Protests have gone unchecked
Cry me a river, so-called pro-Palestinian protesters.
Waah-waah they puled, after police finally took action during yet another weekend of protest in Toronto marked by the demonizing of Jews and intimations of violence.
Allow me to quote Naved Awan, whose antipathy for Israel long predates the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas and subsequent bombing retaliation of Gaza, and which seems to spill over into hate and threats. This is from a video of Saturday’s tense and ultimately chaotic demonstration at Gerrard and Parliament:
“Whether it’s on the street, whether it’s at work, or whether it’s in your place of worship — it could be at a synagogue, everyone will be held accountable.”
Why single out synagogues? Hmm …
Surely the implication that all Jews share responsibility for Israel’s actions is textbook antisemitism.
And this clip, though it’s unclear when it was made: “The heat, the tension’s just going to get worse when you go after a Zionist …”
Awan is variously described as a protest organizer affiliated with Toronto4Palestine — a group that, at the start of the conflict, appeared to flirt with Holocaust denial, and which has been behind many of the pro-Palestinian rallies over the past six months — and Palesign.
From another punk, aimed at a petite female cop, unflinching as she stared down protesters in her face: “F--king b--ch!”
To be clear: Demonstrations against Israel, demonstrations against the Israel Defence Forces and demonstrations against the horrors inflicted on civilians in Gaza are absolutely legitimate, a protected civil right, even when “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” is hollered.
Otherwise we could end up with legislation akin to that which came into effect on Monday in Scotland. That regrettable bill, aimed at providing “greater protection for victims and communities,” created new criminal offences for those who use “threatening or abusive behaviour” intended to stir up hatred based on disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity — but could be used to prosecute even misgendering trans folk.
Of course, it’s now common to wrap oneself in free speech principles — take the blows — when the venom is almost exclusively directed at Jews.
Such strange and counterintuitive allies these increasingly unhinged protesters are enjoying, most recently hereabouts Pride Toronto, which last week called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Again, entirely a legitimate demand. But in its 600-word statement, Pride Toronto didn’t even mention Hamas — the terrorist group that triggered this whole crisis with its slaughtering rampage over the border into Israel — until the final line: “Additionally the release of innocent Israelis taken captive by Hamas as called for by both the United Nations and International Court of Justice.”
Hamas viciously persecutes gays, including allegedly executing one of its own military commanders. Jews in the local LGBTQ community have, with this unbalanced proclamation, been abandoned by a major queer advocate.
I would offer a different admonishment to NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam, who I always considered among the more rational of lefties, for her chastising police in the wake of last Saturday’s events, which came to an arresting head. Wong-Tam underscored her steadfast opposition to “the controversial police tactic known as “kettling,” resurrecting the deplorable practice deployed by law enforcement during the G20 Summit in Toronto in 2010.
Except there wasn’t any kettling, as police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer reiterated to me. “There was no kettling. Protesters were always free to leave.”
Police have charged three people (thus far) in relation to that one hell of an outrageous demo where Awan threatened to hold Jews “accountable” where they congregate and pray. It is alleged that, while cops were trying to manage the mob, a person at the protest drove with people in the bed of their truck, that individual was charged with stunt-driving under the Highway Traffic Act; another participant was charged with hurling horse manure at officers; a third charged with using a flagpole to “spear” at an officer. None of the charges have been proven in court.
It should come as no surprise that these demonstrations — some 400 protests since Oct. 7 — have grown increasingly turbulent and brazenly targeted at Jewish businesses, neighbourhoods, schools and synagogues. Toronto police have been woefully laggard in bringing the demonstrators to legally quantified heel.
The hotheads can whine all they want, yell “DEFUND POLICE,” and assume the role of victims. They’re no such thing. A good number — not all — are provocateurs and rabble-rousers who’ve glommed onto events on the other side of the planet to promote their agenda here by harassing and threatening our Jewish neighbours. Instead of training the condemnation where it’s deserved, even purported pro-Israel commentators have suggested securing Jewish neighbourhoods by in essence containing them against infringement by demonstrators — which sounds creepily like ghettoizing Jews. When law enforcement should be reining in the firebrands.
It’s hardly just a Toronto problem. In recent days there was havoc outside a synagogue in Teaneck, N.J., that was hosting representatives from Zaka — the volunteer responders who collect every human shred from terrorist attacks — while, at a Harvard protest a grad student called on Hamas to bomb Tel Aviv and murder Jews.
This has gone on too long and too unchecked.
But suck it up Jews, huh?