Just days after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, jubilant pro-Palestinian protesters staged a large unsanctioned gathering outside Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square on Monday.
Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the march titled ‘All out for Palestine’ began at City Hall and ended at the Israeli consulate in midtown Toronto.
Demonstrators held signs that read “Smash Israeli Apartheid,” “USA is a terrorist,” “NATO is Nazi,” and “Move Israel to Florida.”
Despite the protest being unsanctioned and unpermitted, Toronto Police allowed for stretches of Queen Street and Bay Street to be shut down as protesters climbed scaffolds, stood on top of bus stops, all while escorting the protest towards the Israeli consulate.
Speaking to True North, one protester holding a sign with the words ‘End Apartheid Now’ said that the terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on Saturday “needed to happen in order to free the Palestinian people from 73 years of occupation, genocide and apartheid.”
When asked if the terrorist attack was justified, the protester said, “Yes, it is justified…Resistance in any means necessary.”
Monday’s march in Toronto followed similar anti-Israel protests across Canada prompting a strong condemnation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other politicians.
As the protesters marched up Bay Street, interspersed with chants of “Allahu Akbar” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” protesters directed their chants at Trudeau, yelling “Justin Trudeau you will see, Palestine will be free.”
Speaking at a solidarity gathering for Israel, Trudeau doubled down on his condemnation of the protests in support of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel over the weekend.
“Hamas terrorists are not a resistance, they are not freedom fighters. They are terrorists and no one in Canada should be supporting them, much less celebrating them,” Trudeau told the gathering.
Toronto mayor Olivia Chow also condemned the large gathering Monday, saying that the protest was “not sanctioned, without a permit, and I unequivocally denounce it.”
Anti-Israel gatherings in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks have sprouted up in Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Vancouver throughout the weekend.
In the North end of Toronto later on Monday, thousands of people attended a ceremony in remembrance of the lives lost to the Hamas terrorist attack at Mel Lastman Square in North York.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Olivia Chow addressed the crowd of thousands at the ceremony.
