Two Toronto Police vehicles are parked outside Mount Sinai Hospital on Feb. 14.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Whether Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital was a target of pro-Palestinian demonstrators this week, as witnesses felt and politicians have declared, or just a coincidental stop along the way, is a matter of debate as I write this. Perhaps, as some have explained, the protesters who stood outside the hospital as someone scaled the scaffolding with a Palestinian flag, and as shouts of “Intifada!” were yelled through a megaphone and repeated by the crowd, did not know about the hospital’s connection to the Jewish community, or stop there for that reason.
Either way, saying that they didn’t realize (or care) that Mount Sinai has Jewish ties is not the defensive flex some seem to think it is. Nor is pointing out that this stop was a mere 15-minute slice of a four-hour demonstration. Standing outside any hospital and loudly yelling about an uprising is just not okay.
It was at the very least unpleasant, at the worst cruel, to those inside or trying to get there. People who are ill, injured, reeling from treatment, or dying deserve peace and quiet, as do their loved ones who are with them, praying, grieving, hoping. I’ll apologize on their behalf if they weren’t thinking about Gaza as they live through their own hell. It could also be rattling to health care workers trying to do their life-or-death jobs.
And even if the literal translation of the Arabic word “intifada” is “uprising” or the shaking-off of something, it has a violent connotation for many who recall the events of the Second Intifada, a grassroots terror campaign that sent suicide bombers into Israeli buses, restaurants and crowded streets, killing more than 1,000 people.
To act all surprised and who us? about this feels disingenuous.
One explanation I’ve seen supporting the protesters’ stated unawareness about the hospital’s Jewish ties or origins (it was founded when Jewish doctors faced restrictions around practising elsewhere) points out that Mount Sinai is located in Egypt. Okay. But Mount Sinai is where Moses – possibly, after Jesus, the most famous biblical Jew – received the Ten Commandments. Even if you don’t believe this stuff, or you’re not up on your biblical history, this is one of the Old Testament’s greatest hits. And the protesters seem to be experts on the history of this region, right?
Among the Commandments: thou shalt not kill. What happened on Oct. 7 was horrific. What has happened in Gaza since is horrific. People have every right to protest this bloodbath of a military operation.
But doing it outside a hospital, any hospital, is wrong – and won’t help the cause. Olivia Chow is not the mayor of Tel Aviv. Doug Ford has no influence in the matter. And I’m not sure Justin Trudeau has much sway in this geopolitical issue either. But they do have a responsibility to Torontonians, Ontarians, Canadians: to keep us safe.
Some have wagged their finger at those upset by the protest, saying it hardly compares to the devastation in Gaza, including at Nasser Hospital, which Israeli troops raided on Thursday (searching, they said, for Hamas fighters and hostages’ remains). How dare people complain about a bit of discomfort and inconvenience at this one Toronto hospital amid this global catastrophe?
What’s happening in Gaza is catastrophic. Absolutely. But Canadians, lucky us, have a right to safety and security here.
And if you’re wondering why Jews may have jumped to the conclusion that the protest at Mount Sinai was antisemitic, consider that one of the organizers of the march, