A Pro-Palestinian group targeted a kosher grocery store in the community of Thornhill on Canada Day (July 1). Thornhill is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The group, Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR), was reported by Jerusalem Post to be on the hunt for “former leader of the Canadian JDL,” Jewish Defense League, Meir Weinstein, whom they were expecting to be in the kosher plaza area. Aliya Hasan, who led the protest, spun the reaction to the targeting of the kosher store as “Islamophobia,” stating that it was “a peaceful protest by pro-Palestinians in response to serious threats made by FBI-designated terrorist organization, the JDL [Jewish Defense League] towards the Muslim community.”
So what exactly was the “threat”? As reported by the Jerusalem Post:
According to CD4HR, Weinstein had threatened to protest the 2022 Muslim Association of Canada Convention, which was being held from July 1 to July 3. MAC had invited several speakers who had previously expressed pro-terrorist and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
I reached out to Meir Weinstein for a statement. He wrote back to me:
For the past 2 months, my new group Israel Now has been monitoring and exposing the speakers for the Muslim Association of Canada Conference. On Friday July 1st, we noticed that Palestine flags were at the entrance to the conference. Shortly after the start of the conference, some supporters of the conference left the conference to harass members of the Jewish Community in Thornhill who were doing shopping for Shabbat. This group from the conference started shouting antisemitism at the Jewish shoppers. I received several phone calls about this, so I decided to go to this plaza. And I witnessed vile antisemitism from these conference supporters.
The National Post published an article about the MAC conference: “The Liberals are funding hate. How else to describe the speakers at this Toronto convention?” I wrote more about it for Jihad Watch HERE.
CD4HR has a notable history of spewing hatred against Jews and Israel. It previously claimed that rabbis who support Israel are a “danger” to Canada. In 2019, CD4HR posted a series of hateful tirades against Toronto Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, the founder and spiritual leader of Chabad@Flamingo in Thornhill, who is an ardent supporter of Israel. The scorching personal attacks were eyebrow-raising enough in themselves, but the attacks against the State of Israel further exposed the organization’s Islamic anti-Semitism. CD4HR attempted to rewrite history and strip Israel of its ancient heritage — despite archeological evidence — and supplant it with “holy Palestine.”
Only six months ago, B’nai Brith Canada demanded that CD4HR be dissolved “after it organized a vigil endorsing terrorist groups” and called for death to America. CD4HR and its founder Firas al-Najim organized a small rally outside the U.S. Consulate in downtown Toronto to commemorate the death in a U.S. strike of Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force.
Al-Najim delivered an Arabic-language speech at the event, which has been translated by B’nai Brith Canada. Al-Najim promised: “We will continue fighting alongside… Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” before leading the crowd in a highly disturbing chorus of “Death to America!” in both Arabic and Farsi.
Although CD4HR spreads hate and propaganda against Jews, provoking the latter at every turn, it has remained free to continue its intimidation tactics and stir pro-Palestinian hatred, despite Canada’s hate laws.
The protests at Thornhill prompted a tweet from a Thornhill Member of Parliament, Melissa Lantsman:
As is routine with Islamic supremacist trouble makers, CD4HR claimed “Islamophobia” and accused Lantsman of lying.
Since the Jerusalem Post article mentions the JDL’s label as “terrorist,” it is worth noting some of its history. The JDL was founded in 1968 in Brooklyn by Rabbi Meir Kahane in order to “protect Jews against antisemitism.” Kahane “later founded the Kach Party in Israel.” Kahane’s fervor made him controversial. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York by jihadist El Sayyid Nosairan, who had links to al-Qaeda. The Jerusalem Post reported this last year about Kahane:
His assassination is considered by many to be the first act of Islamic terrorism on US soil. * His legacy and that of his ideology remains strong and controversial to this day.
Nosairan originally planned to kill Ariel Sharon, according to a leaked US government document. Even so, Nosairan was at first acquitted of Kahane’s murder, but “the judge, who disagreed with the murder acquittal, sentenced Nosair to the maximum 22 years on the gun conviction.” Nosair finally admitted what he had done and explained his plans:
He added that on the night he shot Kahane dead, he was accompanied by two co-conspirators to the Marriot Hotel in Manhattan where Kahane was speaking – one of whom was also carrying a gun. The men, Bilal al-Kaisi of Jordan and Mohammed Salameh, a Palestinian illegal alien later involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, have never been charged for their part in the slaying.
