Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined a chorus of politicians condemning protesters demonstrating at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital as antisemitism on Tuesday, though defenders alleged that activists were merely marching by the site on their way to the Israeli consulate.
“The demonstration at Mount Sinai Hospital yesterday was reprehensible. Hospitals are places for treatment and care, not protests and intimidation,” said Trudeau. “I strongly condemn this display of antisemitism. In Toronto and across Canada, we stand with Jewish communities against this hate.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters climbed the portico and scaffolding of the hospital and waved Palestinian flags. Marchers chanted “long live the Intifada.” Mount Sinai was founded as a medical institution catering to Jewish patients, and its logo retains a Star of David.
“Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital was established in the 1920s by Jews against the backdrop of antisemitism,” said Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Last night, it was the target of protesters chanting for violence and terror against Jews.”
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow in a Tuesday statement recalled how her family and herself had been treated at Mount Sinai, and described actions at the hospital as targeting a Jewish institution and antisemitism.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also cited the hospital’s treatment of his brother, the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford. He said during a Tuesday press conference that such protest actions on the hospital were against federal law and lacked “decency.”
Member of Provincial Parliament for York Centre Michael Kerzner said on social media that “The situation at Mount Sinai was not a peaceful protest and is unacceptable.”
Beaches-East York MP Nate Erskine-Smith condemned the actions at the site, but that they “occurred during a large protest down a major street, and the target of that protest fairly focused on Israeli and US embassies [consulates].”
The “Hands of Rafah” protest was a massive organized event
Participants argued against politician condemnations on social media, contending that the protest has merely passed the hospital when marching from the US to Israeli consulates.
The “Hands of Rafah” event was announced by the local chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement and Toronto 4 Palestine to protest the expansion of Israeli military operations against Hamas’s strongholds in Rafah.
“We must mobilize the masses and demand an end to this genocidal assault,” Toronto 4 Palestine wrote on Instagram on Sunday.
Videos posted by the group revealed chants of “There is only one solution, intifada revolution;” ”no peace on stolen land,” and in a variation of “from the river to the sea,” a protester leader said that “Palestine is almost free.”
One sign called to “Free our political prisoners,” a common way for Pro-Palestinian activists to refer to security prisoners in Israeli prisons, of which the majority are convicted of terrorism.
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