It is nothing short of heartbreaking and despicable at the same time.
In the past week, I’ve watched the Jew hatred in what is supposed to be a world class city and civilized country escalate as those in academia, politics and the labour movement deny the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas terrorists.
I’ve seen so-called progressive Israel haters – who scream and shout non-stop about LGBTQ rights – use the barbaric actions perpetrated last Saturday (including the burning and decapitating of babies) as a vile excuse to renew their cries about the plight of Palestinians.
Some of the more sadistic critics have had the audacity to say “apartheid” Israel had it coming for keeping Palestinians in an ‘open-air prison.’
They repeat the same lies, the same antisemitic tropes, the same narrative about war crimes and apartheid Israel in the occupied lands, conveniently ignoring that Israel pulled out of Gaza in September of 2005. Hamas has ruled Gaza and used the Palestinians as human shields since 2007.
Facts mean little to them. Reality means even less. Ignorance and indoctrination run rampant amongst the radical left.
Many of the gay activists also vehemently ignore the fact that the Palestinians, the Hamas terrorists and the Iranian government that supports their brutality are virulently homophobic.
It’s a bizarre disconnect.
I saw them spew their hate in May 2020 during the last conflict. This time, it didn’t take but days – hours even – for them to come out from under their rocks, even though the current round of atrocities rivals those of the Holocaust.
Some of the names are different, some aren’t – but their M.O. is sadly the same.
They care little about the Palestinians, in my view, for if they did they’d be spending their creative energy organizing resources and relief for the Palestinians as the Jewish community in Toronto has done through the United Jewish Appeal for the Israelis.
They’d be applying pressure to other Arab countries – starting with Egypt – to take in the Palestinians instead of spreading their toxic Jew hate on the streets of Toronto and other Canadian cities.
Folks, this is pure unadulterated Jew hatred, the kind of antisemitism that sends chills down my spine. As a Jew and outspoken Zionist, I can’t believe people who purport to be progressive can be so misinformed and misguided.
Toronto District School Board (TDSB) equity worker Javier Davila, who was the subject of a review and let off the hook, for crafting two antisemitic manuals in 2020 (I broke the story) didn’t wait even 24 hours to join a protest in Toronto waving a Palestinian flag.
He spent the week posting anti-Israel sentiments on Twitter and reposting his hateful anti-Israel resources.
Osgoode Hall law professor Heidi Matthews, who unequivocally supported Davila in 2020, has also been close to obsessive about posting or reposting anti-israel hatred. She even gave a patronizing comment to a fellow law professor in Israel after he called her out.
Derik Chica, a TDSB lead guidance counsellor and alleged social justice advocate, who was prominent in 2020 stirring up anti-Israel hate, seems to have little insight into how his tweets and his obsessive anti–Israel comments on teachers’ forums are hurtful to so many of his Jewish colleagues.
In one forum post shared with me, Chica says increases in antisemitic hate crimes are only because Jews have “privilege” and can take their concerns to police.
On X (formerly Twitter), Chica shared a post accusing Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing,” asking why people aren’t condemning Israel.
He’s also tried to gin up support for the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement, accusing Israeli companies of being complicit in “genocide” and “apartheid.”
I’ve heard from several about him, who are afraid to allow their names to be used for fear of being targeted.
Whether he despises Jews or is desperately in need of attention, or both, his tweets do not hide his disdain for Israel – even though they violate the TDSB social media policy which advises posting hate is not acceptable.
By now, many are familiar with the toxic tweets of CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn, who from the moment the heinous Hamas crimes came to light a week ago was online glorifying what happened.
This is but one example.
He never once condemned the barbaric war crimes perpetrated on Israelis. And, when called out, he doubled down claiming he was being “targeted by a highly organized pro-Israel lobby that seeks to control the anti-Palestinian narrative.”
That in itself is an antisemitic trope. Talk about putting one’s foot in one’s mouth.
A petition calling for him to resign now has 7,000 signatures.
And then there are the self-loathing Jews like perennial loudmouth Judy Rebick and champagne socialists Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein. Do these misguided attention seekers really think they’d be spared from terrorism for being Jewish useful idiots?
Klein reposted this beauty:
Frankly, the antisemitism has ramped up so much, I find myself monitoring social media from morning to night with despair.
Most Jews, like myself, find the barbaric acts of terrorism on 1,300 innocent Israelis horrific enough.
But to see the denial played out on TV and on social media – by the ignorant, the indoctrinated, the misguided and those who seek to destroy the Jewish state – is downright terrifying.
