WARMINGTON: Jewish community bracing for 'worst' at Walk with Israel on Sunday

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Name another religious or ethnic group that Toronto would tolerate being harassed, threatened, interfered with and intimidated as the Jews are?

You can’t – because there is none.

No one would put up with anybody protesting Chinese people, gay people, Catholics, Protestants Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Russians, Ukrainians or Afghans.

Nor should they.

But when it comes to Jews, it’s open season.

Groups of people in the GTA who support Hamas and are anti-Israel control the streets now. And the justice system does not seem to have any answer on how to stop it.

The Walk With Israel event this coming Sunday is a prime example where not only are counter protesters marshalling to disrupt the family event, they are also actively recruiting people on social media to help them do it.

“We are prepared for the worst but hope for the best,” City Councillor James Pasternak, who represents the North York neighbourhood where the annual fundraising walk in solidarity with Israel will be held, said Thursday. “Our goal is to try to keep protesters back as far as possible and make sure no one assaulted or injured.”

But he can make no promises.

It’s still amazing to me that pro-Hamas backers are permitted to do what they want, where they want and wherever they want. Why is there no push to use emergency powers to give them their charter rights to protest but in a designated protest area away from the Jewish neighbourhood?

There is no political will to push something like the Emergencies Act, which was brought in to push the trucker’s out of Ottawa, said Pasternak.

“And these demonstrators wouldn’t follow the orders anyway. They are not normal protesters,” he said. “This is a group who are just here to harass people and destabilize the city.”

And these “hooligans” don’t even try to hide it.

We saw that when an ambulance with a child on board couldn’t get the through the blocked Yonge and Bloor intersection during a protest last Saturday. The benefit of the doubt always goes to these protesters – even over a sick child in need of a trip to hospital.

On social media Thursday, groups purporting to be organizing protests were claiming that a plane from Amsterdam had landed with re-enforcements from last November’s pogrom outside a Dutch football game to assist with this weekend’s demonstration that’s being called the Walk Against Israel.

It will be up to Hamas supporters to determine how things will go for 50,000 participants in the annual United Jewish Appeal’s Walk with Israel.

A huge throng of police as well.

“It’s a massive security operation,” said Pasternak.

Toronto Police say they will be at the walk alongside other police services.

“It costs a lot of money,” said Pasternak. “More than $30 million has been spent on these protests so far.”

And even with more than 100 cops expected along the march route Sunday, there is still no guarantee things will go smoothly.

They didn’t last year.

And things didn’t go smoothly in Washington Wednesday night either when two wonderful young people from the Israeli embassy – Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim – were shot to death in an attack that people have increasingly feared would happen in North America.

Strangely, a known-to-police pro-Palestinian protester arrested in Toronto in 2023 for alleged vandalism – charges that have since been sorted out in court – took to social media Thursday to praise the double killer in the U.S. capital.

A new Tik Tok video posted with a cutline saying “to the people who (picture of a gun emoji) and unalived 2 Israelis in Washington DC then screamed ‘Free Palestine at their (skull emoji) bodies. I love you and I will help make sure you’re taken care of in jail.”

The person whose account these disturbing words were posted to has not responded to requests for comment and police have not commented yet.

But Meir Weinstein, of Israel Now, said in light of what transpired in Washington, this is no laughing matter and he has expressed concern for everyone’s safety Sunday.

“Hamas supporters should never be allowed to represent Hamas and other listed terrorist organizations anywhere near the Jewish Community,” said Weinstein. “The chant, ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ was realized in Washington on Wednesday night with the murder of two Israeli staff members of the Israeli Embassy.”

“This can absolutely happen in Canada,” he added.

Who knows what will happen Sunday. Maybe the protesters will decide not to go and leave the Jewish families alone. It’s doubtful though. If they did, it would be the first time they showed any restraint since celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023 slaughter at the Gaza border.

“They celebrated the 1,200 murdered and they are celebrating and raising money of the two murdered in Washington,” said Weinstein. “So we are prepared for a complicated weekend.”

So far there has been no comment on any of this from Mayor Olivia Chow, Premier Doug Ford or Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Pasternak said he has invited Chow to march with him, but he noted she didn’t attend last year nor did she show up to the one-year-anniversary of the Oct. 7 carnage.

But Jewish families will ignore the protesters and march in peaceful solidarity with or without the mayor, premier or prime minister, Pasternak said.

“The leadership is sleeping,” the York Centre Councillor said. “I fear when they wake up, it will be too late.”

jwarmington@postmedia.com