Ezra Levant returns to weekly pro-Israel rally where he was arrested

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There were minor scuffles on Sunday as Toronto’s longest-running pro-Israel rally marked its 61st week, with some pro-Palestinian protesters responding with shouts and insults.

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A sea of Israeli and Canadian flags flapped in the chilly wind as 300 people, both Jewish and not, rallied for Israel in the city’s largely Jewish Sheppard and Bathurst neighbourhood, with many carrying posters with the faces of the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

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As in recent weeks, pro-Palestinian protesters showed up on the opposite street corner. With them came markedly increased police presence.

Counter-protesters snuck onto the Israel side of the street, pro-Israel ralliers were poked with Palestinian flags, and a few middle fingers and angry shouts were exchanged. Officers forcibly took bystanders by the arm – from both sides – to move them to designated areas.

For a brief time, two pro-Palestinian protesters pointed their fingers at the Israel side saying, “We’re going to get you, one by one.”

Organizers say it is the longest running pro-Israel weekly rally in the world. They have become increasingly tense.

Last week, Rebel News founder and journalist Ezra Levant was arrested while trying to film the pro-Palestinian counterprotest.

Police insisted Levant move to another part of the sidewalk; while he asserted it was public property. The heated exchange ended with law enforcement arresting him for breaching the peace.

“I was not actually engaging with the Hamas protesters, I was not even near most of them, frankly. It was an outrageous act, really doing the bidding of Hamas,” he told the Post.

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“Police thought it was breaching the peace because the Hamas side were upset with me.”

“If it would be breaching the peace, then deal with the would-be violent people. But if you think about it, was I saying something? Was I doing something? Hamas actors called me a Jew and a Zionist,” he told the Post.

This week, Levant, and some 40 other pro-Israel ralliers, stood on the same side of the street as the counter-protesters, three hours before the main pro-Israel rally was to start. Levant said that law enforcement agreed he and fellow ralliers had a right to be there. Toronto police formed a two-layer, 14 officer phalanx separating the two sides.

“We achieved what we set out to do. Last week, the police said: ‘Your mere presence here is a breach of the peace.’ Today, we proved them wrong. The whole point was to show the whole world that Hamas cannot veto where the rest of us can stand,” he told the Post.

“I’m not saying Hamas should be banned from the sidewalk. I think they should be banned from uttering death threats and assaults.”

This week, about 50 counter-protesters chanted through loudspeakers: “Intifada revolution,” “5, 6, 7, 8, Israel is a racist state,” and “Long live intifada.”

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On the northwest side, the National Post observed 20 law enforcement officers for the 300 pro-Israel ralliers; in contrast to about a one-to-one ratio for the pro-Palestinian counter-protesters on the northeast side. For a brief time, counter-protesters also occupied the southwest corner, and a red-stained couch prop, presumed to be representing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s last stand before being killed by IDF in October.

The pro-Israel rallies began spontaneously after the October 7 attacks, when Toronto lawyer Guidy Mamann asked his friend Esther Mordechai to join him at the corner to wave Israeli flags.

“We just stood there for almost an hour on the ‘global day of rage,’ Oct. 13, 2023, and I stood with Israeli flags and I cried because it was sad that people were afraid to come out. We kept coming every Sunday, because people were scared,” she said.

Mamann had heard in the community that some feared for their safety on Oct. 13. “They were pulling their children out of school, some were afraid to wear kippahs, and some chose not to wear Star of David necklaces,” he said.

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“It was a terrifying week, and I could see that in people’s eyes as they saw us. So I said, ‘Let’s come back on Sunday, and let’s do this again.’ Because obviously this community needs a lot of healing, and we need to be united. And that’s what we did. We came out, and we started with about seven or eight people, and then it grew. Next week and next week and next week until, you know, the consensus was, we’re going to do this until this is all over,” said Mamann.

On Oct. 6, 2024, the day before the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks, 3,500 people attended.

The rallies have fostered a sense of community and support, especially for Holocaust survivors, according to Mordechai. The rallies aim to advocate for peace, support Israel, and combat antisemitism, she said.

“Some of them, especially Holocaust survivors, they feel like they’re going through Kristallnacht now. We’re there to support each other,” she said.

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“We embrace life, we’re about peace. We’re there about us and for us. Our focus is not on the other side. We’re there to support Israel, IDF and to bring the hostages home. We’re not there to compete and engage with hate.”

Mordechai had no complaints about Toronto police’s handling of the protests, but Mamann was more critical.

“Now, some people would say there’s a difference of treatment, that maybe they’re more soft on the counter-protesters than they are on us,” he said, noting how hundreds of protesters commandeer downtown streets and “no one lifts a finger.”

Moez, a pro-Palestinian counter-protester who would not disclose his last name, said he attended because he believes there are “200,000 casualties” with Gazans “being slaughtered and forced to starve to death.” He asserted that “life saving commodities aren’t being allowed in the (Palestinian) territories.”

“We’re here to say, ‘We do not accept this’ – we do not accept our tax dollars supporting this, we do not accept this happening in the world, and do not accept this pretense of a so-called democratic country in an oasis of Arab dictatorships.”

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“The problem is, this side,” he said of the pro-Israel rally, “is celebrating this genocide. They come out here every week, saying that they celebrate the fact that Israeli soldiers are slaughtering children.”

“If one group can explain why one group is a terrorist organization and the other one is not, I’d like to know,” he said of Hamas versus the Israeli Defense Forces.

He said he did not support terror attacks on civilians, “And if Hamas is responsible for murdering civilians, as some civilians were murdered on Oct. 7 – and atrocities did happen on Oct. 7 — I’m 100% against that.”

He said he is, however, “in favour of resistance against occupation,” but would not elaborate.

Another counter-protester, who would only go by the name “Palestine,” told the Post she was attending to “represent the Palestinians,” and is “just against what’s happening in my country. I don’t support genocide, and what the other side is, is complicit in genocide.”

She said she does not support Hamas, but “I support resistance” and added “defending your land is resistance.”

Sunday was the fifth time that Scarlett Grace Amstrong, who is not Jewish, attended the pro-Israel rally.

She came “with an urge to stand up for what’s right,” and said that she “did hours and hours of research, talking to people of all different sides,” to conclude that Israel needed the support.

“I stand with Israel,” she said, while on the other side she saw “hatred, blind rage, and no other argument than ‘intifada’ and hateful slogans. They don’t want to have constructive arguments of any kind.”

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