No Hezbollah flags for the first time ever. No “Israel is a cancer” etc.
They were forced to cover up the real meaning of Al Quds Day — that Islam aims to take over Israel and claim Jerusalem as the capital of the caliphate — but ironically, all the pressure from Sun and the blogs actually made thousands of Canadians aware of that real meaning for the first time.
For half the rally, the number of Al Quds demonstrators was equal to the number of counter protesters. They only outnumbered us after they brought in five school bus loads of people from out of town.
Anti-jihadist Iranians came out to join the counter demonstration, including a bunch of communists.
Toronto cops haven’t changed, though: still siding overwhelmingly with the Muslims while micromanaging and harassing Jews, albeit in that “Sir, what I’m gonna need for you to do for me right now sir” voice they’re trained to use so that they can say they weren’t being “threatening.”
Arnie will have more about the harassment of the guy with the flag (pictured.) A bunch of us also spoke to a man who was injured by a Muslim but the police refused to press charges. He has the cop’s name and badge number, and my business card.
A man WAS arrested for walking a dog wearing an Israeli flag scarf, however. My husband has the man’s story.
Meanwhile, the stupid new Muslim “thing” is trying to intimidate you by photographing whoever is photographing them, as if — I dunno — their cameras can shoot invisible Muslim deathrays or something.
I discovered the best way to deal with this is to give them the finger; they immediately spin around.
For one particularly annoying fellow, I pulled off my sunglasses, made some Hamiltonian “What the fuck are YOU looking at?!? Bring it!” gestures and finally strode threateningly towards him while lifting up my blouse, in a “take a picture, it’ll last longer” way. He turned and scuttled off before it got over my boobs. Too bad — they’re still awesome for 48. Loser.
They also seem to think that Arnie’s camera also has magical [Jew?] powers, because they were all over Facebook warning each other: “He’s makes us look bad with his pictures!” I’m not sure how he/we can do more to “expose” you all, since you’re the ones walking down the street in public…
PS: When they paraded down University towards the US Consulate, I noticed that the non-Muslim gay contingent was, appropriately enough, pulling up the rear. That tiny handful of ugly people with their rainbow sign recognized us, smirked and pointed their signs defiantly at us.
“I see they made you walk at the BACK of the line,” I yelled. “Think about it!”
The smirks stopped and the signs drooped.
By the way: The organizers are crowing about having a couple of “ultra-Orthodox” Jews on their side, the type God told to dress like 19th century Russians with sable hats. A Jewish friend went up to them and asked, “Who built the Second Temple?” Neither of them knew. She says they probably aren’t even Jewish. The alternative explanation is that they are simply inbred.
I saw at least one guy yelling “Allahu Akbar” as the event broke up. I got into a fight with a particularly stupid Muslim with his two sign-toting kids in tow. That story can wait until Arnie’s second video goes up, about the cops harassing a guy just for waving an Israeli flag.
At the end of the official speeches, the entire throng, hundreds and hundreds of them, perhaps three or four times the number who turned out last year, men, women and kids, formed a procession, and marched down University Avenue to the U,S. embassy (because, as much as they hate “the Zionists,” they hate America, the Great Satan still under unexceptionalist Obama, even more). And as I watched them pass I thought, “Wow, what a whole lot of angry Israel-haters there are.” And I had to ask myself: was it a good thing to shine a light on last year’s rally, small as it was, or a bad thing, because this–this much bigger rally–is what resulted from that exposure and the ensuing controversy?
So I decided to sleep on it, and when I woke up this morning I had my answer.
PLUS Lots of videos taken by “jonegi1” HERE.
Eye on a Crazy Planet was there, too, particularly mobile on his rollerblades and therefore able to get a must-read roundup of all the idiocy:
Yet while pretending to be a legitimate group of Jews who are still attached to their religion but opposed to Israeli policies, Stone’s uncontrolled furor led him to make a stupid mistake. While screaming about the efforts to deny the al Quds Rally a permit to assemble at Queen’s Park this year, he blamed “the Jewish Lobby.” Stone forgot to use the code word “Zionist,” thus betraying the dual realities that most Jews want nothing to do with the fringe lunatics of Independent Jewish Voices while the members of his organization harbor malice towards their less “progressive” co-religionists. (…)
The real comic relief at this al Quds rally came from Zafar Bangash. He courageously challenged anyone, anyone who maligned his Khomeinist followers as hate mongers or anti-Semites or those who promote the idea that Islam is oppressive, to publicly debate him. Then he quickly added the caveat that exempted from his offer were members of what he called “right-wing, Islamophobic media.” (…)
Normal citizens walking along University Avenue who witnessed the throngs of women enveloped in burkahs and cahdors, the angry men shouting “Allahu Akbar!” and the flags of terrorist-run Palestine and Iran, were as appalled as if some giant slime creature had crawled out from the sewer. Many commented about how revolting it was to see supporters of Iran, one of the most repressive regimes on earth, parading through the city.
***
In other words, as Arnie put it:
“Even their best behavior is not acceptable to civil society.”