In jail, Nosairan “was hailed a martyr by supporters carrying placards outside the courthouse. Many were followers of Osama bin Laden, who contributed $20,000 for Nosair’s defense.” Nosairan later went on to help plan the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center from behind bars.
Yet despite the ongoing hate directed at Jews and jihadist threat against them, the public is repeatedly reminded in soundbites about the terrorism label that was affixed to the Jewish Defense League in the U.S. (and since removed), while at the same time, the Islamic jihad is downplayed or ignored outright.
In the Greater Toronto Area, Palestinian antisemitic propaganda even made its way to the Toronto District School Board last December. Read about it HERE. Although it was stymied (for now) because of an unprecedented backlash, including a rare statement from the Toronto Board of Rabbis, there was no followup indication of any accountability on the part of the pro-Palestinian players.
The Palestinian jihad (aka the “resistance”) — which has expanded into a global movement that fans the flames of rage and violence — repeatedly gets a pass. A familiar cycle of antisemitism followed by screams of victimhood and “Islamophobia” will continue to escalate, as it does everywhere.
“Pro-Palestinians, pro-Israelis clash on Canada Day at kosher stores,” by Michael Start, Jerusalem Post, July 4, 2022:
Canadian supporters of Israel and Palestinians clashed in Thornhill, Canada on Friday, in front of a shopping plaza with mainly Kosher stores.
Melissa Lantsman, Member of Parliament representing Thornhill claimed that pro-Palestinian protestors gathered at the plaza and harassed Jewish shoppers. Video shared by the MP shows protestors waving Israeli flags and chanting slogans in front of the shops.
“Protesters screaming ‘free Palestine,’ yelling antisemitic slurs and intimidating Jews in Thornhill outside a plaza of mainly kosher establishments,” Lantsman tweeted. “This is not anti-Zionism —it’s a blatant act of antisemitic hate which must be condemned by everyone.”
“You don’t come to a Jewish neighborhood and yell anti-Semitic tropes if it isn’t about hating Jews.”
MP Melissa Lantsman
One video shared by the NGO Stop Antisemitism showed pro-Palestinian protestors shouting “Shabbat shalom b*****s.”
“This occurred during a peaceful protest by pro-Palestinians in response to serious threats made by FBI-designated terrorist organization, the JDL [Jewish Defense League] towards the Muslim community.”
Accusations of Islamophobia and threats
Aliya Hasan, leader of the group that led the protests, Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR), shared videos on her Instagram claiming that the pro-Palestinian protestors were threatened and cussed with Islamophobic comments by shoppers and shopkeepers. They claimed that Lantsman was lying about the confrontation.
“This occurred during a peaceful protest by pro-Palestinians in response to serious threats made by FBI-designated terrorist organization, the JDL [Jewish Defense League] towards the Muslim community,” wrote Hasan.
In the videos, one man threatened that he would find them and had taken pictures of their license plates. A shop owner called the pro-Palestinian protestors “terrorists.” One man involved in the incident was alleged to be JDL Canada branch former leader Meir Weinstein.
York Police intervened in the heated shouting matches, arresting one of the pro-Palestinian activists.
Seeking an enemy
Firas al Najim, who joined the protests, said in a July 2 Instagram video that the group had gone to the plaza after learning through social media that Weinstein was there.
According to CD4HR, Weinstein had threatened to protest the 2022 Muslim Association of Canada Convention, which was being held from July 1 to July 3. MAC had invited several speakers who had previously expressed pro-terrorist and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric….
The protestors said in a post that they had gone to the Enercare Centre, to counter-protest, but Weinstein’s group never arrived. CD4HR posted a video taunting Weinstein’s Israel Now group, prior to their pursuit of Weinstein almost 20 kilometers away to the Chabad Gate plaza.
The backlash to the protest
“You don’t come to a Jewish neighborhood and yell antisemitic tropes if it isn’t about hating Jews,” Lantsman said of the incident.
July 1 was Canada Day, the national holiday of Canada, and fell on Friday — when Jews prepare for Shabbat.
“Jewish Canadians have been in this country since 1760. We are incredibly proud Canadians and Canada Day is our national holiday,” MP Anthony Housefather tweeted. “To do something like this on Canada Day is especially offensive.”….
