Tarek Fatah Can't Fathom Why His "Friend" Elias Hazineh Went Off the Rails at Toronto's Al Quds Day

Takek Fatah has a WTF moment re Elias Hazineh, a friend who took a dark turn last Saturday:

Hazineh is prominent member of the community. A one-time Executive Assistant to former Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish and later Liberal MP Omar Alghabra (and adviser to Justin Trudeau), Hazineh is an articulate and a reasoned person to engage with. When he took on Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, accusing her of a conflict of interest, he won the respect of many for the risks he took bringing the case forward. 

Last week however, Hazineh fell prey to unnecessary vitriol. He told the Al-Quds Day rally: "We have to give them (Jews) an ultimatum. You have to leave Jerusalem. You have to leave Palestine." 

Hazineh then went on to denounce the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians currently underway in Washington DC between Tzvi Lipni of Israel and Saeb Erakat representing the Palestinians, instead urging the men and boys at the rally to wage war: 

"We (Palestinians) have been negotiating with them (Israel) for 65 years. We say, get out or you're dead! We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that's the only way that they will understand." 

I have known Elias Hazineh as a friend, and despite our differences of opinion, I have always found him to be a secular person, above the divides of religion and race. So his dipping into the Qur'an to justify killing Jews has been a personal shock to many like me who support the end of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the creation of a secular Palestinian State next door to Israel...

It's called Zionhass, Mr. Fatah. And it's the reason why your, ahem, friend (who, along with his other credentials, used to be in charge of eliminationist Palestine House) became so unhinged. It's also why "a secular Palestinian State" will never come to pass. An Islamist State--maybe. A "secular" one--never.