Toronto Rally for Israeli Hostages

"On October 7, at the Nova Festival, in the kibbutz [Hamas] was raping, mutilating and destroying the souls and bodies of women, elderly and men and they're still doing that."

"It's not a one-time rape or a one-time lesson. It's happening now, as we speak."

"The [hostages] that have returned, they tell their stories of the women that are still left behind and people are still not willing to accept it ... People are walking like horses [with blinders on ...]."

"They prefer to close their eyes and continue to be bystanders without understanding that it's happening now."

Maayan Shavit, Toronto rally for Israeli hostages

Carmel Gat was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from her parents' home in Kibbutz Be'eri (Courtesy)

 

This is 39-year-old Carmel Gat's cousin speaking to a crowd of onlookers and supporters. She was captured by Hamas terrorists running rampant through the kibbutz where her parents and other family members lived, in southern Israel. An occupation therapist by vocation and by avocation a yoga practitioner from Tel Aviv, she happened to be close by the border with Gaza when the Hamas attack took place. Her mother was murdered and she was kidnapped.

While her brother and her niece escaped, her sister-in-law was taken, among other hostages. When a pause in fighting took place after prisoner-exchange negotiations in November, her sister-in-law was released, among other women and children and the elderly. Among the released hostages were a number who had interacted with the missing Carmel Gat. They related that she is being held among children held as hostages. She used  her skills in yoga to teach them to practise it daily, in an effort to calm their spirits.

 

Naama Levy was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)

 

At the Toronto rally there were fourteen women, each representing those 14 Israeli women remaining in captivity, held by Hamas. Canadians for Israel who had arranged the rally orchestrated the fourteen women in a tableau resembling in part the situation of the Israeli hostages. Each of the fourteen simulated the hostages' condition; their hands bound, a cloth mouth-gag and bloodied sweatpants reflecting the horrors seen in a video that showed 19-year-old Naama Levy, bound, gagged, bloodied sweatpants ushered into a vehicle by a Hamas terrorist.

 

Naama Levy, seen in a video shortly after she was taken hostage to Gaza on October 7, 2023. (Screen grab/X)

Heart-shaped cards with pictures of a hostage on one side, and on the reverse the message: "Our hearts are broken, read their stories", were handed out to onlookers and passersby. "Bring them home NOW!" completed the message. There is a QR code detailing all the hostages remaining in Hamas' custody, linked to a Times of Israel article. Stapled to the back of the card another QR code links to a document with contact information for Members of Parliament from the Toronto Area as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Minister of Women, Marci Ien.

"The only thing that is going to help is if people call out, speak to their government officials, and at the government level, urge them to speak out."

"Because they have to pressure the international community and they have to say to Hamas, 'Release the hostages'."

"We don't hear [them] doing enough on any level, anything that we've heard from the Canadian government feels like lip service, it feels like a minimum to fulfill some basic requirement."

Daphna Pollak, Toronto Rally for Israel organizer

Israelis demand all of the hostages taken to Gaza be released. 60 Minutes

Israel, Targeting Hamas Elites

"While the assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in an airstrike in Beirut [Lebanon] on Tuesday was the highest-profile attack on the terror group, it is by no means the last."

"Israeli leaders have vowed to track down and kill Hamas leaders wherever they are."

"Israel has not confirmed that it was responsible for the strike which killed al-Arouri along with several senior operatives at Hamas's Beirut headquarters."

"But Mossad chief David Barnea hinted that Israel was behind the assassination, as is widely believed in Israel and across the Middle East."

Baruch Yedid, Jewish News Syndicate

Israeli troops walk past destroyed buildings on the outskirts of Gaza City  Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

 

Former Mossad director Zvi Zamir, 98, was buried on Wednesday. He was chief of Mossad in the 1970s. "Operation Wrath of God" took place under his direction of the intelligence agency. The Black September Palestinian terrorists, who were tasked by Yasser Arafat to mount a terrorist operation during the 1972 Munich Olympics, responsible for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes in a horrendously barbaric attack were each and every one patiently and thoroughly tracked down and over the years faced the justice of 'martyrdom' for their crimes.

