When Canadian Antisemitism Makes The Israeli News |
Like many Jewish Canadians I am anxiously following the wartime news from Israel in real time updates from a number of Israeli and secular international news outlets several times a day. I watch and worry for my Israeli friends and relatives and for the future of Israel. But you know things are really bad in Canada when Canadian antisemitism makes the wartime news in Israel!
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424071
This report on a recent Al Quds Day weekend rally in Toronto at the intersection of Bathurst and Sheppard in the heart of one of Canada’s major Jewish neighborhoods was featured on Arutz Sheva, Israel’s National News (Channel 7). Three major Jewish advocacy organizations were forced to add their calls to Toronto Police to investigate this incident as incitement of hatred toward the Jewish community.
Toronto Police are now consulting with the Crown Attorney (prosecutor) on potential charges, as is required for hate speech prosecutions, but it is indeed strange that so many public letters have had to be issued to Toronto Police to enforce EXISTING criminal laws to protect our Jewish community, from Jewish advocacy groups and political leaders. This should not be necessary in a functional and equitable law enforcement infrastructure.
In a related development, Toronto Police have now issued a directive prohibiting anti-Israel protestors from entering local side streets near the Bathurst/Sheppard intersection to intimidate local residents, but have not outlawed these anti-Israel protests entirely. No word yet on prospective hate speech complaints as police remain deployed near Jewish sites at risk.
https://nationalpost.com/news/anti-israel-protesters-banned-toronto-jewish-neighbourhood
The article in Arutz Sheva did not include the highly offensive images displayed at the rally, caught in screenshots from a social media poster on X known as ‘Leviathan’ (spelled in cryptic alphanumeric letters). The images depicted semitic looking Jewish men with beards and hooked noses as rats asking if it was safe to come out, asking their US ‘Daddy’ (Trump) for help, and displayed an Israeli flag with the word “Eliminated”.
Question: Is this any worse than Israel’s PR posters declaring certain terrorist forces as “Eliminated”? This motivation will likely be used to defend the anti-Israel activists and to excuse their offensive posters as political comment and lawful free........