For the better part of the past century, some Jews in Canada have been travelling to Israel to fight alongside other Jewish Zionists from around the world.

At first, these Canadians, along with some non-Jewish ones, fought with Zionist militias to establish the State of Israel, which was done through the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land. In the decades since, at least hundreds of Jewish Canadians have willingly joined the Israeli military, and aided the state in its wars and occupation of neighbouring land.

Throughout this time, the Israeli military has been credibly accused by and/or before major international bodies of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, apartheid, and now genocide. Israeli soldiers have also provided the physical force necessary to uphold practices the Canadian government has condemned, such as the occupation of the West Bank and the creation of new settlements.

Despite this, the Canadian government has shown no interest in making it illegal for its citizens to join the Israeli military, preventing them from doing so or even keeping track of them. In fact, the government has sometimes done the opposite. For example, in 2020, Deborah Lyons, then Canada’s ambassador to Israel and now the federal government’s antisemitism envoy, held a pizza party for Canadians in the Israeli military, and told them, “We at the embassy are very proud of what you’re doing. It’s really quite incredible.”

This stands in stark contrast to South Africa, which in March 2024 informed its citizens that had left to join the Israeli military that they’d be arrested should they return.

The Canadian government’s stance on Israel and its military doesn’t reflect how most Canadians feel. Polling has demonstrated that many Canadians oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza. There have also been protests and boycott campaigns throughout the country against corporations and charities accused of supporting the Israeli military. As such, it’s reasonable to infer that many people in Canada do not approve of fellow Canadians becoming Israeli soldiers.

Many of the Canadians that have joined the Israeli military eventually return here and rejoin society. Some of them likely attempt to keep their service out of the public eye, while others willingly share this information. Regardless of how these soldiers decide to approach their service, Canadians deserve to know who they are, the networks they’re a part of that may have influenced their decision to join the military and what they’ve done since returning to Canada.

This project from The Maple’s opinion editor, Davide Mastracci, aims to provide people in Canada with this information about as many of their fellow Canadians as possible. Taken together, the 85 profiles created for this project offer insight into what the typical background of a Canadian who has served in the Israeli military may be. This project defines “Canadian” as someone who is a Canadian citizen, and/or has lived in Canada for a significant amount of time, and/or currently lives in Canada. 

The level of detail for each profile varies based on what’s publicly available, but the goal is to identify: where each soldier was born and grew up, what institutions they attended, when they joined the Israeli military and why, if their participation was encouraged by family members and social networks, what they did in the Israeli military and what they’ve had to say about it, and what they’ve done since. We’re not accusing these soldiers of having violated any Canadian law or participated in Israeli military crimes.

This is not a doxxing website. Every profile is based entirely on public information gathered through simple Google searches from news articles, social media profiles, newsletters, websites, public directories and other sources. This information is also not being collected and republished here to encourage any harassment of the individuals named.

While this project offers the most comprehensive online public database of Canadians that have joined the Israeli military, it only amounts to offering limited information on what is likely a fraction of the overall number that have done so, given that most are not this public about their participation.

On this website you’ll find a simple directory of the current and former soldiers we’ve identified, a profile page for each, and links to articles noting the trends we’ve discovered.

Please share this project as widely as possible if you find it to be useful.