Risen Tide of Antisemitism in Canada

"[Samidoun, also known as Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network], claims to be campaigning for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails."

"Many Palestinian prisoners for which Samidoun advocates for release have ties to terrorism, assassinations and countless attacks against Israel."

"Samidoun's ideology revolves exclusively around the worldview that Israel and Zionism are the greatest danger to the Middle East and the world."

Public Safety Canada

"The Vancouver Police Major Crime Section, with assistance from the Vancouver Police Department Emergency Response Team, executed a search warrant yesterday at a residence in the 1800 block of East 1st Avenue, as part of an ongoing hate crime investigation under Section 319 of the Criminal Code."

"One person was initially taken into custody and has now been released pending completion of the investigation."

VPD media spokesperson Tania Visintin

Social media posts from pro-Palestinian activists supporting Kates and Samidoun expressed outrage and questioned the “excessive” police presence involved in the Nov. 14 raid (top left, via Global News) to execute a search warrant in a public incitement of hatred investigation. (Via Instagram)

"At times, the community [Vancouver and wider B.C. Jewish community] feels alone… Jewish businesses have been targeted, Jewish members of the community have been targeted in schools, at university, in the workplace."

"We have seen the glorification of terrorism at the hands of members of Samidoun [including at weekly protests on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery]."

"[The community is feeling] threatened and unsafe."

"We believe that it is crucial for civil society that Charlotte Kates be charged immediately. She’s now the leader of a terror organization."

"Let the courts decide."

Nico Slobinsky, vice-president, Pacific Region, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Since the Palestinian terrorists' attack on southern Israel led by Hamas in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Samidoun, along with other Palestinian agitprop group have been inciting to violent antisemitism in the guise of criticizing 'Zionism', and organizing ongoing weekly and sometimes daily marches, protests and groups harassing Jewish communities and Jewish-owned businesses. Crowds of Palestinian-flag-waving antisemites have gathered outside hospitals, old-age retirement homes, synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres to shout invectives and threats against Israel veiled with 'From the River to the sea".

Clearly antisocial verging on psychopathic activities like blocking streets and  highways with marchers shouting 'Intifada!' and 'Final Solution' have inspired no reaction by authorities at any level, anywhere across the country. Jews are left to fend for themselves against the risen tide of antisemitism, viral in its endless permutations of isolation and hate-messaging. The federal government, much less provincial or municipal authorities have been satisfied to sit back and 'not notice' that a cultural/ethnic/religious minority in Canada's equal society with its guarantees of security for all, have been besieged for over a year.

And then when it became obvious that Jews were the appetizer, and once that went down well, the main course would commence, when Palestinian, pro-Hamas groups and organizers turned on Canada itself as a purportedly racist, colonialist, imperialist country perched on land not their own, taken by force from its original denizens, and shouts of derogatory derision damning Canada along with the attempted burning of a Canadian flag by Samidoun supporters moved the government to finally outlaw Samidoun as a terrorist group, closely aligned with the already-designated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

Despite Samidoun being listed as a terrorist organization in Canada last month, its co-founder and director Charlotte Kates has been proceeding with the group, continuing to organize marches that demonize Israel, calling for its destruction, and threatening Canadian Jews' security, with no moves by either the Federal government or law and order to step in and put a halt to those activities. Listing Samidoun as a terrorist entity was a first step, but it seemed that following through to stop its activities was a step too far.

Now, finally, the Vancouver home of Charlotte Kates, out of which the management of the Samidoun group and its many branches abroad is located, was raided by the Vancouver Police Department's Emergency Response Team. A search warrant was executed relating to a hate crime investigation. During the raid, a flash-bang grenade was used, resulting in windows of the house being broken. It was explained by a police spokesperson that the emergency response team is "often used in the execution of search warrants when we believe there could be a risk to the public or a risk to the officers".

 

Time for justice and the Canadian court system to work in tandem with the police departments of the nation, in coordination with government, serious about condemning racism and terrorism and putting a halt to its expansion within Canada.