Activists praised and mourned slain Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh at rallies marking 300 days of the Israel-Hamas War in Toronto and Montreal over the weekend.
At least two pictures of Haniyeh, who was killed in an alleged Israeli bombing in Tehran last Wednesday, were taped to vehicles used in a car rally in Montreal on Saturday, according to footage published by Montreal 4 Palestine.
During a “night of rage” event later that evening, speakers said that they would never recognize Israel and glorified Haniyeh and other terrorists who died fighting against it.
“The occupied has a right to resist, and the occupier has no right to resist,” said the protest leader, according to documentation by an activist known as “Natasha Montreal” on X.
It's a death cult. Why are they in Canada?Terrorist sympathizers' "Night of rage" in Montréal.#GoIDF #AmYisraelChai pic.twitter.com/RHDIdnhtcF
— Natasha Montreal Live Free or Die (@NatashaMontreal) August 4, 2024
The speaker added that regardless of religion and background, those who supported Israel were their enemies and would also be destroyed. He insisted in the video that while the Palestinians had suffered more than they had ever before, “Our resistance is still beating the enemy.”
Protesters call for Israel's end
Another speaker who wore military fatigues and concealed his face in a red keffiyeh, also seen in videos posted by Montreal 4 Palestine, claimed that the end for Israel was near and that Haniyeh’s assassination showed that Israelis didn’t want negotiations.
“Long live the intifada! Long live the resistance!” chanted protesters during a protest that followed on Sunday.
Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather responded to the protests on social media, stating that the praise for terrorism and violence clarified that such anti-Israel demonstrations were not peaceful. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) Quebec said that speech glorifying jihad and martyrdom had no place in Canadian society, and demanded that authorities take action.
In Toronto on Saturday, Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR) leader Firas al Najim raised a sign of Haniyeh and said on social media that demonstrators were commemorating “the Palestinian great hero and martyr.”
In a video posted by CD4HR, al Najim stomped on an Israeli flag. Protesters also chanted at a Friday protest that “Palestine is Arab.” Honest Reporting Canada said that al-Najim’s rhetoric needed to be addressed by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.
#Toronto Protest against 300 days of the #GazaHoloucast and the treacherous assassination of #IsmaelHaniyeh. #IsraelisATerorrist #harshrevenge #Justice4Haniyeh #Longlivepalestine #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/Qgt0EPgldH
— Canadian Defenders 4 Human Rights CD4HR (@cd4_hr) August 2, 2024
One sign on Saturday, featuring the red inverted triangle used to denote the targeting of Hamas’s enemies, stated “Zionism will fall red triangle.”
In a video posted on Instagram by Liberate Palestine 48, protesters hung a sign on an overpass that proclaimed “Long live legal armed resistance.” The sign also featured a red triangle.
CIJA on Monday called for Toronto’s political leadership to recognize the red triangle as a terrorist symbol.