April 20, 2023
TORONTO – B’nai Brith Canada is outraged by, and fed up with, the latest Al Quds Day hatefest in Toronto.
Last Saturday, participants chanted genocidal slogans and speakers praised terrorists, creating a hostile environment for Jews in the streets of downtown Toronto, Canada’s largest city.
Among the shocking sights at Al Quds Day 2023 was the brandishing of a Hezbollah flag and speakers in senior positions with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Samidoun. Hezbollah and the PFLP are designated-terrorist entities in Canada, while Samidoun is recognized as a terrorist front group by Israel.
Speakers Saturday included Khaled Barakat, a senior member of the PFLP, and Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of Samidoun, both of whom are the subjects of ongoing B’nai Brith investigations for their Canada-based activities.
Al Quds Day rallies take place annually in cities around the world. Inspired by the Iranian Ayatollah decades ago, the rallies platform extreme anti-Israel advocates who regularly promote hate against the world’s sole Jewish state and its inhabitants.
Other participants at last Saturday’s rally included Nazih Khatatba, publisher of the antisemitic and Holocaust-distorting Al Meshwar publication, and Firas Al-Najim, an Ontario organizer known for praising Iranian dictators and participating in Death–to-America rallies.
“Al Quds Day is many things, but a civil protest it is not,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “It is designed to incite hate. Calls to destroy Israel, endorsement of terrorists and the participation of those who minimize the Holocaust converged in the nation’s largest city to create a toxic, hateful environment that threatens the safety of its Jewish population. How is this acceptable?”
