The Toronto Star published a video by comedian Scott Vrooman entitled “When it comes to Israel, Canada’s love is blind.” Photo: Screenshot.

Media watchdog Honest Reporting on Friday railed against the Toronto Star after it posted a video on its website in which comedian Scott Vrooman depicts Israel as a “bloodthirsty warmongering nation that wantonly kills Palestinian children and innocents.”

“Mr. Vrooman is entitled to his own opinions, irrespective of how warped and disturbing that they are. And there is room for a healthy marketplace of ideas,” the group said. “But the Star exercised poor judgement in providing a platform to a video which under the pretense of good humor, presents the Jewish state as murderers of Palestinian children and innocents, and [Canadian] Prime Minister Harper as Israel’s willing accomplice.”

The organization called for supporters of Israel to file complaints with the Star’s Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke over the “odious anti-Israel video,” which was posted on June 4.

In the clip, entitled When it Comes to Israel, Canada’s Love is Blind, Vrooman accuses Israeli soldiers of displaying “savagery” during last summer’s war in Gaza, and implies Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper should be held accountable because of his support for Israel.

While suggesting that the 2014 Israel-Hamas conflict should not be considered a “war,” Vrooman also accuses the Jewish state of “effectively” occupying the Gaza Strip.

“I’m not sure it’s a war when one side has a well-trained army of hundreds of thousands, an air force, tanks, nuclear weapons and effectively occupies the land it’s at war with — and the other side has none of those things,” he says in the 2 minute video.

Honest Reporting pointed out that Vrooman fails to acknowledge that Hamas instigated the war by firing thousands of rockets at Israeli cities, and building terror tunnels into populated Israeli areas, with the intent of murdering civilians.

“Vrooman portrays Israel’s armed forces as savages, but ignores the fact that Israel did everything in its power to avoid harming civilians, while Hamas did everything in its power to put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way by embedding themselves and their weapons in civilian installations and by targeting Israeli innocents when seeking maximum carnage,” Honest Reporting said.

The Toronto Star did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner‘s request for a comment on the matter.