MONTREAL — A Nov. 5 meeting organized by Students Supporting Israel at Toronto Metropolitan University was violently attacked by masked supporters of the Jew-hating outfit Students for Justice in Palestine. The meeting was called to hear two Israeli soldiers speak about defending Israel against Hamas, since the Nazi-inspired group carried out its deadly pogrom in Israel Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas continues to organize to either kill or drive out the Jews. SJP supports Hamas’ objectives.
Some 40 or 50 thugs forced their way into the building shortly before the program was to begin. They smashed through a glass door screaming “Free Palestine,” and attacked Jonathan Karten, one of the Israeli soldiers. Six of the attackers were arrested and charged by police.
A video posted on YouTube shows people at the meeting barricaded inside a room as the pro-Hamas mob broke through the door. It also shows Karten step up to defend the meeting.
In a post on Instagram, meeting organizers wrote their “peaceful event … turned into absolute chaos,” describing “broken glass, blood everywhere — all because we’re Jewish.”
Karten and one of the students were taken to a nearby hospital. The Israel Defense Force soldier then returned and gave his talk. “I wasn’t going to let them take that away from us,” he said.
Students for Justice in Palestine had issued a call to “shut down the event,” posting on Instagram, “ALL OUT TO 49 ELM STREET NOW! Zionist war criminals have once again been welcomed into this city. … War criminals will never be welcome in our communities.”
Students for Justice in Palestine here is part of a North American-wide organization. It considers Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Jews and others, rape and mutilation, and the seizure of hostages on Oct. 7 as an act of national liberation.
The group was one of the organizers of a two-month-long encampment at the University of Toronto in May-June 2024. It was one of 100 or so encampments held in the U.S. and Canada marked by Jew-hating slogans like “Death to the Zionists”; “We say justice! You say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!”; and “Go Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets too.”
Pro-Hamas forces block debate
These Hamas apologists aim to shut down any meetings or actions in defense of Israel or that speak out against Tehran-backed Hamas’ goal of carrying out a new Holocaust against the Jews. They’re determined to prevent open discussion and civil debate.
The meeting had to be held off campus because the university denied the pro-Israel students the right to organize the event and refused to defend it. This is the third time that one of their events was forced off campus by the Toronto Metropolitan University administration.
At a press conference two days later, Julia, a Students for Justice in Palestine organizer on the campus who declined to give her last name, justified the violent attack, congratulating those who carried it out. “Students did exactly what you’re supposed to do when your university chooses to host war criminals that are complicit in genocide,” she said.
TMU School of Journalism associate chair and Faculty for Palestine member Sonya Fatah also spoke.
Jewish organizations across the country denounced the attack. “This shocking act of antisemitic violence reflects the escalating climate of intimidation facing Jewish students on Canadian campuses,” the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said.
“Behind it all, there’s an abject failure of government representatives to call out Jew-hatred at any level,” said Rabbi Joe Kanofsky of Toronto synagogue Kehillat Shaarei Torah. The synagogue had been vandalized for the 10th time the week before.
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation called on the university administration to end “its discriminatory policies of keeping Jewish events off campus.”
Most of the capitalist media coverage of the attack played down its violent character and the Jew-hating, pro-Hamas character of the forces involved.
A Toronto Star article never mentioned the name of the group that organized the attack. It described them only as “a group of protesters.” The paper also failed to report the attack had been organized to break up the meeting by force.
The CBC News report emphasized the attackers’ claim they “were grabbed, shoved, chased and thrown to the ground” by one of the IDF speakers. But, as a video of the attack clearly shows, he was trying to defend the meeting against an attacking mob.
Students Supporting Israel President Ilan Sinelnikov said that the Canadian tour of the two IDF soldiers will continue, reaching as many campuses as possible — especially those where Jewish students feel isolated and intimidated.