Shocking footage of a child and a Muslim woman reading anti-Israel speeches at an “Al Quds Day” protest in Toronto on Saturday drew attention online Friday.
Posting a link to a video of the incident Dexter Van Zile, the Christian Media Analyst for CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, wrote on Twitter: “It sounds so much more frightening coming from a kid… This is sick.”
Van Zile also highlighted a second clip, referring to it as “Another hate-filled child - this time, a girl who compares#Israel to Hitler.”
Addressing the rally, the child, swathed in a black and white keffiyeh headband and scarf, said: ”Zionism preaches corruption and oppression and tyranny and bloodshed around the world.”
The Al Quds Day event drew condemnation from Jewish communal group B’nai Brith Canada because of the use of child proxies. The rally provided “stark evidence that Canadian children are being steeped in anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred from infancy,” the group said in a statement.
“Not only were children of all ages used as props for the cameras, but this year they were also given the microphone to spread lies and whip up hatred against the Jewish people,” the organization said on Tuesday.
“Al Quds Day” was established in Iran in 1979, and is now commemorated around the world on the final Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, to express solidarity with Palestinian Arabs, oppose Zionism and Israel’s presence in Jerusalem, known as al Quds, in Arabic.
The videos were originally uploaded by Canadian blogger Arnie Lemaire. Lemaire, who uses the Twitter handle@Blazingcatfur, called out Elias Hazineh, a Palestinian-Canadian Christian and former head of Palestine House, an anti-Israel group, who was recorded saying: “When somebody tries to rob a bank, the police get in. They don’t negotiate. And we have been negotiating with them for 65 years. We say, ‘Get out or you are dead.’ We give them two minutes and then we start shooting, and that’s the only way they’ll understand.”
Canadian police interrogated Hazineh after the footage was released, The Toronto Star reported on Thursday. ”In retrospect, one could have used different words, but there is actual frustration,” he said, Justifying his use of aggressive language in an interview with the newspaper. “I don’t think what I said is illegal under Canadian law. I consulted a lawyer who said it doesn’t even come close to breaking the law.”
Another Canadian blogger, Scaramuche, who first flagged Hazineh’s comments, retorted: “Funny, that’s what I say every time zany Khomeini’s Al Quds Day rolls around and hordes of angry Khomeinists assemble en masse at Queen’s Park to seethe and rage about the eee-ville Zionists. ‘Who let these crazy Zion-loathers into Canada?,’ I ask. ‘Enough is enough!’”
