Pro-Hamas Protests Target Toronto's Jewish Community

Photo by the group Palesign documenting a blockade of the Avenue Road Bridge in north Toronto. Photo by Veronika Sykorova

 

"[There have been] brazen attacks on synagogues, Jewish schools and businesses [across the the city]."

"This hate-motivated arson is yet another direct assault on Canadian values, pluralism and the rule of law -- inciting violence singularly because of one's faith."

"Call it what it is: antisemitism."

MPP Stephen Lecce, Education Minister, Ontario

"Based on the quality of circumstances, we believe that it was committed with bias or prejudice."

"This is not graffiti on a bus shelter. This is not a lawful protest protected by constitutional right. This is a criminal act. It is violent. It is targeted. It is organized."

"We will leave no stone unturned."

Staff Superintendent Pauline Gray, Toronto Police Services

"[These types of incidents leave people feeling shaken and] diminish our sense of safety and belonging."

"All residents of Toronto deserve to be safe and feel safe."

"As Mayor, let me be clear: acts of antisemitism, hate and violence are not welcome here."

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow

"[Politicians must] speak out forcefully, and take action, against the increasing intolerance targeting Jewish-owned businesses and predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods that we are witnessing on a regular basis."

Steven Del Duca, Mayor, Vaughan former leader Ontario Liberal party

"[The graffiti] confirmed [the suspected arson's] links to the anti-Israel mob."

"This escalation of lawlessness in #Toronto must come to an end."

James Pasternak, Toronto city councillor

Toronto firefighters are shown here at the scene of a fire at North York business early Wednesday. (CBC)

 

So very, very heartening for the Jewish community in Toronto and elsewhere across Canada to know that area politicians are aware of and averse to the divisions within society, stemming from the 'pro-Palestinian' mobs that descend day after day on city streets, bridges, in front of government buildings to shout their 'from the river to the sea' slogan, along with 'gas the Jews', 'intifada' and other cries to appeal to the hate festering in the minds of immigrants from Muslim countries and their enablers who set out to vilify Israel for defending its citizens against murderous terrorist groups.

Like the mob that has assembled day after day on the overpass on the city's main traffic artery, the 401 highway, leading to the heart of Jewish Toronto. The Jewish-owned deli-grocery that was firebombed is about a kilometre distant from the overpass. It doesn't take a genius to turn over a rock to understand that the nasty little slugs slithering out from under are part of that raucous hate-filled mob expressing their vocal antisemitism for all to hear. Nor does it make sense for the very police who vow they will leave no stone unturned, helpfully standing alongside the pro-Hamas protesters to ensure their safety.

That politicians are rallying to condemn antisemitism so viral and lethal it sparked a fire and left graffiti identifying the event with the 'pro-Palestinian' protests, is interesting, but thus far no politician, from the mayor to the provincial premier to the police services have made any move to put a stop to the ongoing racially motivated provocations that have interrupted peoples' lives, caused physical harm and created a terrifying situation for the Jewish population.

According to Toronto police statements they are investigating the fire set at International Delicatessen Foods that broke out on Wednesday, as "motivated by hate", and it certainly takes a genius to arrive at that conclusion. This is a grocery business specializing in European foods, quirkally occasionally printing its menus in Russian language. Its windows were smashed and the shop was defaced with "Free Palestine" graffiti. Some might surmise that the sign over the front entrance reading IDF initials signifying the Israel Defense Forces drew the attention of the arsonists.

 

The business's name is displayed as the acronym 'IDF' in large red letters above the building's entrance. (CBC)

 

The shop owner located in north Toronto, informed Mike Colle, deputy mayor for north Toronto that he had concerns for his family's safety. He also spoke of his business set-back where it could take months of restoration before the business could reopen. Leading Mr. Colle to state that the arson strikes at the city's Jewish community's fears of their security in the face of violent antisemitism. Musing on the human cost of "appalling" hate-motivated violence. So city authorities are cognizant of the problem but haven't seen their way through to stemming it.

According to Toronto police, a major increase has been seen in hate-motivated crimes fuelled by tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war, where between October 7 and December 17, ninety-eight hate crimes were reported, in comparison to 48 for the same period a year earlier. Of the total, 56 were antisemitic in nature, 20 considered to be anti-Muslim.

 

Ya'ara Saks, the federal Liberal minister of mental health and addictions, whose own government under Justin Trudeau has done nothing whatever to take steps to put a stop to the Palestinian program of slandering Israel by accusing it of genocide, and chanting provocative slogans whose meanings are all too clear, that Israel should be destroyed, himself said "with each brazen act of incitement and of violence, the cycle of antisemitism and hateful acts increases", and it most certainly does.

"This leaves everyone in the Jewish community feeling unsafe. Am I going to be the next target? Are my family members going to be a target? This is just so unacceptable."

"This is the product of weeks and weeks and weeks of hateful rhetoric being spread by hate groups operating here."

Jamie Kirzner-Roberts, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

According to officials, police and firefighters were called to the scene at about 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday. When firefighters arrived, they saw smoke coming from the rear. Fire crews entered the building and quickly extinguished the blaze. (CBC)

 

Who, Us? We're Victims Too!

"Since June 2023, the RCMP has arrested five  young persons on terrorism-related offences -- either terrorism related charges or laying of information for a Terrorism Offence Peace Bond."

"Adults in positions of authority [including parents, guardians, teachers and coaches are asked] to be alert for behaviours of concern which may be linked to violent extremism."

"The RCMP is seeing a concerning trend of violent extremism and terrorist use of the internet, including amongst young persons."

RCMP announcement 

"[The first charge was facilitating a terrorist activity by communicating instructional material related to an explosive substance."

"[The second was for indirectly or directly and knowingly instructing a person] to carry out a terrorist activity against Jewish persons."

Ottawa Police Service

"I was shocked to learn the details."

"I'm grateful and relieved that in this case, through strong investigative work, the RCMP and Ottawa Police were able to avert this planned event before it happened."

"One thing I think that all Canadians can agree upon is that we deeply enjoy the safety and security in this country that this country has to offer. And when that safety and security is threatened, regardless of who it's by or who it's against, that is of concern to all Canadians, including members of our community."

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe discusses recent charges laid against an Ottawa youth and the alleged connection to possible terrorist activity against Jewish people. CBCNews

 

On the past weekend police arrested an Ottawa youth on two terrorism-related charges targeting the Jewish community in the city. Three additional charges have now been laid in addition to the original two. Because the suspected terrorist is not of age, his identification has been withheld, as a minor. His first courthouse appearance was virtually attended four days later. 

From the original two charges, he now faces a total of five charges, inclusive of a second charge linked to facilitating a terrorist activity and two new charges relating to explosives. The first, relates to possession of explosives, the second is for possessing them with intent to either "endanger life or to cause serious damage to property" or to enable another person do so so. Whether anyone else is being investigated in the case has not yet been revealed.

Patrols of Jewish institutions, including synagogues, community centres and schools have been increased by the Ottawa Police Service, even while the Jewish Federation of Ottawa divulged that police continue to encourage the community to be vigilant. To that end, the Federation reported in a message to community members that police confirmed there to be no risk to the community now since the teen remains in custody.

"We ask that everyone exercise heightened awareness and [be] diligent in following security protocols", urged the Federation's communication. When the RCMP Saturday announced the arrest for terrorism-related offences, it also gave warning of a "concerning trend" of online violent extremism and terrorism in Canada. 

The youth's father spoke to Global News explaining that he had warned his son to avoid extremists. As a precautionary measure he had sent his son for a consultation with an imam. Since some area imams are well known to themselves be vectors of extremism, and the father has a Facebook page where he posts derogatory posts about Jews and Zionists in Arabic, one that called to dispose of all Israelis, one might conjecture that the apple didn't fall far from the tree that bore it.

The RCMP gave credit to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre, as well as provincial and municipal police, all having provided "indispensable collaboration" in the case. Across Canada both Jewish and Muslim leaders report an increase in attacks motivated by hate since the Hamas atrocities on October 7 in Israel, followed by Israel's military response in Gaza.

However, while the Muslim community cries "Islamophobia" and speaks of hate crimes against its community, it is the Jewish community against which the vast bulk of the crimes are committed. And by and large, it is from within the ranks of the Muslim community that harassment, threats and violence emanates against the Jewish community.

 

 

"Great Friend to Canada"

"[We] vehemently object [to Jibril Rajoub being described as a friend to Canada]."

"He has been charged with glorifying terrorism, and is guilty of inciting hatred and violence against Israelis by politicizing sport."

"He does not share our values as Canadians."

Liberal Members of Parliament, Ya'ara Saks and Anthony Housefather

 

"A Canadian official tells a terrorist he’s a 'great friend to Canada'."

"Jibril Rajoub has been convicted of committing multiple terrorist attacks. He uses sports to incite hatred, FIFA agrees."

"A great friend?"

Canadian MP Melissa Lantsman

Senior Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub    (photo credit: LEON SVERDLOV)

This government seems to go out of its way to prove time and again that its relationship with its Jewish population is an afterthought. Or that it occupies no thought at all. As when the official opening ceremonies of the Holocaust Memorial took place and it was found that the memorial plaque mentioned the genocide that took place during World War II resulting in the death of countless men, women and children, but somehow managed not to indicate that these were Jews. Nowhere was the very word "Jews' in evidence. An oversight that when drawn to its attention, the government swiftly corrected.

Like the occasional votes in the United Nations that Canada sees fit to vote for that pit the Jewish state against the UN's biased Human Rights Commission. And that despite the Liberal government's assurances that it is in full support of a fellow democracy in a geography of caliphs, dictators and theocracies where it must daily be on alert against violent attacks by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it becomes increasingly evident that under this government, it is mere lip service, vastly unlike the authentic commitment of its predecessor Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

A week ago it was revealed that a flaming racist, hypocrite inciting hatred against Jews and Israel had been contracted with to operate an anti-racism program for the federal government. This, despite the group contracted with and funded by Heritage Canada was headed by a Jew-hating racist whose frequent expressions of contempt and threatened violence against Jews were readily accessible for viewing by any curious researcher.

Mere days after a backlash with the discovery of the vile statements of the founder of the Community Media Advocacy Centre, comes news of a statement from Canada's representative to the Palestinian Authority praising a Palestinian official and convicted criminal, Jibril Rajoub. A meeting between Robin Wettlaufer and terrorist-turned Fatah official, Rajoub was followed up with praise issued by the representative to the Palestinian Authority, recognizing the man as a "friend to Canada".

 

Only in the sense that he is most appreciative of the fact that Canada's government is not in the least perturbed at the presence of Palestinians who have permanent residence status or/and Canadian citizenship, or who come to Canada on student visas to study at Canadian universities where they become 'activists' promoting BDS, and mounting protests over speakers invited to address students at conferences, or give lectures, if they are Jews or Israelis, or supporters of the State of Israel.

That contingents of Palestinians and their 'sympathizers' mount yearly Al Quds memorials, mourning the reality of the State of Israel, and Palestinian dispersal from the historically hereditary Judean homeland -- chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!", a none-too-difficult code to decipher inciting for the destruction of Israel -- is a travesty of Canadian hate-law perversion. Palestine was, throughout history, a Roman-derived descriptive for the historical homeland of Judea.

The Palestinian penchant for claiming all that is historically Judean is really Palestinian, from the identity of Jesus himself, to the nomenclature of Palestine, to the ancient Judean prophets as Palestinian, not Jewish, is an exercise is absurdity, yet repeated often enough it finds sympathy in historically ignorant people satisfied to adapt to any groundless slanders that indicate Jews victimize non-Jews, a matter of satisfaction to Jew-haters.

Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, former head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force, Rajoub incites to violence toward Israel. Sentenced in 1979 to life in prison following his conviction of throwing a grenade at Israel Defence Forces, he was freed after 15 years, in a prisoner exchange. Militant activities (aka terrorism) put him back under arrest on several occasions before he was elevated to a national security adviser post for Yasser Arafat.

Rajoub speaking on Hezbollah-affiliated  television network Al Mayadeen, that the Palestinian Authority would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against Israel, if it but possessed any. "I swear that if we had a nuke, we'd have used it this very morning", was the translation provided by Palestinian Media Watch. He was suspended and fined by the FIFA disciplinary board in 2018 for inciting hate and violence by calling on soccer fans to burn jerseys and pictures of Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi before a match in a Jerusalem stadium with his national team.

Popular Games: Shooting Up Synagogues

"[It was] scandalous [that police were not protecting the synagogue on the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday]."
"If police had been stationed outside the synagogue, then this man could have been disarmed before he could attack the others."
"[It was] a miracle that there were no further casualties [during the incident at the city's synagogue. About 60 worshippers were at a Yom Kippur service at the time]."
"We can’t deny that concern is spreading. I think it’s very important that the authorities will now ensure that a Jewish person who is visiting a synagogue can be sure to leave the building unharmed."
Josef Schuster, president, Central Council of Jews, Germany

"This case shows us how thinly spread the police cover is."
"While we're tackling terrorism we cannot at the same time involve many staff in monitoring far-right extremists."
"We didn't underestimate it, but we can't foresee everything and prevent it."
Oliver Malchow, chairman, GdP [German police union]

The suspect was filmed wearing a helmet and shooting in a street in Halle   Reuters

"My name is Anon and I think the Holocaust never happened ... feminism is the cause of declining birthrates in the West, which acts as a scapegoat for mass immigration -- and the root of all these problems is the Jew."
Stephan Balliet, neo-Nazi German attacker

"We saw via the camera system at our synagogue that a heavily armed perpetrator with a steel helmet and a gun tried to shoot open our doors."
"The man looked like he was from the special forces ...  But our doors held."
"We barricaded the door from inside and waited for the [arrival of] police."
Max Privorozki, chairman, Halle Jewish community

Witnesses say the gunman tried to target Yom Kippur observers using explosives and guns   Getty Images

This attacker, whom German authorities would not completely name, leaving his surname identified only as "B.", is a Nazi sympathizer and a misogynist, a denier of historical documentation attesting to the Holocaust as a fascist German cataclysm for Europe's Jews, and a hater of the open-armed welcome that the current government of Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel gave to an influx of Muslim migrants flooding the country several years ago, adding another million to the already-settled five million Muslim immigrants in the country.

