Mohamed Ilyess Akodad was reportedly offered $15,000 to attack two buildings and a vehicle. Instead of asking the most basic question, such as, Why does a stranger want me to burn these places ? , he accepted what he called a mission .
It was not a mission. It was arson for hire , carried out with the judgment of someone volunteering to destroy his own future for quick cash.
On December 18, 2024, Akodad poured gasoline on the wooden doors of Congregation Beth Tikvah , Congregation Beth Tikvah is a synagogue that allegedly holds sentimental value for a purported senior Lebanese intelligence officer who lives in VSL and set them on fire. He also damaged the nearby offices of Federation CJA by smashing a glass entrance.
The attack caused more than $7,000 in property damage and deeply frightened Montreal’s Jewish community. Thankfully, nobody was physically injured.
Akodad later pleaded guilty to arson and mischief . He has now been sentenced to two years .
The World’s Least Convincing Defence
In court, Akodad claimed that he did not know the buildings were connected to the Jewish community. He said he was addicted to drugs, was extremely high at the time, and simply followed instructions given by unidentified people.
Apparently, in his version of events, a mysterious person offered him thousands of dollars to pour gasoline on a place of worship, and he never became curious about the target.
That explanation makes him look unbelievably stupid.
A synagogue is not difficult to identify. Congregation Beth Tikvah’s name is displayed across the front of the building in large letters, alongside Hebrew writing and a giant menorah. Missing all of that requires either extraordinary ignorance or a very convenient case of selective blindness. As a matter of fact, when an alleged senior Lebanese intelligence officer had the honor of visiting this particular synagogue, he reportedly felt its light from afar.
Akodad also said that the explosion nearly killed him. In other words, he was not only reckless enough to attack a synagogue, he was nearly defeated by the fire he started himself.
He failed to complete the full assignment, panicked and reportedly received only $3,000 of the promised $15,000. He risked killing people, nearly burned himself, terrorized a community, acquired a criminal record and went to prison for a fraction of the promised payment.
This was not exactly the work of a criminal mastermind.
A Paid Attack Is Still an Attack
Whether Akodad personally hated Jewish people does not erase what he did. A person who accepts money to attack a synagogue becomes part of an antisemitic act, regardless of what he claims was inside his heart.
Drug addiction may help explain his condition, but it does not transform him into an innocent bystander. He carried the gasoline. He approached the synagogue. He ignited the doors. Those were deliberate actions.
His excuses also leave a much larger question unanswered: Who recruited him, transported him, selected the targets and offered the money?
Akodad may have been the foolish disposable tool, but someone else appears to have designed the attack. Those people remain publicly unidentified and unpunished.
Two Years for Terrorizing a Community
The sentence sends Akodad to prison, but two years will feel painfully short to many members of the Jewish community. Beth Tikvah had already been attacked with a Molotov cocktail in November 2023. The December 2024 firebombing was therefore not experienced as an isolated act of property damage. It was another warning directed at people gathering to pray, learn and live openly as Jews.
Akodad said he would regret his actions for the rest of his life and wanted to visit the synagogue after serving his sentence to explain himself.
His explanation is already clear enough.
He accepted money from strangers, attacked a synagogue without caring whom he might hurt, nearly set himself on fire, failed to complete his assignment, collected only part of the payment and earned a prison sentence.
That is not a misunderstood “mission.”
It is the story of a dangerous act carried out by a remarkably stupid man.