The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has demanded that the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby “resign or be fired” in reaction to her comments concerning the protest held near Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. In the meantime, a prominent community figure has told Sada Online that “our community’s going to take a clear public stance if the government yields to pressure.”

A recent CIJA statement reads, “This is a gross attempt at revisionist history from the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. For this she must resign or be fired.”

The CIJA statement addresses Elghawaby, “You do not combat Islamophobia by minimising anti-Semitism. There is video of hundreds of protesters stopped in front of a Jewish hospital, some climbing atop it with a Palestinian flag in hand, ‘Hospital Quiet’ sign perfectly in sight, while the mass of them scream, ‘Long live the intifada’ in the street below. If there was concern about the negative impact, there was plenty of opportunity to quietly and respectfully walk by. They could have changed their route. They could have done any number of things, but the masses chose to loudly and gleefully continue their protest in front of one of the most well-known Jewish institutions in Toronto – one with no connection to the government of Israel…, but with one very specific thing in common - being Jewish.”

CIJA ended their statement asking whether Elghawaby “could not see” or whether it “was that she did not want to see.”

 

Following the protest that was held near the hospital, Elghawaby made the following statement, “Hospitals and medical workers must always be safe to provide important services for patients and their families. 

Last night's protest route in front of the Mount Sinai Hospital had a negative impact, and that's troubling and wrong in a society that cherishes freedom of assembly and the right to protest, as well as the right to feel safe.”

“Yet,” she noted, “also troubling and wrong is the rush to label protesters as anti-Semitic and/or terrorist sympathisers.”

Elghawaby as well emphasised the following: “If police determine any action was motivated by hate, then it should be unequivocally condemned because there can be no justification for anti-Semitism. Not ever, just as there should be no excuse for the indiscriminate killing of any and all innocent men, women, and children, which is what demonstrators were actually protesting.

Anyone who condemns one but not the other is demonstrating to all of us how Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism operate to devalue the lives of those deemed less than human and unworthy of protections, including those afforded by international humanitarian law.”

 

ELghawaby went on saying, “Let's not forget that Canadian Palestinians with family in Gaza have watched in horror as their loved ones, their friends and neighbours, have been bombed, starved, displaced, maimed and killed these past four months, with no end in sight to this madness.

Thousands of Canadians from coast to coast to coast of every faith and background are also devastated by the violence and forceful displacement they are witnessing on their screens every day.”

“Many have joined the hundreds of peaceful protests that have taken place across the country, and many report being silenced and/or having faced repercussions for standing up in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, in the past two weeks alone, there have been reports of hate-motivated graffiti found on an Islamic centre in Cambridge, Islamophobic graffiti left outside the prayer room of a provincial government building, and a Muslim woman assaulted and robbed in Mississauga,” Elghawaby noted, adding, “Where are the condemnations of these acts? Enough with the double standards. Everyone, everywhere, deserves to live in safety, with dignity, and in freedom.”

 

Noteworthily, the pro-Palestine protesters passed by the Mount Sinai Hospital, making a stand there and raising the Palestinian flag on one of the hospital buildings. The organisers, however, have stressed that the hospital was not targeted but rather happened to be on the protesters’ way to the US Consulate.  

Thereupon, the Palestinian Youth Movement - Toronto, Toronto4Palestine and Jews Say No to Genocide issued a statement on February the 14^th, clarifying that “the protest marched from the Israeli Consulate for four hours, and concluded at Yonge-Dundas Square, passing many buildings and monuments across the city, with some attendees climbing structures and scaffolding to raise the Palestinian flag at various points along the way.”

The organisers noted that “the narrative taken up this morning by Zionist institutions and Canadian politicians – including the Prime Minister, the premier of Ontario, and the Mayor of Toronto – suggesting that this protest was planned for and took place outside of a hospital, is patently untrue and encourages a racist and limited view of Palestinian liberation movements; we are not in the streets to target anyone, we are demanding an end to the genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people. It is astonishing that the various news outlets that attended and reported on yesterday’s peaceful protest are today reporting on an entirely different set of fabricated events.”

“We ask every Canadian politician who made false statements about what occurred at Monday’s rally,” the statement concludes, “as well as every media outlet that peddled the fabricated story of a ‘Mount Sinai Hospital protest’ to immediately retract and issue corrections to their stories so that the Canadian public can know the truth, and pro-Palestine protesters can re-focus our efforts on Palestinian liberation and the end to this horrific genocide,” concludes the statement.

 

Concerning the campaign targeting Elghawaby, a prominent community source has told Sada Online, “Again, Elghawaby is being intimidated, just like many community members get intimidated every time they exercise their right to protest the massacring of innocent Palestinians.”

The prominent figure notes that “people are accused of anti-Semitism whenever they stand up in solidarity with Palestine. This is what’s happening although our community and community leaders are among the first who advocate to end anti-Semitism – just like they absolutely refuse Islamophobia and advocate to end it.”

Our source has also stressed that “conflating the right to expressing opposition to the killing of Palestinians with anti-Semitism is completely unacceptable. Every time activists make stances to support Palestine, they get vilified. That’s why our community and youth, who form an essential constituent of the Canadian society, feel they’re being intimidated.”

“Therefore, what Elghawaby has been exposed to is utterly unacceptable. It is her right to voice the opposition of our community and many other Canadians to the massacring of Gazans, and recently of the Lebanese. After all, such stances address the complicit governments rather than certain people of faith, and notably, Jewish organisations have been participating in protests against the war on Gaza.”

The prominent figure has, therefore, called on our government officials “not to yield to pressure.”

As for the protest held by the Mount Sinai Hospital, our source has noted that “none offended Judaism or made racist comments,” and that the protest “was simply focused on condemning the massacring of Gazans and on calling Canada to end that.”

“Our community’s going to take a clear, public stance if the government yields to pressure exercised by certain groups that wish to see ELghawaby removed,” the prominent figure says, expressing “disappointment at Trudeau’s, Ford’s, and other politicians’ unfounded statements.”

Photo: SPIDERMAN4PALESTINE INSTAGRAM