At this weekend’s annual Walk for Israel in Toronto, pro-Israel demonstrators were met with counterdemonstrators, a number of whom exhibited support for Hamas.
A record-breaking estimated 56,000 people participated in the 56th annual Walk for Israel, according to the United Jewish Alliance of Greater Toronto. The event, which included Jewish Canadians and their allies, took place against the backdrop of ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
But the march also drew Israel’s harshest critics.
Police allowed anti-Israel protesters to stand on both sides of Bathurst Street, creating a gauntlet for Jews and their allies to pass through to complete their march. The Palestine flag-wielding protesters also lit off two green and red smoke bombs, which were swiftly snuffed out by police.
Anti-Israel protesters shouted slogans such as “there is only one solution; Intifada revolution,” “long live the resistance,” “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and told the Jews walking past to “go back to Europe.”
Israeli supporters gathered hours before the counterdemonstrators showed up in the Jewish neighbourhood of Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue, to prevent a planned disruption of the walk.
True North spoke to one Israel supporter who decided not to walk in the march to support those at the intersection. For safety reasons, he only wanted to be identified by his first name, Leonard.
He said Canadian Jews and their allies have gathered at the intersection every Sunday since the first week after the October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the slaughter of over 1,200 Jews in Israel and the kidnapping of hundreds more.
Anti-Israel protesters have gathered ever since at the intersection, protesting those holding vigil and calling for the return of hostages, who have been in captivity for nearly 600 days.
“It’s absolutely absurd and should never be allowed to happen,” Leonard said when asked about the anti-Israel protesters at the march. “”When you have their families with little children, babies, toddlers, walking through, being yelled at like ‘all Zionists are terrorists,’ ‘from the river to the sea,’ why should they be listening to this Jew hatred?”
He and others at the march explained that from chants such as “from the river to the sea” and “go back to Europe,” the largely pro-Hamas crowd means from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea, they want the land of Israel to be “free from Jews.”
He said Canadians have to come out to support the Jewish community at events such as this to show the Hamas supporters that they are the minority, and to confront them for their antisemitic rhetoric. However, he thinks police must enforce laws already on the books to keep Canadians safe.
Leonard said laws against using a mask, intimidating, and harassing people in a public place should be enforced against the large number of anti-Israel protesters shouting at Jews at the walk and every Sunday.
Leonard accused the police of applying two-tiered policing when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war protests.
“You know what the police say. ‘You shouldn’t come here. Don’t walk on that side.’ Why? ‘Because you’re creating a disturbance.’ What does that mean? ‘Your mere presence is agitating the Hamas protesters, so you can’t come here for that reason,’” he said. “The Hamas protesters should be asked to leave if my mere presence gets them all riled up into a frenzy.”
Meir Weinstein, the former national director of the Jewish Defence League and current head of “Israel Now,” mobilized supporters to take on the anti-Israel protesters after hearing of their plans to stop the march on social media.
He warned that the murder of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington D.C. by a man shouting “free Palestine” should wake the West up to the consequences of the “pro-Palestine” protest rhetoric.
He said week after week at the intersection anti-Israel protesters have glorified Hamas, slaughter, rape and murder of Jews and often cosplay as PFLP members, Hamas or even Hamas’ deceased leader Yayah Sinwar on one occasion.
Weinstein calls on all Canadians to stand up against antisemitism warning that the holocaust started with rhetoric against Jews that escalated but eventually non-Jews were slaughtered by the Nazi regime as well.
“They burn Canadian flags, they burn American flags, and they say, Death to Israel, Death to America. Canadians must wake up and see that our elected officials and the police enforce the law,” he said. “Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization; shut them down, close all their bank accounts. The nonsense that the government did against the trucker movement. Those laws have to be enforced against the Hamas movement.”