyering to pursue activism and journalism.
Anti-Semitism
On September 6, 2018, Lascaris tweeted about two Jewish members of the Canadian parliament: “Apparently, Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Michael Levitt are more devoted to apartheid Israel than to their own Prime Minister and their own colleagues in the Liberal caucus.”The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as a modern definition of anti-Semitism: “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”
The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Twenty-eight European countries, as well as Canada, Australia, Israel and Argentina have also adopted the definition.
Lascaris’ tweet was condemned as anti-Semitic by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh. Green Party leader Elizabeth May also criticized Lascaris for questioning Housefather and Levitt’s “loyalty to Canada.”
On September 7, 2018, Lascaris tweeted an accusation that Housefather had “divided loyalties” between Israel and Canada.
On September 9, 2018, Shimon Koffler Fogel, the CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), also condemned Lascaris, writing: “And so, while we weren’t surprised to see Lascaris bashing Israel on Twitter, we were shocked that he would openly target Jewish MPs with an ancient antisemitic trope.”
Also on September 9, 2018, B’nai Brith Canada released a statement against Lascaris’ comment that stated: “Accusing Jews in the diaspora of being disloyal to their home countries or more loyal to Israel is a classic antisemitic canard, often used by far-right figures such as former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.”
Defending Hamas
On November 14, 2018, Lascaris tweeted: “According to a pro-#Israel warmonger of @NationalPost, ‘Hamas seized on the Israeli military operation as a provocation justifying the relentless bombardment of Israeli civilians…’ So Hamas wanted the #IDF to murder 7 Gazans because it needed an excuse to attack the oppressor?”Nour Barakeh [Nour Baraka] joined the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in 2003 and served as their senior commander. Barakeh was reportedly “closely involved in Hamas’s tunnel program.” In November 2018, Barakeh and six other Hamas militants were killed during a firefight with Israeli reconnaissance unit in Gaza.
On March 3, 2015, Lascaris tweeted about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the U.S. Congress, writing: “Netanyahu Lie #8: 'last summer we took on Hamas terrorists' [no, last summer you massacred innocent children]”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On December 17, 2014, Lascaris tweeted: “Hamas taken off EU terror blacklist, further isolating US and Canada on claim that Hamas is a terrorist organization…”
In 2014, the General Court of the EU removed Hamas from EU’s “terrorism blacklist” for procedural purposes. However, a spokeswoman for the EU said the bloc still considered Hamas to be a "terrorist" group. In 2017, the 2014 ruling was overturned by the European Court of Justice.
On August 27, 2014, Lascaris tweeted: “Max Blumenthal: #gaza ceasefire is a victory for the Hamas model of armed resistance to Israel's savage occupation - http://bit.ly/1mSw5Df.”
On July 31, 2014, Lascaris tweeted “Hamas is merely Israel's pretext for Israel's massacres. Israel's true objective is the destruction of the people of Palestine.”
Pushing BDS
In 2016, Lascaris drafted [00:26:47], co-sponsored [00:02:01] and submitted a BDSresolution to the GPC. In August 2016, the GPC endorsed the BDS resolution, marking the first time that a party in Canada’s House of Commons publicly supported theBDS movement by adopting [00:00:11] it into its official policy platform.Between August [00:10:54] and December 2016, Lascaris advocated[00:00:15] forGPC’s BDS policy and spoke [00:05:04] at eighteen Town Hall discussions [00:11:23] and debates in 15 cities and six provinces held across Canada.
During this period, he also authored numerous op-eds in Canadian publications defending GPC’s adoption of BDS and the party’s commitment to divestment.
On September 13, 2016, Lascaris was one of 24 GPC signatories to an op-ed titled: “Why We Greens Still Push for Anti-Occupation Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions.”
GPC leader May viewed Lascaris’ signature on the document as a public attack on Andrew Weaver, leader of the Green Party of British Columbia (B.C. Green Party) for his criticism of GPC’s BDS resolution and subsequently dismissed Lascaris from the party’s shadow cabinet.
On March 10, 2017, Lascaris wrote an op-ed in which he argued that students at King's College should support a BDS resolution. Lascaris wrote that he assisted the pro-boycott side of the King’s referendum campaign in “an unofficial capacity.”