 

"Let every Arab mother know that if her son took part in the massacre [of October 7], he signed his own death warrant", Mossad chief David Barnea stated, at the funeral. Now, so many years after the Munich Massacre, the Hamas terrorist group is slated for destruction in response to their sadistic savagery mounted on southern Israel at the Gaza border, when it ruthlessly slaughtered 1,200 infants, elderly, families, children, women and men for the sheer elation they gained in indulging in mass murder, alongside torture, mutilation and rape.

 

While all Hamas operatives are slated for retribution for the butchery and the kidnapping of over 240 Israelis and foreign farm workers into Gaza as pawns in prospective trade agreements for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons for terrorist activities, it is the elite commanders of the terrorist group that Israel has in very particular their sights on. Some commanders of the terrorist group have already fallen, but it is the top-slate executive that the Israel Defense Forces seek to destroy.

 

Hamas leaders Mohammed Deif, left, and Yahya Sinwar  Wikimedia commons/Getty

Hamas's Yahya Sinwar, the Gaza Strip leader and mastermind of the massacre of October 7, is a dead man walking. The 61-year-old Sinwar took over as Gaza's strongman in 2017, when his predecessor was erased. Hamas's Majed squads specializing in hunting down and gruesomely killing Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel were created by Sinwar, himself personally responsible for killing a dozen such 'informers' whose deaths were grisly events.

 

He was sentenced to serve four life sentences for killing four Palestinian collaborators and while in prison Israeli doctors diagnosed and surgically removed a cancerous tumour in his skull. Sinwar was among the 1,027 security prisoners that Israel freed in 2011 in exchange for the prisoner swap to bring Gilad Shalit home from Gaza. Israel may have saved the life of this seasoned killer, but has since lived to regret that humanitarian impulse as misplaced in this particular instance.

 Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh

Hamas's supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, takes good care to ensure he is not vulnerable to Israeli search-and-destroy techniques, sequestering himself in Qatar of Turkey for safe haven, both countries and their leaders, supporters of Hamas. Although Haniyeh and other Hamas top leaders had been deported in 1992 to Lebanon, it took them but a year and a half to return to Israel. Now 60, Haniyeh is a billionaire, the humanitarian funding courtesy of the UN, EU and other Western nations siphoned off to building the vast Gaza tunnel network and his personal bank account.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Muhammed Deif, leading the Hamas military forces, masterminded suicide bombing attacks, and supervised Hamas rocket attacks and tunnel warfare. He helped to plan and gave final approval to the October 7 attacks that devastated Israeli kibbutzim and towns as well as the Nova Music Festival, where over 360 festival-goers, young Israeli men and women, were murdered. The 62-year-ld Deif topped Israel's most-wanted and has managed to survive seven assassination attempts by Israel. Secretive and rarely seen, his messages are delivered through  a spokesperson.

Sahar Jabarin, Saleh Arouri's deputy, the terror group's key financier, is one of the longest-serving members of Hamas, helping to establish its first terror cells in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), recruiting many of the senior figures in Hamas. Hamas's bombmaker, Yahya Ayyash, was his best-known recruit, responsible for the death of at least 90 Israelis. for which he was assassinated in 1996 by Israel. Jabarin serves a senior position responsible for Hamas terror capabilities in Lebanon.

Mohammed Deif's deputy, Hamas number two military figure, Marwan Issa, is thought of as one of the most secretive senior Hamas officials. He took part in a series of secret meetings in Egypt dealing with the release of Hamas prisoners and with Salah Arouri, played a central role in the deal that released Gilad Shalit.And then, there is Yahya Sinwar's younger brother, Mohammed Sinwar, commander of the Khan Yunis Hamas brigade and considered to be one of the October 7 key planners, who has to the present survived six assassination attempts.

Civil defence workers search for survivors inside an apartment following a massive explosion in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. The TV station of Lebanon's Hezbollah group says top Hamas official Saleh Arouri was killed Tuesday in an explosion in a southern Beirut suburb.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The Gentle Disposition of Advocates for Peace

"If war -- or, at least, the involvement of one's own country in war -- is the greatest of evils, then there is no need to think about the intentions of the parties to a conflict, or the consequences of one of them electing not to fight."

