The City of Toronto removed an anti-Israel poster that appeared on a bus shelter last weekend.
The large poster, which was plastered on a shelter in the Keele Street and Sheppard Avenue West area, read, “Isreal’s (sic) killing children again… Enjoy your weekend.”
According to the Toronto Transit Commission, bus shelters are municipal property.
“This is vandalism that perpetuates hate, which is illegal and entirely unacceptable in our city,” City of Toronto spokesperson Andrea Gonsalves told The CJN in an email.
She said the city’s contractor responded to the incident “as soon as they could after being contacted by Toronto police. When crews arrived, they found that the message had already been partially removed, and crews immediately worked to have the rest removed from the shelter.”
If residents observe vandalism that includes messages of hate in Toronto, including to city property, they are encouraged to first contact police, Gonsalves said.
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre called the incident an “anti-Semitic blood libel on the eve of Passover.”
In a statement, FSWC CEO Michael Levitt said it was “no coincidence that somebody chose the eve of Passover not only to spread false accusations against Israel but also promote the anti-Semitic blood libel trope, just as Jews throughout the city and around the world were preparing to observe this important holiday.”
He called the vandalism a “very disturbing and a clear attack on the Jewish community.”
