Jewish advocacy group condemns glorification of Hamas attacks during Canadian Oct. 7 protests

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The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center is “aghast” at Monday’s pro-Palestinian protests, which it charges “openly glorified” the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, according to a statement released Wednesday.

The demonstrations, which took place on the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks that left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead and launched a war that has claimed more than 40,000 lives in Gaza, “celebrated the massacre,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, Senior Director of Advocacy and Policy at the Jewish advocacy organization.

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But Zev Saltiel, who marched at one of the demonstrations, rejected that characterization. “We’re not showing up to celebrate the Oct. 7 attacks; we’re showing up to denounce the subsequent escalation of the genocide and attacks on Gaza and Palestinians on Oct. 7.” Saltiel is a member of Independent Jewish Voices, a Jewish advocacy organization that takes a pro-Palestine stance.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre released a video Tuesday with several clips from protests in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Clips filmed in Montreal show a burning Israeli flag, protesters chanting “long live the intifada,” and a speech in which the speaker refers to the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 attack as “heroes of Gaza.”

Protesters set off fireworks, Kirzner-Roberts said, which she said shows the protests to be a celebration of the Oct. 7 attacks and not a protest against the Israeli military response.

She said everyone in attendance at the protest shares the blame for promoting the attacks, saying they stayed and cheered while speakers praised the Hamas attacks. “If you are at a rally like that, you are promoting that.”

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Saltiel, who attended the student protest, said most of the clips were not from that demonstration. He said he hadn’t seen or heard the content of the clips, but didn’t deny that the clips were legitimate.

The rallies were large, Saltiel said, and it’s often hard to hear speeches at these sorts of events. “I was standing at the back,” he said. “I could hear that there were speeches happening. I couldn’t actually hear what they were.” He said demonstrators tend to cheer, even when they aren’t sure what a speaker is saying.

Saltiel, who is Jewish and the descendant of Holocaust survivors, said he felt a responsibility to participate in protests against what he considers a genocide in Gaza. “The right and Jewish thing to do is to show up and to denounce and to demand more and demand better and demand freedom.”

But for Kirzner-Roberts, holding rallies on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks was “telling,” and proof that the demonstrations intended to glorify the attacks. “Why are you going out on the anniversary of a horrendous atrocity?”

She also called on law enforcement to step up. “It is illegal to promote and incite hatred and violence.”

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The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center is now lobbying the federal government to increase police powers to respond to what it considers incitement of hate at pro-Palestine rallies.

“Canadians don’t want this. They don’t want people on the streets celebrating human rights atrocities, celebrating terror.”

Kirzner-Roberts also pointed to the rise in hate crimes against the Jewish community over the last year as a failure of law enforcement. “We’ve seen those perpetrating those acts to be enjoying impunity.”

Saltiel said he didn’t see much connection between antisemitic actions and the protests. In a year in which he’s attended many pro-Palestine protests, he said the first antisemitic incident he’d witnessed was Saturday and he was the target.

A man “to my face screamed that Jewish people are an unevolved species and that Hitler failed to exterminate us.” He said fellow protesters immediately stepped in. “A whole bunch of much-larger-than-me Arab men got right in between and escorted him away and stayed protecting me the rest of the time.”

Saltiel said he grieved the Oct. 7 attacks. “When I heard the attacks on Oct. 7, my initial instinct was of course fear and anxiety. … My next worry was absolute fear of how Israel would respond. And this is far worse than anything I could’ve imagined.”

He said that while he seldom witnessed antisemitism at protests, he’s seen a lot of grieving. “I have spent far more protests holding elderly Palestinian people while they cried in my arms, so grateful that I would show up for them.”

jawilson@postmedia.com

x.com/jackdlwilson

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