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2009 shows signs of 1939 hatreds
By Dorothy Cummings McLean
January 29, 2009
Dorothy Cummings McLean
On Jan. 10, I went to an anti-Israel rally in Toronto. I had seen videos and read reports of anti-Jewish sentiment at other such demonstrations in connection with the conflict in Gaza, and I wanted to see if it would break out again.
Shivering outside the Israeli Consulate for over an hour, I saw hundreds of supporters for Palestine and only a handful of supporters for Israel — about seven when I got there and about 14 when I left. There were dozens and dozens of police.
Shivering outside the Israeli Consulate for over an hour, I saw hundreds of supporters for Palestine and only a handful of supporters for Israel — about seven when I got there and about 14 when I left. There were dozens and dozens of police.
The loudest anti-Israel protester was a young white woman with a megaphone. She sounded positively gleeful, almost hysterical. There were official speakers, but they were often hard to understand because inattentive groups of protesters would begin their own chants of “Free, free Palestine.” When I first got there, the crowd faced the official speakers. But slowly the pro-Israel demonstrators became more of a focus, and an almost separate crowd of anti-Israel protesters faced them.
I wandered about on a short stretch of Bloor Street, feeling hemmed in and cold. There were many Palestinian flags, a Lebanese flag, a Turkish flag, Canadian flags, Hezbollah flags and several union flags, including those of CUPE and the steelworkers. There were many professional looking signs, and there were some homemade signs. One of the homemade signs asked, “Holocaust Part 2?” Another claimed “Al Qaeda’s bombings are part of the Zionist plan just as the Holocaust was.” Others equated the swastika with the Star of David.
For the most part, however, the signs kept away from anything that would offend a dispassionate Canadian observer. Most of the protesters seemed sincere and idealistic. There was some confusion, though, as to whether they wanted peace or not.
“No justice!” yelled the protesters. “No peace!”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative party came in for some critique, as did Canada itself, for standing with Israel against Palestinian attacks/resistance.
“Shame, shame, Canada,” shouted the protesters
After a very cold hour, I went back to the thin line of metal fences and police officers that separated the pro-Palestine supporters from the pro-Israel supporters. The gleefully screaming white woman with the megaphone was lifted onto someone’s shoulders. Dolls had been stuck to the tops of Israel-out-of-Gaza signs. Two young pro-Palestinian men beside me gazed with interest at the small group of pro-Israel demonstrators across the street.
One young man turned to the other, indicating the tiny group.
“I’m surprised the Jews didn’t use their money to send more people there,” he said.
Although crass and ignorant, that might not sound so bad. However, given that attacks on Jews around the world have increased since Israel’s military action in Gaza, we should note and condemn any anti-Jewish sentiment around us. At the rally in Toronto the week before, an anti-Israel protester told an interviewer that “Hitler didn’t do a good (enough) job.” At a rally in Montreal, anti-Israel protesters shouted, “Les juifs sont nos chiens. (Jews are our dogs.)” After I left the Jan. 10 Toronto rally, a protester was caught on video screaming “Jewish child, you are gonna die.”
Sometimes immigrants to Canada bring not only their talents but their hatreds with them. The classic hatred, rampant in some Asian countries, is anti-Jewish feeling. Meanwhile, mainstream Canadian society has long had a problem with anti-Jewish prejudice. As a child, I heard the class bully shout “Jew boy!” at a child passing by the school yard. As a teenager, I listened uncomfortably as a fellow student gave me her opinion of Jewish customers at the shop where she worked. As an adult, I was finally shocked into reproof when an old college chum told me that U.S. border guards had given him a tough time because of “a Zionist plot.”
In elementary school, teachers tried to deprogram students of any anti-Jewish sentiment we might have heard at home. In high school history class, we watched footage of what Allied soldiers found at the newly liberated concentration camps. Sometimes girls would faint or vomit. “Never again,” said our teacher. “Never again,” we repeated.
