B.C. protester who praised Hamas allowed to attend rallies again
A B.C. woman who was recorded praising Hamas as “heroic and brave” can return to protest rallies, authorities confirmed this week.
Charlotte Kates was arrested following a demonstration outside the Vancouver Art Gallery back in April, where videos also showed her participating in a chant of “Long live Oct. 7,” celebrating the Hamas attacks on Israel.
Protesters have tried to paste a photograph of a Gazan mother and child over a Picasso painting at the National Gallery in central London to demand a two-way arms embargo on Israel.
Two supporters of Youth Demand entered room 43 at the gallery just before midday.
BREAKING: IMAGE OF PALESTINIAN MOTHER AND CHILD REPLACES PICASSO'S 'MOTHERHOOD'
❌ 16,000 children have been killed. When will @Keir_Starmer stop fuelling Israel's war machine?
From Nov 11, young people will be disrupting their cities. Join them: https://t.co/rqU3OswTSi pic.twitter.com/gsppgLqAzc
— Youth Demand (@youth_demand) October 9, 2024
Get a load of this.
“Free Palestine” idiot throws red paint at $24.8 million Picasso painting in the name of Gaza.
She somehow fucking missed pic.twitter.com/RDxXXVrenZ
— Kosher (@K0sher_C0ckney) October 9, 2024
I was packing for a trip to Germany when the first reports of Hamas’ massacre of civilians began circulating online. Initially, what I saw fit the pattern of other Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis, and I went to bed that night believing the IDF would eliminate the perpetrators and that would be that.
They are on the losing side
One year after the October 7 massacre by Hamas in Israel, protesters chanting anti-Israel slogans stormed and smashed buildings at McGill, one of Canada’s premier universities. Later that same evening, on the other side of the country in Vancouver, pro-Hamas demonstrators burned Canadian flags on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery in downtown.
I am not optimistic.
I have spent the better part of 30 years in journalism misattributing to Voltaire the idea that I would defend free speech to the death, even if I disapproved of what was being said (it turns out it was a summary of Voltaire’s views by his biographer, Evelyn Beatrice Hall).
Yet, events since October 7th have revealed that there are, or should be, limits; that people cannot say things that incite real harm to others or society at large.
A demonstrator just lit a Canadian flag on fire… pic.twitter.com/btCfi1hku4
— Jarryd Jäger (@JarrydJaeger) October 8, 2024
Hezbollah backs ceasefire attempts as Israel continues to target its leadership
Hezbollah said it supported efforts to secure a ceasefire with Israel as the IDF continued to target its top leadership and the two armies sharply increased their bombardments.
“After the issue of a ceasefire takes shape, and once diplomacy can achieve it, all of the other details can be discussed and decisions can be taken,” Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said on Tuesday. “If the enemy [Israel] continues its war, then the battlefield will decide.”
h/t Marc
That there is more to identity politics than just preferred pronouns or demanding more culturally sensitive university courses has been amply demonstrated since the atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October 2023. Woke activist groups – including LGBT activists, Black Lives Matter, feminists and eco-zealots – responded to this barbaric event by becoming Hamas cheerleaders. They had no hesitation in communicating their hatred for Israel in a language riddled with anti-Semitic tropes.
Jewish students are withdrawing from all aspects of university life, including lecture theatres, online learning spaces, seminar rooms, and social activities in the face of growing antisemitism on British university campuses amidst the Hamas-Israel conflict.
In the first report of its kind since it was established earlier this year, a poll by the Intra-Communal Professorial Group (ICPG) found that more than half of respondents reported being fearful of being on campus. Three-quarters were also uncomfortable to be open about their identity, with some feeling intimidated into not attending Jewish events, and not wearing things that could identify them as Jewish on campus.
I don’t think Canada is too far behind the UK.
Like most Jews, I’m not the same person I was last Oct. 6. The magnitude of what happened the next day and since then has forever changed me and the reality for Jews in Canada and abroad.
A year ago, the darkest chapter in Jewish history since the Holocaust began with the invasion of southern Israel by Hamas terrorists who carried out wide-scale atrocities and kidnapped 251 children, women and men. That hit close to home for Jews everywhere including many who have family and friends in Israel.
Missing the Oct. 7 commemoration is beyond the pale of normal political behaviour or basic human decency and can’t be glossed over. For a mayor to not attend Toronto’s candlelight vigil to remember the 1,200 people slaughtered at the hands of Hamas one year ago on Oct. 7 is the final straw when it comes to Chow’s disrespect for Toronto’s Jewish community.
… Is there a political cost to being associated with hate? No, it turns out, as members of Parliament like Jenica Atwin and Ahmed Hussen continue to sit as senior members of the diversity-championing Liberal caucus despite being involved in antisemitic controversies.
Should Canada fund organizations that plausibly aid terrorist activities? Yes, according to our government, which restored financial support to UNRWA despite evidence that some of the organization’s employees participated in the October 7 massacre.
Trudeau was in the audience for this, by the way. pic.twitter.com/fr4Tfsvsyg
— Canada Proud (@WeAreCanProud) October 8, 2024
h/t Mauser
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets every time Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists.
The latest Palestinian celebrations took place on October 1, 2024, when Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel. The celebrations occurred even though some of the missiles fell in Palestinian areas in the West Bank and the only person killed was, ironically, a Palestinian man in the city of Jericho.
On Saturday, a self-proclaimed journalist named Samira Mohyeddin posted on X that “tens of thousands” of people were marching in Toronto to mark the one-year anniversary of “Israel’s relentless bombardment and genocide” in Gaza. The new journalism fellow at the University of Toronto’s Women and Gender Studies Institute, and former producer of CBC’s The Current, made no mention of what had prompted the “relentless bombardment.”
I can’t presume to speak to Mohyeddin’s personal politics, but her post reflects the view held by a distressingly large number of young Canadians who have formed an unholy alliance with Palestinian activists.
TDSB seeks ‘urgent’ guidance on addressing hate and geopolitical tensions in schools
… The board has heard from Palestinian parents who say their children feel silenced and are concerned about incidents such as students being sanctioned for wearing kaffiyehs or clothing with “Free Palestine.” Student-led walkouts were organized at some Toronto schools in solidarity with people in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Jewish parents and students have also spoken out about racial slurs, kids performing Nazi salutes, antisemitic graffiti and Holocaust denial.