"But in dissuading us from confronting reality, our hatred and fear of war can lead us into the clutches of all kinds of sinister actors."

"Phony peace movements led by totalitarians and their excusers have used their liberal enemies' inclination toward pacifism against them for decades."

"...The realization that war is a great evil is surely among the preconditions for building and maintaining a prosperous society..."

"But a society that does not feel directly threatened will often tend toward the view that war is also an unnecessary evil."

Oscar Clarke, Quillette

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including a large crowd at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, held protests in cities across the globe on Saturday. (Rebecca Kwan/Radio-Canada)

Such well-intentioned people these are, without a shadow of a doubt. Their good-natured chanting in unison "ceasefire now" must send a warm glow of solidarity with the forces of peace and goodwill coursing through their veins. They're doing good. Arguing for peace over war. Those who walk on by shaking their heads in annoyance at their raucous presence interfering with daily life, stopping traffic, discommoding people and generally making a nuisance of themselves simply have no conscience.

 

They're on 'the right side of history', the others are oblivious and lacking social responsibility. On the other hand, these good-natured protesters against Israel's war in Gaza with its intention to destroy Hamas don't listen to, cannot hear, are disinterested in the activists from Hizb utTahrir shouting "From the river to the sea", along with "There is only one solution" (to the Jewish 'problem') -- "intefadeh revolution!"

 

Peace-committed social activists joining forces as gracious enablers with the sanctimonious supporters of Hamas who see nothing wrong in 'fighting back against oppressors' by indiscriminate savagery by the forces they champion in their sadistic torture, rape, mutilation, murder of children, women, the elderly and entire families wiped out in a frenetic orgy of mass slaughter. It is impolite to speak of such things.
And they are, after all, false allegations, a conspiracy by Jews to slander Palestinians.

 

Sarah Shamy, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, speaks to a Montreal crowd. The cross-Canada protests come after the PYM called for a national day of demonstrations. (Erika Morris/CBC)

So they march, supporting Palestinians, proudly carrying Palestinian flags and signage of "ceasefire now!" Banners giving credence to "resistance" against the oppressors carry the story of what they support. No one even considers that the regime of jihad in Gaza initiated a conflict through a genocidal pogrom; it's just that Israel's Defense Forces are "martyring" Palestinians yet again. The "ceasefire" demands allude to only one of the antagonists. 

 

Would it help if they were introduced to reality. Which definitely is not that Hamas was forced by despair over the blockade of Gaza (irrelevant that the blockade exists to deter Hamas from slaughtering Jews, and acquiring munitions, and building tunnels) to commit the October 7 bloodbath against Israeli Jews. Apologists of western citizenry would of course, not be interested in reading an English translation of the Hamas 1988 foundational covenant outlining its drive to destroy Israel. 

Nor would a few instructional peeks at the Middle East Media Research Institute website to hear speeches by Hamas politicians, fighters and clerics enlighten them by watching a Hamas leader announce one of the goals of the October 7 pogrom was to quash the Abraham Accords (that's peace for  you). Or the explanation by another Hamas leader that the tunnels are meant to protect jihadists and definitely not for the shelter of Palestinian civilians from Israeli return bombardment. Rapt attention to another Hamas official that October 7 was a mere start that would be repeated and repeated and repeated to finalize the Hamas goal.

Nor might they receive enlightenment by perusing any of the textbooks children in Gaza study at UNRWA schools where they learn all about the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", so they are enabled in their hatred of Jews, and learn that the Holocaust was a myth, and that aspiring to martyrdom elevates the soul and celebrates the true purpose of life; achieving death for a cause.

Given the known fact that even the footage that the Hamas operatives recorded as they went on about their vicious assault, raping girls, murdering Jews and foreign farm workers, mutilating women, taking hundreds of innocents hostage, is all a Jewish conspiracy to begin with. Becoming more involved in educating themselves about what exactly it is they are lending their support to, in joining the protests to energetically declare their affiliation with and sympathy for the Palestinian 'cause' -- all else is distraction.

