Clashes outside Thornhill synagogue
Three arrested at event for real estate in Israel, including illegal settlements
Tensions flared and several arrests were made as a travelling real estate expo from Israel was held Thursday at a Thornhill synagogue.
Called “The Great Israeli Real Estate Event,” the event was billed as offering attendees legal and financial advice regarding moving to Israel — or to three illegal West Bank settlements.
The event drew outrage from many, including pro-Palestinian protesters, hundreds of whom rallied at the synagogue.
The efforts of the protesters, meanwhile, in gathering at a place of worship, infuriated others, and hundreds of counterprotesters showed up at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT) synagogue.
Both sides brought large speaker systems and screamed duelling chants at each other.
A coalition of police forces, including York Region and Toronto police, worked to keep them separated. But at least three people were arrested for attacking pro-Palestinian protesters. One was alleged by protesters to have used pepper spray.
The Star heard coarse, sometimes bigoted rhetoric from both sides.
The pro-Israel side chanted for “refugees” to “go back home” and “go back to Scarborough.” One said into a megaphone “You’re not Canadian, you don’t belong here.”
The pro-Palestinian side scoffed at mention of the hostages taken by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. “The whole world hates you. You killed your own hostages.”
“F--k these Jews,” one protester said. Another quickly corrected him.
Protesters were seen snatching and burying Israeli flags in dirt before stomping and spitting on them. Police interrupted an attempt to burn an Israeli flag.
Canada and the international community at large consider Israeli settlements in the internationally recognized Palestinian territory illegal and an impediment to the peace process. Israel approves of them.
The Great Israeli Real Estate Event had two stops in Canada this week on its North American tour. The first, in Montreal’s Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue on Tuesday, was protested by local pro-Palestinian groups Montreal4Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal and Independent Jewish Voices, among others.
Clips from this protest appearing to show instances of antisemitic hate speech from a protester were widely circulated online. Protesters denied the utterances were antisemitic.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that pro-Palestinian protests that include hatred or harassment cross a line, The Canadian Press reported.
Trudeau said he’s heard from many Canadian Jews who have seen protests at synagogues and community centres and who feel unsafe. Nobody can be indifferent to the suffering in Gaza, and Canadians have a right to protest, he said. But “hateful or harassing behaviour, particularly against neighbours, is not what we do here in Canada.”
Central to the debate about protests in the past five months amid the Israel-Hamas war has been the tension between freedom of expression and the right to move freely, including access to places of worship. Following the Montreal protests, a Quebec judge granted the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs an injunction blocking demonstrators from coming near the synagogue they picketed.
The injunction, which is in force for 10 days, prevents the protesters from approaching several locations, including a synagogue, CIJA’s offices, and a high school.
CIJA is attempting to get similar restrictions in Toronto, where the Great Israeli Real Estate Event landed at BAYT synagogue Thursday. BAYT did not return multiple requests for comment from the Star.
“We urge the Government of Ontario to take decisive action,” it said in a statement Thursday. “We cannot allow mob-driven demonstrations to obstruct our right to participate fully in society.”
A joint statement from Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca, Vaughan Coun. Gila Martow, Thornhill MP Melissa Lantsman and Thornhill MPP Laura Smith concurred.
“Each of us is committed to doing what we can to ensure places of worship do not continue to be targeted in this manner.”
The statement makes no reference to any promotion of the sale of illegal land taking place within the place of worship. In an email to members of the synagogue shared online, synagogue leadership, including the rabbi and president, express support for the illegal settlement on West Bank land, which it refers to with the Israeli name for the West Bank, Judea and Samaria.
Last month, the U.S. issued financial sanctions and travel bans against Israeli settlers in the West Bank it said are “escalating violence” in the territory. Canada is reportedly considering doing the same.
At a news conference in front of BAYT synagogue Wednesday, Reem Chahrour told reporters her family was one of many displaced by Israel and scattered across the world.
“My grandfather passed away not being able to go back to his land,” she said, in Burin in the West Bank. “It is very unfair that Canadians, who have never set foot on that land, will be able to come to this event, that is unfortunately being hosted in a synagogue, and purchase land that I am not allowed to go back to.”
Canada’s former ambassador to Israel Jon Allen told the Star that he is “sharply critical of the synagogues for hosting these events.”
“The settlements are illegal under international law and Canada considers them illegal as such,” said Allen, who is also a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs. “They are one of the major obstacles both politically and physically to peace in the region and to a twostate solution that Canada and much of the international community supports.”
While Allen said he doesn’t support protests that prevent people from accessing the event, as has happened in the case of recent proPalestinian protests of politicians in Toronto, he does not believe that protesters should be unable to exercise their rights just because the event takes place in a synagogue.
“My personal view is that folks have a legitimate right to protest,” Allen said. “I think the actions of promoting the sales of land on settlements is wrong and should be criticized publicly and privately. I think the protests are legitimate but should not prevent the event from taking place. Free speech applies to both sides.”
On Sunday, before the controversial event had touched down, another Israeli real estate presentation had also been picketed by protesters — despite not dealing with land in the West Bank. Protest organizers had told supporters that it was about the sale of illegal land. Organizers told the Star that while they could have been clearer in distinguishing between the two events, ultimately, they believe all Israeli land is stolen and any attempt at selling it is worthy of protest.
This earlier protest was at Aish Hatorah synagogue in Thornhill. Counterprotesters were marshalled by the former head of Canada’s now defunct chapter of the Jewish Defense League, a far-right extremist group. A man was charged at the protest with assault with a weapon for allegedly shooting a nail gun at pro-Palestinian protesters.