If they would have nuked Lebanon the “Walk with Israel” probably would have been bigger. The more lawless and genocidal Israel acts the greater the number of Toronto Jews who take to the street in support of their beloved supremacist state.
Sunday’s “Walk with Israel” was reportedly the largest ever. United Jewish Appeal says 60,000 participated and $670,000 was raised for Israel. It was apparently even larger than New York city’s Israel Parade. No city outside Israel brings out genocidaires like Toronto!
As the “Walk with Isreal” and polls suggest, Toronto Jews largely support a lawless genocidal state. Anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim bigotry is rife in the highly influential community. Incredibly, multiple MPs and the chief of the Toronto police attended the genocide walk on Sunday. Additionally, a massive police presence was mobilized to intimidate and arrest anti-genocide protesters.
Being in Toronto during Israel’s brutal 2014 attack on Gaza opened my eyes to that city’s fanatical Jewish supremacism. My experience of the dynamic driving Canadian support for Israel was articulated in Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. I wrote, “during 15 years of activism in Montréal, Ottawa and Vancouver I haven’t seen anything equivalent to the racist, militarist pro-Israel movement experienced recently in Toronto.” I saw thousands demonstrate in favour of Israel’s onslaught and was shoved, spat on, had my bike damaged and lock stolen by men wearing “never again” T-shirts who were angry with my support for Palestinians. Over the two-month long summer “war,” I witnessed numerous random outbursts of anti-Arab racism, including an older woman interrupting a phone conversation I was having about Israel’s destruction of Gaza and yelling she hoped Israel kills “10,000 more.”
With 1,500 Palestinian civilians (versus six Israeli) killed during the seven-week war Toronto’s United Jewish Appeal and other Israel lobby groups organized a large pro-war demonstration under the banner: “We Will Not be Silent: A March Against Global Anti-Semitism.” Framed as a challenge to prejudice, the march was little more than a group of white people calling for the further subjugation of brown folk.
In my 2014 article “Toronto’s racist, militarist pro-Israel movement”, I wondered, “While the Jewish Defence League would likely back the complete incineration of Gaza, one wonders just how far the more mainstream groups are willing to go in cheering on Israel’s current onslaught, its third large-scale assault on Gaza in five years. Will the Jewish establishment withdraw support if 2,000 Palestinian are killed? Or is the breakpoint 5,000? Or maybe B’nai B’rith and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs would back the Israeli military all the way to 50,000 dead?”
Unfortunately, we now know the answer. No amount of Israeli killing of Palestinians, Lebanese or Iranians appears likely to break Jewish institutional support for that faraway country. In fact, when it comes to attendance at the Walk with Israel attendance appears to rise alongside Israeli criminality.
As they march and promote a lawless genocidal state, many in Toronto’s Jewish community also claim victimhood. But they are likely the best-off ethnic/religious community in Canada’s largest city. A Jewish person in Toronto is more likely to earn above the median income, own a home, have a university degree, sit on a corporate board or be a billionaire. They are less likely to be incarcerated, have their children taken from them or die young.
Hate crimes are the only widely used indicator of discrimination in which the Jewish community fares poorly. While the genocide lobby exaggerates the scope of the problem, Jews are substantially overrepresented as victims of hate crimes. But they fare better (often significantly so) than other groups on the other indicators commonly employed to identify status/oppression.
The Toronto Jewish community may be the best placed of any in the world. Describing it as “the envy of the UJA federation world,” Alan Dershowitz told United Jewish Appeal’s late 2014 Toronto Major Gifts dinner: “You must never be ashamed to use your power and strength. Never be afraid that people will say, ‘You’re too strong and powerful.’ Jews need power and strength. Without this strength — economically, morally, militarily — we can’t have peace.” But UJA-Toronto isn’t seeking “peace.” Rather, they’re working to strengthen a Sparta-like, Jewish-supremacist state in the Middle East.
UJA funds a slew of institutions that promote genocidal Jewish supremacy. Over the years they’ve distributed billions of dollars to schools, camps, synagogues and community centres promoting Zionism. People attached to those institutions are overwhelming who attended the Walk with Israel. Those are also the main people fundraising for Israel, joining its military, lobbying for its interests in Canada, etc. There’s an extensive and well-funded network of institutions promoting genocidal Jewish supremacy in Toronto.
But there’s little appetite to challenge them even though all taxpayers underwrite most of the institutions through direct government grants and charitable subsidies. In fact, many leftists prefer to obscure the organized reality. In a recent Breach commentary on antisemitism Jordy Cummings claimed Jewish support for Israel reflected “false consciousness” while many critics of the Walk with Israel suggested it was about European settler solidarity. While Canadian colonialism has undoubtedly shaped this country’s ties to Zionism, United Jewish Appeal bringing out tens of thousands of Toronto Jews to promote genocide is not driven by “settler solidarity”.
Yes, groups like Jews Against Genocide and Independent Jewish Voices as well as tens of thousands of Toronto Jews oppose Israeli violence. Still, that shouldn’t stop anti-genocide campaigners from highlighting the mainstream Toronto Jewish community’s role in promoting anti-Palestinian and Muslim racism and the genocidal Jewish supremacist state. We will never change the truth until we acknowledge it.
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