The man has a whole host of 'hate' subjects, but everything he detests and fears and has vowed to do his best to eliminate dwindles in comparison to his hatred for Jews whom he faults for all that is wrong in Germany and the world at large. That latter-day influx of a million Muslim refugees welcomed into Germany has served to jeopardize even further the safety and security of German Jews. The simple fact being that the refugee migrants brought with them their ancient antipathy to Jews and their transfixed hatred of Israel; double indemnity for Jews; rage from Germany's own neo-Nazis and the late-coming anti-Semites.

A 19-year-old Syrian whipped a man whom he took for a Jew in central Berlin in 2018, sentenced to four weeks in prison, ordered to visit a Holocaust museum. His pretrial detention spared him the month in prison. A Syrian man last Friday attempted to break into a Berlin synagogue with a knife, then was dismissed without charge. According to Jewish leaders in Germany, Hezbollah and a number of far-right groups freely slander Israel as a screen for anti-Semitism. The annual Al Quds Day sees pro-Palestinian protesters burn Israeli flags and chant anti-Semitic songs.

In early 2019, disciplinary action was undertaken by the German Foreign Ministry toward one of its diplomats posted to Israel who "liked" anti-Semitic social media content. Close to two thousand neo-Nazis marched in Berlin on October 3, celebrating German reunification with chants of anti-Semitic slogans. Anti-Semitism is now as pervasive in Germany, thanks to home-grown viral hatred and the addition of Muslims from traditionally Jew-hating cultures as it has ever been historically, including under the Third Reich.

Stephan B, 27, from Saxony-Anhalt was treated in hospital for injuries he sustained when he attempted to escape custody after he murdered two people and wounded several others. According to the German interior minister Horst Seehofer, the attack was "at least anti-Semitic" (oh, how official Germany loathes having to admit the presence of anti-Semitism and terrorism) and since it appears to be a manifestation of right-wing extremism, the investigation has been taken over by federal prosecutors. "That on the Day of Atonement a synagogue was shot at hits us in the heart. We must all act against anti-Semitism in our country", wrote Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

On Wednesday, a the noon hour, Stephan Balliet ("B."), who had loaded four kilos of explosive in his car, emerged from that car in a determined, malice aforethought attempt to force his way into the packed synagogue hosting children and the elderly among the congregants during the most sacred day in the Judaic calendar, the Day of Atonement. While the congregants swiftly took steps to barricade themselves against the gunman's entry, he shot a woman walking on the street nearby a Jewish cemetery alongside the synagogue.

Wall Street Journal

From that venue he continued on to a Turkish kebab shop to shoot one man dead , then continued to pump additional bullets into the lifeless body. A worker at the Kebab outlet saw an explosive thrown at the restaurant before the shooting. "He was very calm, like a professional", said Rifat Tekin. "He didn't say anything. He just kept coming and shooting ... I was hiding behind the salad counter."

A shootout with police ensued, which led to the killer's injury, but which failed to stop him from reaching a rented car and driving to a nearby village where he drove to a garage, demanding another vehicle, shooting an employee who attempted to stop him, and finally stealing a parked taxi. He drove the stolen taxi into a truck. He may not have succeeded in his mission to storm the synagogue and slaughter as many Jews as he could manage, but he did take steps to ensure that his enterprise was live-streamed on a social media site where headcam footage was posted on Twitch.

German intelligence services had warned of a growing threat from German extremists and Halle happens to be a recognized centre for far-right sympathizers where the Identitarian movement is suspected of links to the New Zealand gunman who stormed a mosque, killing 51 worshipers in Christchurch. Don't coincidences abound? The statistics are that 1,799 anti-Semitic incidents were reported to German police in 2018, a steep rise over previous years, and rising, though many such incidents go unreported.

"We have seen a rise in anti-Semitism for years now, we see it across society. We see it on the right, on the left, in Islamism, and in mainstream society."
"Right now it feels like it’s coming from everywhere."
Remko Leemhuis, acting director, American Jewish Committee, Berlin