MONTREAL — An estimated 1,200 supporters of Israel – including many Christians – massed in front of the Israeli consulate June 7, waving scores of huge Israeli flags in a passionate show of support in the wake of the May 31 commando raid on a Turkish ship alleged to be carrying both aid and arms to Gaza.
Organized by the Canadian Rabbinical Caucus, led by rabbis Chaim Steinmetz and Reuben Poupko, the event at Westmount Square saw speaker after speaker, including Conservative and Liberal politicians, angrily challenge the world criticism that deluged Israel when nine on board the boat were killed.
Israel counters that its forces were attacked with clubs and knives when they boarded the ship.
“Once again, we are in the ridiculous position of having to defend ourselves for defending ourselves,” Israeli consul-general Yoram Elron told the rally, which was “inspired,” Rabbi Poupko said, by Ariela Cotler, wife of Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.
Elron referred to a demonstration two days earlier in Montreal condemning Israel (others took place worldwide) as a “march of shame.”
“When will we see multinational bodies not judge us before the facts are known?” he asked.
Despite the serious reason behind the rally, a boisterous mood seemed to prevail under the sunny sky as the crowd waved their flags, broke into songs and chants of “Am Yisrael chai” and brandished signs such as “Des Québécois aux cotés d’Israel” and, “No Excuse for Terror!”
“I am here to support Israel,” said 79-year-old Hy Rissman. “I’ve been a supporter since the day I was born. There are enough people who are anti-Israel. We’re here to be pro-Israel.”
Rallier Sidney Margles said that the show of support was important, because such events “do a lot for the spirit of the people. It’s always the other side always manages to get the publicity.”
The crowd loudly cheered speakers on numerous occasions, reserving its most sustained show of approval for Rabbi Poupko, as well as for the two Tories on-hand to speak, MP Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton) and freshman senator Leo Housakos, and Irwin Cotler.
“Getting a lecture on human rights from Turkey is like getting a lecture in business ethics from Al Capone,” Rabbi Poupko said, referring to the outcry from the Turkish government in the wake of the raid.
“Considering Turkey’s genocide of the Armenians,” he continued, “they have no right to talk on how to treat other people.
“This was not a ‘blockade,’” he added, saying it should have been more accurately described as a “weapons inspection protocol.”
Rabbi Poupko noted that when Israeli soldiers tried to make contact with the Turkish ship, they were told to “Go back to Auschwitz!”
In his remarks, Rabbi Steinmetz wondered angrily why protesters who marched two days earlier against Israel never do the same “for those oppressed in China, Turkey, Darfur and Iran.”
Like other supposed “peace activists,” Rabbi Steinmetz said, he was a peace activist, too, one that wanted both Israel and the Palestinians to live together without Israel having to worry about rockets raining down on its citizens.
Poilievre expressed his government’s “solidarity” with the people of Gaza living under Hamas, but he defended the Israeli blockade. He also praised his boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for leading the world in taking a principled stand against terrorism and in support of Israel.
Housakos, similarly, noted that “one side wants genuine peace, while the other side wants the destruction of Israel.” He also pledged his government’s continued “steadfast” support. “Peace has to be a two-way street.”
Irwin Cotler also praised the Harper government’s support of Israel, and he described Hamas as “not only a terrorist entity, but genocidal, imbedded with an anti-Semitic ideology.”
He added: “We came here to show support because it is not just a Jewish cause, but a just cause.”