Palestinian flag is carried as thousands of demonstrators march last month through downtown Los Angeles to protest the death toll inflicted on Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Coping with Malevolently Crazed Protesters

"BLRS follows a progressive enforcement model and takes every opportunity to educate individuals on Ottawa's bylaws before the event, and work toward a resolution during the event."

"It's important to note that enforcement during demonstrations is a result of escalated actions by the participants, which may pose nuisance and public safety issues. Since the beginning of the protests, BLRS has been working with organizers to educate them on the city's bylaws."

"As the activities of protesters escalated and became more frequent, including the defacement of property, the use of sound reproduction devices, smoke bombs, fireworks and threats toward our officers, BLRS took action to address these concerns."

"Initially, warnings were issued to individuals regarding the operation of these sound production devices on highways or public places. However, when the activity persisted, fines of $490 were issued."

Roger Chapman, director, Bylaw and Regulatory Services

 

"[Palestinian protesters] have the right to scream. Silencing Palestinian solidarity when genocide is happening is wrong."

"[When the 2022 convoy protest gridlocked downtown Ottawa for three weeks], we talked to the truckers like people. We let them organize."

Ottawa Centre NDP MPP Joel Harden 

Protesters gathered in downtown Ottawa for the 12th straight week of pro-Palestine rallies. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA

The truckers' strike lasted three weeks before policing authorities stepped in to close it down, and lodge formal charges against the organizers when the federal government executed a general emergency state which enabled them to lock protest participants' bank accounts, harass them with lawsuits, while the prime minister called these loyal Canadians 'racists' and scum. These wild and menacing demonstrations by those celebrating the October 7 atrocities in Israel have gone on for 12 weeks, with little-to-no comment from the federal government.

Rather than interfere with the 'free speech' entitlements of Muslim Canadians, authorities look the other way when shouts of 'intifada' and 'from the river to the sea' are chanted, both of which represent a call to the destruction of Israel. Marchers shouting that Canadian Jews, resident in Canada for hundreds of years, unlike those who decry their presence, urging them to 'go back to Europe', and others shouting 'gas the Jews' certainly are exercising their rights that appear to contradict laws against hate speech.

So the City of Ottawa really 'cracked down' on these riotous scum, issuing nine noise-violation tickets for those seen to be disobeying city noise bylaws. Among them a Member of Provincial Parliament using a megaphone in front of the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument. Criminal charges were laid in a few instances when downtown streets were blocked during the Truck Convoy protest. However, no criminal charges were pressed against masked pro-Hamas protesters who issued threats and engaged in violence.

 

Saturday’s edition of the pro-Palestine rally started at the Human Rights Monument before taking to downtown streets. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

 

The Palestinian Youth Movement has been a major organizer of the protests, prepared to support those receiving bylaw tickets. The rally organizers characterize the bylaw tickets as a "clear attempt to suppress pro-Palestinian organizing and support". But they would say that while cheering on vandalism at synagogues and Jewish social centres. According to the noise bylaw, "no person shall operate or  use of cause to be operated or used any sound reproduction device on any highway or other public place".

Regional executive vice-president for the national capital region for the Public Service Alliance of Canada -- one of Canada's largest unions, most of which have taken the political position to support the 'Palestinian cause' -- declared his solidarity with 'pro-Palestinian  protesters; the issuance of tickets represented at attack on their right to protest. "They want to silence and stop our movement. We cannot let this go on", said Alex Silas, recipient of one of the tickets.

While gathered at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights, protesters banged drums, waved signs and Palestinian flags and chanted "Free free Palestine" and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". What they mean is free to commit bloodbaths on Jewish communities in Israel, and the destruction of the Jewish state, so that the fictional 'Palestine' can occupy all the geography it claims to be theirs, as squatters on Judaean Ancestral land.

This weekend’s pro-Palestinian rally started at the Human Rights Monument in Ottawa before taking to the downtown streets. A woman was questioned after being told to bring her drone down on Saturday afternoon. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia