Brutalizing Banshees

"Each time we were told to resubmit our applications, adjust our speaker lists, and revisit our security protocols."

"Each time, the university found a reason to say no [to holding private, planned events on campus]."

Liat Schwartz, president, Students Supporting Israel, Toronto Metropolitan University

 

"Students Advocating against the genocide of Palestinians have been subjected to Zionist violence for the last two years."

"We will not rest until our academic institutions hold war criminals and their racist mobs accountable."

Students for Justice in Palestine, TMU

TMU campus, downtown Toronto   Photo: Toronto Today

 

Triggered From Combat to Campus features Israeli soldiers who have fought against either Hamas or Hezbollah in the last two years in the wake of the 7 October 2023 mass atrocity perpetrated by Palestinian terrorist groups in southern Israel. These combat-tried members, reservists in the Israel Defense Forces, travel on invitation to speak before student groups throughout the United States and Canada. 

 

On November 5, one such private event took place on the campus of Toronto Metropolitan University, at a closed-door session to which only people known to the campus group Students Supporting Israel were invited in a discreet attempt to ensure that no unwanted others would appear as so often happens. Yet somehow the student group Students for Justice in Palestine became aware of the event and purposed to disrupt it.

 

Any campus Jewish groups that plan to stage events for their own enlightenment and mutual support are very well aware that news of any of their events are certain to alert their plans to hostile, masked, accusing and threatening 'pro-Palestine' protest groups. On this occasion as on so many others a group of 40 masked demonstrators showed up at the private venue where Jonathan Karten, an IDF reservist was due to speak.

 

IDF reservist Karten speaks frequently at similar such venues. His uncle, Sharon Edri was an Israeli soldier taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists and murdered by Hamas in 1996. Finding entrance doors locked, the intruders, one of whom was carrying a drill bit, shattered the glass window of one of the doors restraining their entrance. The event participants soon found themselves in the presence of screamers naming them genocidal war criminals.

 

After police arrived on scene to restore order and security disrupted by the intruders, all of them masked, all of them hysterically accusing the Jewish students of murder, five were arrested and taken into custody while the others were dispersed. Prior to the police arrival, however, Jonathan Karten had 'escorted' some of the intruders forcefully through the door they had smashed, raising them by their elbows and ejecting them.

 

They all held phones, recording the chaos they had precipitated, while charging Mr. Karten with 'brutalizing' them. In fact, he  had been brutalized by their violent actions, sustaining deep lacerations to his forearm by the shattered window. "You're moving, everyone's moving", said the bleeding Karten as he lifted and ejected a number of the trespassers, bundling them out of the venue. 

 

 

Posting an Instagram message to urge their members to an emergency rally to intercede in the November 4 event, Students for Justice in Palestine branded the event, its attendees and the guest speaker as "Zionist war criminals" and "Zionist murderers". Alongside their message they posted images of IDF servicemen with red Xs covering their eyes.

 

The Jewish civil rights group Tafsik Organization is involved in trying to identify who it was, among the intruders that broke the window, calling on Canadian universities to delist branches of Students for Justice in Palestine, given that "their conduct constitutes violent extremism and organized intimidation".

 

Adding: "We will also be engaging with members of Parliament to formally request that SJF be reviewed for designation as a terrorist-affiliated organization."  

"It was supposed to be a moment of dialogue, a chance to share my story as an IDF veteran, to talk about the war, and about my uncle, Sharon Edri, who was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas."

"But instead of a conversation, we were met with violence. Masked terrorists broke through the glass door and charged at us. One came at me with a drill bit."

IDF reservist Jonathan Karten