Canadian received Bell Canada text saying ‘Welcome to Palestine’ while visiting Jerusalem

An Ottawa resident says he was shocked after he received a "Welcome to Canada" text message from his mobile network provider while travelling in Israel. Photo by Handout

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A Canadian traveller who received a text from Bell Canada welcoming him to “Palestine” while he was in Israel says he is shocked and disappointed.

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The Ottawa resident — who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Charles, out of concerns for his safety amid rising antisemitism — told National Post he decided to take a trip to Israel and landed there last week. He was at the Holocaust memorial and museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem when a text from the telecommunications company popped up on his phone.

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“Welcome to Palestine,” it said, followed by information about his account’s travel plan. He said he was nauseated because he was standing in a place that showed the result of the Nazis’ obsession to eradicate the Jewish people. “And I get, from Bell Canada, a welcome to a non-existent country, whose aspirational goal…is to, again, eliminate the Jewish people,” he said.

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Hamas, the terrorist group that murdered 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the deadliest day for the Jewish community since the Holocaust, refers to the “struggle against the Jews” as “very great and very serious” in its 1988 charter. It calls Jewish people the enemy and says they should be “vanquished.” While there are Palestinians who have denounced the terror group, it has remained in power since taking over Gaza in 2007.

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Several European countries, as well as Canada and Australia, recognized the State of Palestine in 2025. Prime Minister Mark Carney said his recognition was conditional, and would be based on whether Hamas would “fully disarm, and play no role in the future governance of Palestine.” Hamas remains in Gaza, using a decentralized system of governance to maintain and expand influence, according to research published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Despite the promise of hosting democratic elections this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said they would be postponed until September 2027. There have been no legislative or presidential elections held since 2006.

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Charles said it feels like there is a “concerted effort” around the world to erase Israel from existence. But receiving the text from a Canadian company while travelling abroad was especially “outrageous.”

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“For them to say to me, a Canadian citizen and a longtime client, ‘Welcome to Palestine’ — to me, that’s making a political statement and it’s inappropriate,” he said.

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A spokesperson from Bell Canada told National Post over email that international roaming welcome messages are “automatically triggered when a mobile device connects to a network tower in a new region.”

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“Because of the close proximity of network towers in the region, some customers flying into Israel or traveling nearby have occasionally received notifications for roaming in Palestinian territories,” the statement said. “Like those of other global carriers, Bell’s roaming notifications are automated by an external vendor’s platform. This platform retrieves all location terminology directly from an independent, international industry-standard database, and Bell does not determine the language used.”

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