Pro-hamas groups behind protests

It is six months since the poisonous ideology that is the political and terrorist entity Hamas murdered, butchered, raped, gang raped, mutilated, tortured, burnt, and desecrated innocent civilians in Israel.

Hamas also kidnapped more than 250 people on Oct. 7. More than 130 are still captive, a key reason why a ceasefire in Gaza has not yet been achieved. Kidnapping civilians is a war crime under the Geneva Convention, but the United Nations, like large parts of the world, including Canada, prefers to concentrate on other matters.

Part of the reason for this shift in priorities can be attributed to the pro-palestinian protest movement, which is mostly pro-hamas, anti-israel and antisemitic, and which has hijacked the political discussion so that Palestinians as victims and Gaza as an occupied territory are seen as absolute truths.

Neither are true, but truth isn’t what matters.

What matters politically is to control the narrative, to convince people of the cause and to suppress opposing voices. Nothing is more important than the message.

Since Oct. 7, the voices of those crying out for justice for murdered Israelis have been drowned out by protesters who have seduced the naive public into believing that Hamas is a legitimate government, that Israel is to blame for the current war and that Jews are to be despised.

The persecution of the Jews throughout world history has been well documented, but after the Holocaust it must surely have been felt that antisemitism had been dealt a fatal blow.

Yet, here we are in 2024, in Canada, a country that prides itself on multiculturalism and compassion, with Jew hatred not only at an all time high, but masking itself in legitimate protest.

There have been hundreds of supposedly pro-palestinian protests around the country and few arrests. But that speaks more to the tolerance we have for free expression, even when it veers into hate, and a police response that has been mostly passive unless things become violent.

In another context, advocating for genocide against a specific people and calling for an armed uprising might well provoke a police reaction. Arrests might also be expected if demonstrators were specifically intimidating and harassing a particular religious group.

Jews have been the target of all these things. Chants of “intifada” and signs urging Palestinian freedom “From the river to the sea” have become all too common in Jewish neighbourhoods.

No one should be under any illusion that these tactics and protests are a spontaneous outpouring of support for Gazans. These demonstrations are wellplanned, orchestrated by organizations with an anti-israel and antisemitic bias, and led by terrorist sympathizers.

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which purports to be “a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile worldwide,” is one of the biggest organizers of protests. It was this group that shortly after the horrors of Oct. 7 glorified the Palestinian “martyrs” and called the attack “Palestinian resistance.”

The PYM was also cited by the Anti-defamation League as promoting “classic antisemitic themes on social media” and supporting “terror against Israel”.

The PYM supports the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a banned terror group in Canada, as well as Leila Khaled, one of the PFLP leaders, who is well-known for hijacking two jets.

It was the PYM who blockaded the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto last month, forcing the closing of an event featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni.

THE RALLIES OFTEN DESCEND INTO HATE AND INTIMIDATION.

Another major protest organizer is Samidoun, a group that has praised Hamas’ “resistance” for massacring Israelis as well as supporting the kidnapping of civilians. It is banned in Germany for supporting terrorists. It has also been accused of serving as an affiliate for the PFLP.

With organizations like these behind Canada’s provocative pro-palestinian protests it is not surprising that the rallies often descend into hate and intimidation. The organizers are able to dupe people into supporting them by cloaking their real motives behind a purported desire to help Gazans.

And clouding the issues and motivations like this can lead some people to say stupid things.

In the House of Commons last month, NDP MP Brian Masse insinuated that the fight against antisemitism in Canada wasn’t going to be tackled “until there’s a ceasefire” in Gaza. He probably didn’t mean to give the green light for anti-semites to attack Jews, but he certainly didn’t help matters.

Masse later apologized and acknowledged that antisemitism was rising in Canada.

Trudeau has also been guilty of equivocating on this matter. The prime minister is never able to denounce antisemitism without also condemning Islamophobia. But there is a difference. It’s Jewish synagogues, shops and schools that are being firebombed and shot at, not mosques and Muslim institutions.

It’s Jewish neighbourhoods where loud, angry protests are being staged to intimidate and frighten residents.

And when hospitals and university buildings are targeted it’s because they have links to the Jewish community.

We can’t tackle the scourge of antisemitism unless we call it out for what it is, without equivocation and without being blind to the true intent of protests still happening on our streets.