“One large Islamic nation should be established in the Middle East, and where will Israel go? It should go to Canada. There is much open territory there in which a Jewish state should be established,” said the Palestinian Foreign Minster Mahmoud A-Zahar in a recent interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail.

The interview was published just days before the visit of Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackay to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, in which Mackay refused to meet with Hamas leaders or with A-Zahar.

A-Zahar warned in the interview that Canada was endangering itself. In his words, Canada is liable to turn into an enemy of the Palestinian nation and the Islamic Movement as a result of its insistence on shunning Hamas and supporting Israel.

“What is Israel giving you? Nothing,” he said in the interview.

“Is it that you want to be the tail of the American dog-this is your business-or do you want to be a national leader?”

The Palestinian minister then addressed his Canadian counterpart and asked, “Why do you refuse to meet with us? We are not man-eaters.”

He then added that Hamas-members are not terrorists, but rather, freedom fighters, saying:”There is no difference between us and the French resistance to Nazi occupation during the second world war.”