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<p>There are many forms of systemic racism in Canada.</p>
<p>Art Blomme<br>
</p>
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<h1 class="entry-title seo-highlighter"><a
href="https://yvesengler.com/2020/07/08/jewish-defence-league-attacks-pro-palestine-restaurant/"
rel="bookmark" moz-do-not-send="true">Jewish Defence League
attacks pro-Palestine restaurant <br>
</a></h1>
<h2 class="subscribe-title" style="margin: .4em 0 .3em; font-size:
1.8em; font-size: 16px!important; line-height: 1; font-weight:
400; color: #464646; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",
Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 5px 20px!important;
padding: 0;"><strong>Yves Engler</strong></h2>
<h1 class="entry-title seo-highlighter"><a
href="https://yvesengler.com/2020/07/08/jewish-defence-league-attacks-pro-palestine-restaurant/"
rel="bookmark" moz-do-not-send="true"> </a></h1>
<p> </p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="2101"
data-permalink="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_/"
data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/yvesengler.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200707-foodbenders.jpg-resize_then_crop-_frame_bg_color_FFF-h_400-gravity_center-q_70-preserve_ratio_true-w_600_.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1"
data-orig-size="600,400" data-comments-opened="0"
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data-image-description=""
data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/yvesengler.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200707-foodbenders.jpg-resize_then_crop-_frame_bg_color_FFF-h_400-gravity_center-q_70-preserve_ratio_true-w_600_.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1"
data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/yvesengler.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200707-foodbenders.jpg-resize_then_crop-_frame_bg_color_FFF-h_400-gravity_center-q_70-preserve_ratio_true-w_600_.jpg?fit=500%2C333&ssl=1"
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src="https://i0.wp.com/yvesengler.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200707-foodbenders.jpg-resize_then_crop-_frame_bg_color_FFF-h_400-gravity_center-q_70-preserve_ratio_true-w_600_.jpg?resize=500%2C333&ssl=1"
alt="20200707-foodbenders.jpg-resize_then_crop-_frame_bg_color_FFF-h_400-gravity_center-q_70-preserve_ratio_true-w_600_"
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<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://thepostmillennial.com/protestors-outside-foodbenders-toronto"
moz-do-not-send="true">scrubbed</a> 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 “<a
href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCUJwf1ltQS/"
moz-do-not-send="true">dirty Palestinian</a> whore” and told “<a
href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCUJwf1ltQS/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Palestine sucks</a> I will burn your
business down” and “I hope your family gets trapped inside the
restaurant when it burns.”</p>
<p align="right"><img data-attachment-id="2106"
data-permalink="https://yvesengler.com/2020/07/08/jewish-defence-league-attacks-pro-palestine-restaurant/attachment/460332/"
data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/yvesengler.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/460332.jpeg?fit=898%2C628&ssl=1"
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data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}"
data-image-title="460332" data-image-description=""
data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/yvesengler.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/460332.jpeg?fit=300%2C210&ssl=1"
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<p>Hawkins has faced these attacks since an <a
href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJNgA2hdrH/?igshid=10d6f02ies076"
moz-do-not-send="true">Instagram post</a> of hers began
circulating last week that stated, “<a
href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJNgA2hdrH/?igshid=10d6f02ies076"
moz-do-not-send="true">Open Now</a> – 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!”</p>
<p>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.)</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://sfist.com/2020/07/07/martinez-couple-seen-painting-over-blm-mural-charged-with-hate-crime/"
moz-do-not-send="true">charged</a> 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.</p>
<p>Over the past decade JDL Toronto has built itself up by
aggressively harassing Palestinian solidarity activists.
Facebook has <a
href="https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/facebook-removes-jdl-canadas-page-calls-group-dangerous"
moz-do-not-send="true">banned</a> JDL Canada’s account,
classifying it a “dangerous organization”. In 2011 the RCMP
launched an <a
href="https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/fight-club-jdl-now-mainstream"
moz-do-not-send="true">investigation</a> 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 <a
href="https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/04/04/jdl-canada-ready-closeup-gentlemen/"
moz-do-not-send="true">attacked</a> protesters at the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington
DC. In the worst incident, a <a
href="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"
moz-do-not-send="true">55-year-old</a> Palestinian-American
teacher was punched, kicked and hit with flagpoles. Bruised
across his body, Kamal Nayfeh needed <em>18 </em>stitches
around his eye.</p>
<p>In November <a
href="https://dimitrilascaris.org/2019/11/23/justin-trudeau-sides-with-pro-israel-thuggery-at-york-university/"
moz-do-not-send="true">JDL supporters</a> attacked peaceful
pro-Palestinian activists protesting a presentation by Israeli
military reservists at York University. One of the victims was
reportedly knocked unconscious.</p>
<p>In the US the FBI labeled the JDL a “<a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/tyler-levitan/harper-jewish-defense-league_b_8257916.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">right-wing terrorist group</a>” 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 <a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/tyler-levitan/harper-jewish-defense-league_b_8257916.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">29 Palestinian</a> Muslim worshipers in
the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre 20 years ago.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql
a8c37x1j irj2b8pg enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh
oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto">Please take one minute to <a
href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/illegal-act-of-hate-targeting-restaurant-supporting-palestinians/"
moz-do-not-send="true">send an email to major</a> Toronto
media to ask them why they have not covered this outrageous
attack against a pro-Palestinian restaurant.</span></em></p>
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