We also thought that, in those circumstances, we would all be heroes. We would be the one who hid Jewish friends in our attics. We would be the ones who didn’t vote in the Nazis. We would be the ones who spoke out against anti-Jewish hatred. That’s what we said.
Well, well, well. It is 2009, not 1939, and among the political protests against Israel’s military actions in the Gaza strip, there runs a not-so-fine line of anti-Jewish hatred. And no matter how we feel about Israel, whether we feel that it has the right to defend itself, or whether we feel it has no right to exist at all, surely we feel that anti-Jewish hatred has no place in Canadian, or any other, society.
I wandered about on a short stretch of Bloor Street, feeling hemmed in and cold. There were many Palestinian flags, a Lebanese flag, a Turkish flag, Canadian flags, Hezbollah flags and several union flags, including those of CUPE and the steelworkers. There were many professional looking signs, and there were some homemade signs. One of the homemade signs asked, “Holocaust Part 2?” Another claimed “Al Qaeda’s bombings are part of the Zionist plan just as the Holocaust was.” Others equated the swastika with the Star of David.
For the most part, however, the signs kept away from anything that would offend a dispassionate Canadian observer. Most of the protesters seemed sincere and idealistic. There was some confusion, though, as to whether they wanted peace or not.
“No justice!” yelled the protesters. “No peace!”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative party came in for some critique, as did Canada itself, for standing with Israel against Palestinian attacks/resistance.
“Shame, shame, Canada,” shouted the protesters
After a very cold hour, I went back to the thin line of metal fences and police officers that separated the pro-Palestine supporters from the pro-Israel supporters. The gleefully screaming white woman with the megaphone was lifted onto someone’s shoulders. Dolls had been stuck to the tops of Israel-out-of-Gaza signs. Two young pro-Palestinian men beside me gazed with interest at the small group of pro-Israel demonstrators across the street.
One young man turned to the other, indicating the tiny group.
“I’m surprised the Jews didn’t use their money to send more people there,” he said.
Although crass and ignorant, that might not sound so bad. However, given that attacks on Jews around the world have increased since Israel’s military action in Gaza, we should note and condemn any anti-Jewish sentiment around us. At the rally in Toronto the week before, an anti-Israel protester told an interviewer that “Hitler didn’t do a good (enough) job.” At a rally in Montreal, anti-Israel protesters shouted, “Les juifs sont nos chiens. (Jews are our dogs.)” After I left the Jan. 10 Toronto rally, a protester was caught on video screaming “Jewish child, you are gonna die.”
Sometimes immigrants to Canada bring not only their talents but their hatreds with them. The classic hatred, rampant in some Asian countries, is anti-Jewish feeling. Meanwhile, mainstream Canadian society has long had a problem with anti-Jewish prejudice. As a child, I heard the class bully shout “Jew boy!” at a child passing by the school yard. As a teenager, I listened uncomfortably as a fellow student gave me her opinion of Jewish customers at the shop where she worked. As an adult, I was finally shocked into reproof when an old college chum told me that U.S. border guards had given him a tough time because of “a Zionist plot.”
In elementary school, teachers tried to deprogram students of any anti-Jewish sentiment we might have heard at home. In high school history class, we watched footage of what Allied soldiers found at the newly liberated concentration camps. Sometimes girls would faint or vomit. “Never again,” said our teacher. “Never again,” we repeated.
We also thought that, in those circumstances, we would all be heroes. We would be the one who hid Jewish friends in our attics. We would be the ones who didn’t vote in the Nazis. We would be the ones who spoke out against anti-Jewish hatred. That’s what we said.
Well, well, well. It is 2009, not 1939, and among the political protests against Israel’s military actions in the Gaza strip, there runs a not-so-fine line of anti-Jewish hatred. And no matter how we feel about Israel, whether we feel that it has the right to defend itself, or whether we feel it has no right to exist at all, surely we feel that anti-Jewish hatred has no place in Canadian, or any other, society.
Dorothy Cummings McLean