On October 24, 2017, Lascaris filed a suit in the Federal Court of Canada on behalf of a client to challenge a decision made by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regarding the labelling of wines produced in the West Bank as “Product of Israel”. Lascaris and his client alleged that the wines were fraudulently mislabelled in violation of Canada’s consumer protection laws.
Lascaris’ client lodged an official complaint with CFIA in March 2017. CFIA initially agreed that the wines were mislabelled, which led to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) asking vendors to stop selling the wines with the label “Product of Israel.”
However on July 13, 2017, CFIA rescinded its decision and said in a statement that the body had not not fully considered the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) in its assessment.
On February 3, 2018, Lascaris posted on Facebook saying: “...what the Palestinian people truly need is for Israel to pay a meaningful economic price for abusing their rights. The time for sanctions has come. There is no longer even the semblance of an excuse for opposing economic sanctions on the rogue State of Israel.”
On May 17, 2019, Lascaris tweeted: “When will the Palestinian people stop paying for the unspeakable atrocities of Germany against the Jewish people? #BDS @BDSmovement #Palestine #Antisemitism #Germany #Israel.”
Lascaris’ tweet embedded a TRNN tweet that said: “BREAKING: The German parliament just passed an unprecedented piece of legislation condemning the #BDS movement, calling it anti-Semitic. This makes Germany the first and only country in the world to criminalize the BDS movement.”
Support for Terrorists
On February 23, 2025, Lascaris attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon.
Hassan Nasrallah became the leader of terror group Hezbollah in 1992 and maintained his leadership until an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed him on September 27, 2024. Nasrallah once said: “In a future war, all of occupied Palestine will be struck by our rockets” and [00:00:19]: “Israel is a cancerous tumor!…The only solution is to eradicate the cancer.” He called Jews the most “cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble” people in the world.
Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
On May 1, 2016, Lascaris referred to Baha Alyan in a Facebook post as a “23-year-old Palestinian community organizer and political activist” who “was extrajudicially executed by Israeli police for alleged involvement in a stabbing attack in Armon HaNatziv.”
In October 2015, Alyan and another terrorist boarded a bus and began stabbing and shooting passengers. On the same day, Lascaris posted on Facebook that he was “privileged to meet” Alyan’s father Muhammad, who reportedly praised his son’s actions.
On April 17, 2017, Lascaris tweeted: “Israel's depraved government puts Marwan Barghouti in solitary confinement because he launched a hunger strike... #BDS.”
The hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings — and shooting attacks against Israelis that killed five people during the Second Intifada.
Barghouti financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre. Also among the hunger strikers was Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary General Ahmad Sa’adat.
More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike — most of whom were also convicted for acts of terrorism.
On the same day, Lascaris tweeted: “Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in apartheid Israel go on hunger strike; thousands more are expected to join:.. #BDS.”
He also tweeted an op-ed authored by Barghouti in the New York Times, titled: “Why We Are on Hunger Strike in Israel’s Prisons.”
On May 25, 2017, Lascaris tweeted: “Today, along with people around the world, I am fasting in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.#PalHunger.”
On September 1, 2017, Lascaris tweeted: “Now living in Canada, the daughter of the persecuted Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar speak out -http://mondoweiss.net/2017/08/daughters-imprisoned-palestinian/… #FreePalestine”
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.
On October 31, 2019, Lascaris tweeted in defense of Khalida Jarrar after she was arrested.
Incitement
On July 18, 2017, Lascaris tweeted: “Israeli Restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque Spark Protests... #BDS #FreePalestine.” His tweet linked to a TRNN article that featured an interview with anti-Israel activist Dan Cohen, who blamed Israel for provoking a terror attack at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.On July 14, 2017, terrorists murdered two Israeli police officers outside the entrance to the Al-Aqsa compound, reportedly following claims that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger. In response to the terror attack, Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras at the entrance to the holy site, which the authorities later removed, after further rioting and escalation in violence.
On July 25, 2014, Lascaris tweeted during OPE: “The third Intifada has begun, and all people of good conscience stand with the people of Palestine.”
Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.
The second intifada (2000-2005) was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
Hatred of Israel
On November 10, 2019, Lascaris posted to Facebook a link accusing Israel of “genocide.”’On September 19, 2019, Lascaris tweeted a claim that Israel is committing an “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
On June 29, 2019, Lascaris tweeted: “Every single politician who endorses the concept of Israel as a ‘Jewish state’ is supporting - whether wittingly or unwittingly - a system of apartheid.”
