Toronto: Three arrested as protesters clash at synagogue, calls for intifada

Three people were arrested over altercations between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters in front of the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT) synagogue on Thursday, York Regional Police said on Friday.

Kevin Haas, 40, was seen by emergency services carrying a knife in the crowd. He was immediately arrested and charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Meir Gerichter, 32, was arrested by the York Regional Police Public Order Unit for assaulting a female protester. In a third incident, Ina Sandler, 48, threatened to spray a man with coyote repellent after they engaged in a heated verbal altercation.

“York Regional Police takes these matters seriously and is reminding the community we will not tolerate any form of hate crime,” said the police.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators had gathered in front of the Thornhill synagogue to protest the Great Real Estate Event that was being held there, in which properties in Israeli cities and towns beyond the green line were being advertised.

“Currently, a tour of information sessions to sell Canadians real estate on stolen Palestinian lands is taking place here in Toronto,” Toronto 4 Palestine posted on Instagram on Friday. “We are here to let our Government know that allowing the selling of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank will not happen under our watch. Canada must condemn and prevent these events from taking place!”

Protesters wore keffiyehs and waved Palestinian flags. Some ultra-orthodox, anti-Zionist Jews were present with signs saying that Israel does not represent world Jewry. In a Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto video, anti-Israel activists chanted “Allah Akbar.”

Thornhill MP Melissa Lantsman shared a video on social media of anti-Israel protesters, one wearing a black combat vest, shouting “Long live the intifada.”

Counter-protesters gathered outside the synagogue in defense of the site and event, waving Canadian, Israeli, and Iranian monarchy flags.

Daniel Koren, founder and executive director of Allied Voices for Israel (AVI), said that counter-protesters attended the event to stand up for Israel, the Jewish community, and Canadian values and ethics. He also said that the pro-Palestinian protests had nothing to do with towns beyond the 1949 armistice line but, rather, were about intimidating Canadian Jews.

“The so-called ‘protests’ targeting a synagogue in the heart of Jewish Toronto is an outright attack on the Jewish community in Canada. There can be no justification for these disgusting actions and for the derogatory rhetoric they spewed just meters outside of a Jewish house of worship, including the slogan ‘Zionists go to Hell,’” said Koren.York Centre MP Ya’ara Saks decried the anti-Israel protests as “awful.”

“There are appropriate places to demonstrate about the conflict,” said Saks. “In front of a synagogue and community center in the heart of a Jewish community is not one of them.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against Saks and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Tuesday, accusing them of funding war crimes. The next day, Saks said on social media that the Toronto police had kept the event safe.

On Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters held a blue and white banner outside the BAYT, declaring that the synagogue was “complicit in Palestinian ethnic cleansing.”

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The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs called the protests “blatant antisemitism on full display in broad daylight. There’s no depth the anti-Israel mob won’t sink [into].”

Mayor concerned at protests targeting synagogues 

Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca said in a Wednesday statement that he shared concerns about protests in front of places of worship, promising a heavy police presence on Thursday.

“Long live the intifada” chanted at a synagogue adjacent to a Jewish day school in the country’s largest Jewish residential neighbourhood. Justin Trudeau, you have lost control. This is terrifying. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/yDd1aG3tic

— Melissa Lantsman (@MelissaLantsman) March 7, 2024

“The right to peaceful protest is an important freedom afforded to all Canadians,” said Del Duca. “But this freedom does not give people the right to incite hate, make threats, or engage in acts of violence.”

Israeli real estate expositions have inspired large protests and controversy at Canadian synagogues. Last Sunday, a Canadian Jewish man was arrested for threatening pro-Palestinian protesters with a nail gun at a rally against such an event at the Aish Thornhill Community Shul, not far from BAYT. On Tuesday, pro-Palestinian protesters hurled antisemitic and sexist abuse at Jewish counterprotesters when the real estate event was held at the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal.