April 25, 2022
Mayor John Tory and City of Toronto Councillors
mayor_tory@toronto.ca
Dear Mayor Tory and Toronto Councilors;
Once again Toronto hosted the most vile, vicious, bigoted antisemitic event in Canada and Toronto Council fails to do anything about it. The call for death to Jews, to the eradication of the State of Israel and the perpetuation of gargantuan lies took place on the streets of Toronto on April 24th, and will inevitably lead to increased danger to Jews, Jewish businesses, Jewish children, Jewish institutions, cemeteries, neighborhoods and our elderly Holocaust survivors. The “Palestinian” Rally, falsely claiming Israel is illegitimate and Jews are occupiers is part of an international strategy to gain sympathy for an outlandish claim by Arab Islamists and many others now influenced by their oft repeated lies.
The Truth is:
Israel is not occupying anyone else’s land.
Israel is not an apartheid state.
Israel has never committed ethnic cleansing.
Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel and have been there continuously for over 3000 years.
Arabs are from Arabia and like the Romans, Greeks, Babylonians and Ottomans were invaders, intent on destroying the Jewish presence.
The goal of Islamists is to continue the domination of any land they once held and in the case of all Arab countries, Jews and other minorities were only ever second class citizens or dhimmis which is what is proposed now by the pro-Palestinian campaigners.
There has NEVER been a country called Palestine and the word was only applied to the Arabs in the land after 1964, but they are not a distinct people. They are the people who dwell in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and all these countries came into being as modern states at the same time as modern Israel, through the mandate system created in 1920 by the victors of WWI, the Allied Powers. The Jews accepted the decision and the Arabs never did; the Jews accepted the rule of law and the Arabs never have; the Jews accepted the decision by the League of Nations in 1922 which established the Jewish right to Israel, and the creation of Transjordan as an Arab state, the Arabs never did. The decisions of the League were incorporated into the formation of the UN in 1945, article 80 of its charter, and are binding and irrevocable.
The next horror show will be the Al Quds Day annual rally on April 30th. This “event” was initiated by Iran in 1979, and the Ayatollahs have kept up the campaign to destroy Israel by propaganda, falsifying history and by threatening to bomb the country into oblivion, thus eradicating all Israelis-including the Arabs who make up 21% of the population.
Canadian NGOs are behind this now and their vilification of Israel grows daily, and they are educating an entire generation with lies and hatred. Some of this has found its way into the Toronto District Schools as evidenced by the street protest that took place at Marc Garneau Collegiate last year, supported by teachers!! This phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ is a call for genocide, and it is one that Jews are all too familiar with.
What are you going to do about it??? When will Council take a strong position against these hate-fests? Will downtown Toronto become a NO-GO Zone for Jews? The City must adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, then act on it, and condemn the leadership and the organizations that put Jew hatred on display in Toronto.
If these were rallies against Black people, against Chinese people, or against any other minority, it is most likely that members of council would have spoken up weeks ago to prevent it occurring. There are truly evil regimes in the world but no displays of hatred, whether against China for rounding up all Uighurs, against Myanmar for its terrorism against the Rohingya, against Venezuela for imposing an illegal leftist dictatorship on its people. Iran has a totalitarian Islamist government and it spreads its propaganda globally and funds wars against legitimate regimes and is claiming it will eradicate Israel; we must not take these messages lightly. Jews have learned that when our enemies say they will kill us, best to take it seriously. Will you Mayor Tory and Councilor also take it seriously?
Read this report on what took place: https://www.jpost.com/bds-threat/article-705040?fbclid=IwAR26HCtS17oynCMLFUmBUM5tbuE-033yk-BZmCTSU0UFZu3nd9ZHUWTgmLo
which includes videos taken at the event in downtown Toronto, April 24th. Can you feel the terror this invokes in the hearts of every Jewish Canadian?
Cheering rocket attacks on Israel
"As we march right now, people in Lebanon have hit Israel with two rockets," an organizer told marchers in a segment of a livestream of the rally shared by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center Policy Director Jaime Kirzner-Roberts.
On Sunday night, a rocket was launched from southern Lebanon and fell near Kibbutz Matzuva. When the news of the rocket strike was broken as the protesters walked in the direction of the Israeli consulate, the protesters cheered, and called out "Allahu Akbar."
"In Toronto, Palestinians cheer for rocket attacks on Israeli civilians," tweeted Canadian MP Melissa Lantsman. "This is not a protest. This is full-on antisemitism in our streets."
So, as the attempted murder of Israeli civilians, including children, women, elderly people, religious and non-religious is celebrated on Toronto streets, it is a condemnation of our local leaders that nothing is said or done to stop it, correct the misinformation, better educate our students at all levels. This poison now infects public schools as well as all our universities.
We demand an End to Jew Hatred!!
Sincerely,
Andria Spindel, Executive Director
Cc Hon. Irwin Cotler, Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism Premier Doug Ford