Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing backlash over comments in which he appeared to endorse a claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, even as he later said that he had misheard the statement. 

Speaking at a rally in Calgary on Tuesday, Carney, the newly elected Liberal leader, seemed to express agreement with a heckler who shouted that Israel is enacting genocide in its war with Hamas, according to video of the event posted on social media

“Thank you,” Carney said in response. “I’m aware, which is why we have an arms embargo.”

He insisted on Wednesday that he had not heard the word genocide and had simply been “stating a fact in terms of” Canada’s decision to restrict arms sales to Israel. 

“I didn’t hear that word,” Carney explained. “It’s noisy. If you’re up there you hear snippets of what people say and I heard Gaza, and my point was I’m aware of the situation in Gaza,” he added.

Still, his initial remarks drew a furious response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Thursday called on the Canadian leader to “backtrack” what he denounced as an “irresponsible statement.”

“Canada has always sided with civilization,” Netanyahu wrote in a social media post. “So should Mr. Carney. But instead of supporting Israel, a democracy that is fighting a just war with just means against the barbarians of Hamas, he attacks the one and only Jewish state.”

In Canada, meanwhile, Carney’s statement also drew criticism from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the nonpartisan advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada, which on social media accused the prime minister of stoking antisemitism.

“Canadian Jews are facing violent attacks and threats targeting our synagogues, schools and community centres,” the group said on Wednesday. “This is an affront to our way of life in Canada. It is outrageous to see politicians fuel antisemitism through false narratives of demonization.”  

The group additionally condemned Carney for promoting an arms embargo that it described as “dangerous” amid Israel’s war with Hamas and attacks from Iran and its proxies in the region.

The heated reaction to Carney’s comments further underscores how the Liberal Party is continuing to alienate Canada’s mainstream Jewish community, which had expressed disappointment with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over his handling of rising antisemitism and his increasingly adversarial positions toward Israel in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.

In addition to suspending arms exports to Israel, Trudeau, who agreed to step down in March amid mounting dissatisfaction with his leadership, had angered Jewish community leaders over his vow to uphold arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

For his part, Carney, who replaced Trudeau as the Liberal Party party leader and assumed the prime ministership last month, had previously stumbled while addressing Middle East policy at a leadership debate in February — where, speaking in French, he mistakenly said he was “in agreement with Hamas” in a discussion of Canada’s involvement in postwar Gaza.

He quickly corrected himself and clarified that he had meant to say he favors the establishment of a Palestinian state “with no Hamas,” after one of his top rivals in the leadership election, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, responded that Liberals do not support the terrorist group.

Soon after he took office last month, Carney, who has served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, called a federal snap election to be held on April 28, where he will face Pierre Poilievre, the populist Conservative opposition leader who has positioned himself as a staunch defender of Israel and blamed Liberals for rising antisemitism.

But while polling had until recently shown Poilievre and his party with a seemingly insurmountable lead over the Liberals, his electoral edge has been erased amid backlash to President Donald Trump’s hostile approach to engaging with Canada.