TORONTO, Canada — Protesters unfurled a massive red banner on top of the World Cup logo near a busy highway in Toronto on Friday, denouncing FIFA’s association with Israel, hours before Canada’s first game.

The anti-Israel demonstrators donning shirts that read “Jews for a free Palestine” mounted a nearby embankment and dropped the banner with the message “Kick Israel out of FIFA.”

While Israel is a member of the soccer association, its national team did not qualify for the World Cup.

The banner was visible to commuters on the Gardiner Expressway — one of Canada’s busiest — on their way to the home team’s opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Toronto stadium.

Other actions organized by a group of activists included demands for the release of prominent Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, an officer in Hamas’s Military Medical Services who is the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, and was captured by the Israeli military in Gaza in late 2024.

Following his arrest, decade-old photos surfaced showing him wearing Hamas uniforms alongside senior members of the terror group. Abu Safiya holds the rank of colonel in the terror........

© The Times of Israel