[Craic] Yves Engler: Jewish Defence League attacks pro-Palestine restaurant

[Arthur Blomme]

There are many forms of systemic racism in Canada.

Art Blomme



  Jewish Defence League attacks pro-Palestine restaurant
  <https://yvesengler.com/2020/07/08/jewish-defence-league-attacks-pro-palestine-restaurant/>


    *Yves Engler*


  <https://yvesengler.com/2020/07/08/jewish-defence-league-attacks-pro-palestine-restaurant/>

20200707-foodbenders.jpg-resize_then_crop-_frame_bg_color_FFF-h_400-gravity_center-q_70-preserve_ratio_true-w_600_

Why the official silence about Toronto’s most powerful extreme right 
group? Is it because we live in a political culture where Palestinian 
lives don’t matter?

Recently an individual with the Jewish Defence League (JDL) was 
photographed defacing a pro-Palestinian storefront with supremacist 
graffiti in broad daylight. Nothing has happened to them but the 
anti-racist victim has faced negative consequences.

On Sunday JDL thugs held a rally in front of Foodbenders, a sandwich 
shop that has “I Love Gaza” painted on its window. During their hate 
fest they scrubbed 
<https://thepostmillennial.com/protestors-outside-foodbenders-toronto> a 
Palestinian Lives Matter marking from the sidewalk and, similar to what 
Jewish supremacist settlers do to Palestinian homes in the occupied West 
Bank, someone painted the symbol on the Israeli flag onto the restaurant 
window. Alongside painting Stars of David on her storefront, Kimberly 
Hawkins has faced a bevy of online abuse. The Foodbenders owner has been 
called a “dirty Palestinian <https://www.instagram.com/p/CCUJwf1ltQS/> 
whore” and told “Palestine sucks 
<https://www.instagram.com/p/CCUJwf1ltQS/> I will burn your business 
down” and “I hope your family gets trapped inside the restaurant when it 
burns.”

460332

Hawkins has faced these attacks since an Instagram post 
<https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJNgA2hdrH/?igshid=10d6f02ies076> of hers 
began circulating last week that stated, “Open Now 
<https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJNgA2hdrH/?igshid=10d6f02ies076> – 8 PM 
for non-racist shoppers #Bloordale #Bloorstreet, #Toronto, #Open, #ftp 
#FreePalestine and #ZionistsNotWelcome.” The police seem to have ignored 
the whole affair, perhaps because a few weeks earlier Foodbenders was 
embroiled in a controversy over a sign that read “No Justice, No Peace, 
F*ck the Police!”

The anti-Palestinian lobby pounced on the #ZionistsNotWelcome hashtag 
and demanded food delivery services boycott the store. Submitting to the 
pressure, Uber Eats, Ritual and DoorDash have cancelled their contract 
with the restaurant. (While “for non-racist shoppers” and 
“#ZionistsNotWelcome” are entirely legitimate statements, they are near 
impossible to enforce and it is questionable to block someone with 
racist views from purchasing a sandwich, as Hawkins immediately explained.)

The media has all but ignored the JDL’s hate, as have the groups and 
individuals who claim to monitor the far right in Canada. The double 
standard is stark. When individuals have covered or painted over Black 
Lives Matter symbols the incidents have been widely reported and 
interpreted as racist. A couple in Contra Costa, California, were 
charged 
<https://sfist.com/2020/07/07/martinez-couple-seen-painting-over-blm-mural-charged-with-hate-crime/> 
with a hate crime for painting over a BLM marking on the street. The 
Foodbender’s case is far worse. The subjugation of Palestinians is 
crueller than the oppression of Black people in North America and the 
JDLers chose to deface the property with the symbol of Palestinians’ 
oppressors.

Over the past decade JDL Toronto has built itself up by aggressively 
harassing Palestinian solidarity activists. Facebook has banned 
<https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/facebook-removes-jdl-canadas-page-calls-group-dangerous> 
JDL Canada’s account, classifying it a “dangerous organization”. In 2011 
the RCMP launched an investigation 
<https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/fight-club-jdl-now-mainstream> 
against a number of JDL members who were thought to be plotting to bomb 
Palestine House in Mississauga and in 2017 JDL Toronto members organized 
a mob that attacked 
<https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/04/04/jdl-canada-ready-closeup-gentlemen/> 
protesters at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 
conference in Washington DC. In the worst incident, a 55-year-old 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/two-arrested-in-assault-of-man-during-protest-outside-aipac-conference/2017/03/31/e8406e74-1578-11e7-833c-503e1f6394c9_story.html?utm_term=.18a528bff1fe> 
Palestinian-American teacher was punched, kicked and hit with flagpoles. 
Bruised across his body, Kamal Nayfeh needed /18 /stitches around his eye.

In November JDL supporters 
<https://dimitrilascaris.org/2019/11/23/justin-trudeau-sides-with-pro-israel-thuggery-at-york-university/> 
attacked peaceful pro-Palestinian activists protesting a presentation by 
Israeli military reservists at York University. One of the victims was 
reportedly knocked unconscious.

In the US the FBI labeled the JDL a “right-wing terrorist group 
<https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/tyler-levitan/harper-jewish-defense-league_b_8257916.html>” 
in 2001 after its members were convicted in a series of acts of terror, 
including the killing of the regional director of the American Arab 
Anti-discrimination Committee and a plot to assassinate a congressman. A 
member of the JDL’s sister organization in Israel killed 29 Palestinian 
<https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/tyler-levitan/harper-jewish-defense-league_b_8257916.html> 
Muslim worshipers in the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre 20 years ago.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B’nai B’rith, Ontario Premier 
Doug Ford and a slew of other politicians have all condemned 
Foodbenders. Simultaneously, they have ignored the JDL’s racism, further 
emboldening Toronto’s most powerful far right organization. It seems, 
for them, Palestinian lives do not matter.

/Please take one minute to send an email to major 
<https://actionnetwork.org/letters/illegal-act-of-hate-targeting-restaurant-supporting-palestinians/> 
Toronto media to ask them why they have not covered this outrageous 
attack against a pro-Palestinian restaurant./

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