LEVY: Hate report sent back to drawing board
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They tried to push their absurd narrative that an anti-Israel hatefest is not — hateful — but Mayor John Tory and his executive committee stood their ground Thursday against a ragtag group of Al Quds supporters.
In an unanimous vote, the executive committee sent the city’s executive director of people, equity and human rights back to the drawing board to review how the annual June event can be banned from using city property.
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As I reported Thursday, the lame, buck-passing report — two years in the making and which included consultation with 55 people — provides no insight into how the Al Quds organizers can be prevented from using the city of Toronto park behind Queen’s Park as they have illegally (without a proper permit) for the past two years.
Last year’s rally, one sanctioned by the Iranian regime, featured demonstrators waving the Hezbollah flag and young children carrying signs that equated Zionism to racism and called for Israel boycotts.
It also included calls by Sheikh Shafig Huda from Kitchener’s Islamic Humanitarian Service for the “eradication” of Israelis.
But Dimitri Lascaris, who introduced himself as the lawyer acting on behalf of the Al Quds committee, denied that the rally incites hatred against Jews — that the opposition is against Zionism.
He claimed that the calls for genocide against Zionists have been completely misconstrued and taken out of context.
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Fellow lawyer Stephen Ellis, dressed in his black robes, agreed — singling out my coverage of the remarks.
He claimed the Sheikh was merely calling for the eradication of the “Israeli empire.”
”A lot of this is blown up, taken out of context and political … by people who don’t want the discussion (on Israel’s alleged war crimes against Palestinians) to take place,” he said.
Things got a bit heated when Karin Brothers, a representative of the United Church, accused council of using racism and Islamophobia to protect Israel and to silence their right to use free speech.
Cllr James Pasternak called her remarks “disgraceful.”
Michael Mostyn, executive director of B’nai Brith, said the report on the executive committee agenda Thursday was “deeply flawed.”
Asked about the contentions of the Al Quds supporters, he said that the annual rally is “drenched in anti-semitism against the Jewish people.”
Sophie Helpard of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) reminded the committee and city bureaucrats that the Al Quds rally relocated to city park space north of Queen’s Park Circle (without a permit) two years ago after being denied permits to gather outside of the provincial Legislature.
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