Graffiti of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s logo in the West Bank city of Nablus. Photo: Harry Pockets.

A top Canadian Jewish group is calling on the leader of a major political party to disavow comments made by a member in support of a Palestinian terrorist.

Joel Harden, a member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament from the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP), tweeted his support on Monday for Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group.

The B’nai Brith Canada organization revealed that after Jarrar was arrested in Israel last month on suspicion of terrorist activity, Harden had said he was “saddened, sickened, and disgusted” by the arrest and urged the Canadian government to “demand her release immediately.”

In response to criticism, Harden tweeted, “I stand by my call for the release of Khalida Jarrar,” whom he referred to as “a Palestinian lawmaker and mother of a constituent.”

Referencing the murder of Canadian citizen Rabbi Haim Rothman, who was killed in a PFLP terror attack in Jerusalem in 2014, Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, asked, “By what twisted logic can Harden … publicly support someone whose group maimed and created disabilities for an innocent Canadian citizen? This poor man suffered in agony for 11 months before his tragic death.”

The Ontario NDP said of Harden’s remarks that the party wanted a “peaceful and sustainable negotiated resolution to the conflict in the region, and a lasting peace that respects human rights.”

B’nai Brith Canada demanded that Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath publicly disavow Harden.