On June 3, 2019, Lascaris tweeted: “...Zionism has built and is determined to maintain an apartheid state in historic Palestine.”
On the same day, Lascaris tweeted that “Zionism is a racist ideology...”
On November 29, 2017, Lascaris posted on Facebook, writing: “At this stage, it is amazing that we even have to have a debate about whether Israel is an apartheid regime. That fact is so obvious that there should be widespread consensus about it in every Western 'democracy.'”
Lascaris has frequently referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war criminal” on social media. He has also described [00:19:42]him as a fascist during a BDS panel discussion.
On February 16, 2017, Lascaris posted a graphic of a misleading map with the headline “Palestinian Loss of Land 1947 to Present” on his website.
The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
Anti-Israel Activism
In June 2018, Lascaris participated as a participant in a boat trip to Gaza organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces. Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military discovered that Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
On June 19, 2018, Lascaris appeared in a CJPME Facebook photo that was captioned: “CJPME's Chair of the Board Dimitri Lascaris: ‘I am about to depart for Europe to joinbrothers and sisters on the Freedom Flotilla. Gaza, we are coming.’”
On June 26, 2018, Lascaris featured [00:00:04] in a TRNN Youtube video where he reported [00:03:23] from one of the Freedom Flotilla boats. He indicated [00:00:48] he joined the flotilla on June 20, 2018.
On July 1, 2018, Lascaris featured in another TRNN Youtube video from one of the flotilla boats.
On August 3, 2018, Lascaris interviewed two flotilla activists in a TRNN Youtube video where he indicated [00:00:40] that the Flotilla was stopped by the Israeli navy on July 29, 2018.
On June 1, 2019, Lascaris posted to Facebook that he would be the keynote speaker at that day’s “Annual Walk for Al Quds,” which was hosted by the Al Quds Committee, Toronto.
The International Quds Day rally was founded in 1979 by the Islamic Republic of Iran “to oppose Zionism and Israel and express support for the Palestinians.” The rally has historically been a platform for anti-Semitism. During the 2009 rally, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed “the Holocaust was a ‘lie’” and a pretext to create a Jewish state that Iranians had “a religious duty to confront.”
On May 17, 2020, Lascaris featured [00:53:09] in a Youtube video for an “Al-Quds Virtual Rally” that was organized by the Al Quds Committee in Toronto. Lascaris promoted [00:57:03] BDS and said [01:03:13] that Israel has a “brutal system of apartheid.”
Defamation Lawsuit Against B’Nai Brith Canada
In 2018, Lascaris filed a lawsuit claiming B’nai Brith falsely accused him of using “social media to advocate on behalf of terrorists who have murdered Israeli citizens.” On June 28, 2018, Lascaris’ lawsuit for libel against B’nai Brith Canada was reportedly dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.The case stemmed from Lascaris’ meeting with the father of terrorist Bahaa Ayalan, whose body was held by Israel. In September 2016, palestinemonitor.org reported: “Bahaa was shot dead on October 13 last year after boarding a bus with a male companion and killing three Israelis in a knife and gun attack.”
On July 17, 2018, the Canadian Jewish News reported: “Lascaris advocated for Israel to return Bahaa Alayan’s body, said his killing was extrajudicial and denied that the man had committed terrorist acts – statements that B’nai Brith took exception to.”
On March 4, 2019, the Ontario Court of Appeal reportedly reversed the 2018 decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The case is ongoing.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/742965857Twitter:https://twitter.com/dimitrilascaris
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitri-lascaris-6231561/
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcLnmCiZ691HyvB6UvZq69A
Website: https://dimitrilascaris.org/
https://www.teamdimitri.ca/
The Real News:https://therealnews.com/bios/dimitri-lascaris
Videos
7 videos
Photos & Screenshots
156 images
Infamous Quotes
“The third Intifada has begun, and all people of good conscience stand with the people of Palestine.”
“When will the Palestinian people stop paying for the unspeakable atrocities of Germany against the Jewish people? #BDS @BDSmovement #Palestine #Antisemitism #Germany #Israel.”
“Apparently, Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Michael Levitt are more devoted to apartheid Israel than to their own Prime Minister and their own colleagues in the Liberal caucus.”
