Anti-Israel activists desecrated a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Ottawa on Sunday night with a message claiming Israel is starving Gaza’s citizens.
The words “Feed Me” were splattered across the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa with red paint.
Ottawa Police Services announced its Hate and Bias Crime Unit is “actively leading the investigation” into the incident.
Lawrence Greenspon, the co-chair of the National Holocaust Monument Committee, told True North the desecration of the Holocaust memorial was an “ultimate act of antisemitic hatred” against the Jewish community and their families.
“The time for politicians and world leaders to acknowledge and condemn this kind of hate messaging is long past,” Greenspon told True North. “It’s time for world leaders, including our own Prime Minister, to recognize that every time they blame Israel for the situation in Gaza, it just feeds the fires of antisemitism that are burning worldwide.”
He said the people who are responsible need to be prosecuted, but that the acts of hatred against the Jewish community have been emboldened by one-sided condemnation from countries such as Canada, England and France.
“That’s what’s feeding this antisemitic wave across Canada and across the world,” he said. “We have to stop doing that. We have to realize where the root cause of this graffiti is, and that’s, in my view, where it is.”
He said many Canadians may not realize that Israel has not been stopping money, aid, and food from getting to the people of Gaza, as the activist graffiti claims.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that more than 1,200 aid trucks have been dispatched from Israel to Gaza in the past two weeks, and the U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed over 11 million meals to Gaza during that time.
“It has not been Israel (starving Gazans) for the last 20 years. Money, food, medical aid, and water that the people of Gaza much need are being intercepted and have been intercepted by Hamas,” Greenspon said. “The continued idea that we blame Israel for the plight of the Gazans is what is fueling antisemitism worldwide. It’s a very inaccurate portrayal of the roles that are being played out in Gaza.”
He said countries such as Canada are blindly sending money to Gaza, via institutions such as UNRWA, but the money “hardly gets to the people of Gaza who need it,” as Hamas has been shown seizing aid from its citizens multiple times.
Rich Robertson, the director of advocacy and research at B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish-Canadian community group, told True North that it is never acceptable to target a Holocaust memorial for political messaging.
“It’s a solemn memorial to the victims of the Shoah, and there is no geopolitical or ideological conviction that justifies such,” Robertson said. “This strikes a tremendously deep wound within the community to have a memorial to the victims of the Shoah targeted, apparently because of somebody’s disagreement over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.”
He said the “deplorable act of antisemitism” marks another example of “undue persecution” of Jewish people due to a foreign conflict.
“It’s representative of the current climate that has been enabled here in Canada, where an individual or individuals would feel as if this is something that is justifiable,” Robertson continued. “There is no excuse for such a grotesque occurrence to take place. We hope that this is yet another wake-up call to our leaders that we have a problem in this country with division, with incitement and with antisemitism.”
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe called the disfiguring of the monument “shocking and disturbing” in a post on X Monday morning.
“The National Holocaust Memorial is a solemn and sacred place in Ottawa designed to honour the millions of innocent people who were murdered under the Nazi regime and to recognize the significant contributions of Holocaust survivors in Canada,” he said. “Protests and demonstrations are an essential part of our democracy. Disfiguring a sacred monument in a way that will traumatize victims, survivors and their families is not.”
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman took to X as well, calling the overnight defacement a “disgusting and cowardly act.”
“Parliament is just steps away — that’s where dissent belongs. Defacing sacred ground in honour of the millions of victims of the Holocaust in the middle of the night with spray paint isn’t protest, it’s vandalism,” Lantsman said on X. “Someone this pathetic deserves to be identified and held accountable.”
Police are urging anyone with information to contact their tip line at 613-236-1222, extension 5625.