A telling and troubling contrast

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/05/2024 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“My belief has always been that one truth can puncture a thousand lies.” — Douglas Murray, British author and journalist

There have been weekly “Bring Them Home” rallies and pro-Palestinian protests occurring on Winnipeg streets since Israel’s 10/7 — the horrific massacre perpetrated by Hamas terrorists with its willing accomplices, including civilians of Gaza and UNRWA employees.

The original crime — the savage and systematic murder, mutilation, torture, rape and beheading of 1,200 innocent Israeli citizens and abduction of more than 240 others — that started the Hamas-Israel war has been all but forgotten as the world’s attention swiftly shifted to Israel’s response.

The world’s sympathy for Israel was also promptly abandoned, almost overnight, before Israel had even responded.

The harrowing atrocities of the original crime are even now being denied or minimized, despite irrefutable evidence provided by the murderers themselves, who captured and shared images and videos of their monstrous acts using GoPro cameras attached to their bodies.

And still the world would forget.

The “Bring Them Home” rallies represent a refusal to forget. They are an acknowldgment of and a response to the original crime. They call for the return of the 133 hostages still being held and tortured in Gaza (to date, for 207 days). A simple and humane request that Hamas dismisses with every offer Israel makes.

Participants at the “Bring Them Home” rallies include the Jewish community as well as non-Jews, including Bridges for Peace and the Yazidi community.

They line up along the street, silently holding posters with photos of the abducted hostages still in captivity — a peaceful presence meant to remind passersby of the tragic barbarity that began the war, to remember and honour the hostages, and to show support for the hostages’ families and friends and for Israel.

The rallies are crucial in order that the original crime not be forgotten, that it, not Israel’s requisite and just response, be condemned.

Many of the pro-Israel supporters wave Israeli and Canadian flags while Israeli music is playing on loudspeakers. Videos are taken and posted on social media here and on Israeli sites, so the hostages’ families and friends know their loved ones are not forgotten though the world may seem to have abandoned them and though the clamorous voices of hate grow ever louder.

The participants congregate at the end of the rally to sing the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, and the Canadian national anthem. Prayers for the hostages’ safe return home are also recited.

The numbers have steadily grown to over 200 at some of the rallies, which gives hope that the “one truth” of Israel’s just cause will “puncture” the many lies promulgated at the pro-Palestinian protests.

The pro-Palestinian protests are very different in tone and intent. Unlike the composed pro-Israel rallies, the pro-Palestinian protests are chaotic demonstrations of hatred, hostility and anger. At a recent protest in Winnipeg on April 13, hundreds gathered in front of city hall with speaker after speaker loudly proclaiming their usual slogans and slander.

Animated by hate, they intended to incite hate with their incendiary rhetoric. Among the slogans chanted repeatedly were: “Israel is a racist state,” “Israel is a made-up state,” “All you do is hate and slaughter,” and “Blue and white, blue and white/How many kids did you kill tonight?” And the familiar one, “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free” — clarified with “From the river to the sea/Palestine is all you’ll see” — is clearly genocidal. As is the incessant call to “intefadeh.” Their call for a ceasefire that would guarantee the preconditions for the next 10/7, which Hamas leaders have promised to commit “again and again,” is also a call for genocide.

As Douglas Murray has pointed out, Vassily Grossman’s insight into antisemitism is absolutely pertinent here: “Tell me what you accuse Jews of — I’ll tell you what you are guilty of.”

At one point, the protesters spotted six Israel supporters with Israeli flags standing across the street on the steps of the Centennial Concert Hall where they were ordered to stay by the police. The protesters crossed over in defiance of police orders to remain by city hall to taunt the Israel supporters, verbally abuse two of them personally, and direct smoke bombs at them. Over 10 police officers and about eight cruiser cars prevented their coming closer.

The danger of these protests is that passersby may not realize the protesters’ accusation of “occupation” has no foundation — Israel unilaterally withdrew its military forces and forcibly removed its citizens from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Or that the charge of “apartheid” is false — all citizens of Israel, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, enjoy equal rights. Or that culpability for the “oppression” suffered by Palestinians lies not with Israel, but with Hamas, which has kept them in a state of misery since taking over Gaza in a bloody coup in 2007 and is now using them as human shields in the current war.

Finally, passersby may be unaware that Israel’s aim in this war is to destroy Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian people, making “genocide” another fallacious claim that simply reveals what the accusers are themselves “guilty of.”

It is not just Jews who are threatened by this assault on the truth: we all are, as are all our hard-won rights and cherished democratic values.

Penny Jones Square is an independent journalist and a passionate advocate for Israel.