The Times of Israel smeared Rebel News founder and journalist Ezra Levant as a “far-right activist” on Sunday after he was arrested in Toronto, Canada, for filming an anti-Israel protest in a Jewish neighborhood on a public sidewalk.
The Times of Israel reported:
Canadian far-right political pundit Ezra Levant has been arrested at a pro-Hamas rally in Toronto, after he refused police instructions to move away from the demonstration, claiming he was being discriminated against for being Jewish.
In a video of the arrest posted to social media by Levant’s Rebel News platform, officers can be heard telling the conservative activist that his presence at the pro-Palestinian rally was “inciting the crowd.”
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The officer then tells him he is under “arrest for breaching the peace,” at which point the protesters erupt in cheers and calls of “Zionist” and “loser.”
As the Times of Israel admitted, one protester at the Toronto event was dressed as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, while another held a sign urging Jews to go to Amsterdam, the site of a massive antisemitic riot earlier this month.
Such displays would be offensive to mainstream readers of the Times of Israel, yet it smears Levant as “far-right.”
Video of the arrest, posted by Rebel News — a self-identified conservative news outlet, but not “far-right” — shows Levant being ushered by police away from a group of protesters holding Palestinian flags. A confrontation ensues as police claim Levant is inciting the mob by filming them in public, while Levant says it is the mob that is inciting violence.
After Levant refuses to move aside upon the orders of the police, the police arrest him for disturbing the peace.
Police in Canada have a habit of arresting conservative reporters, so much so that Rebel News is actually suing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) over an earlier arrest of reporter David Menzies for attempting to ask a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government a question as she walked down a public sidewalk.
In the United States, public sidewalks are typically where free speech is at its most free, with few boundaries.
Levant is no more “far-right” than the Times of Israel’s readership. But the online news website often reliable on news in Israel, frequently takes potshots at conservatives in the United States and Canada — as in this egregious example.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
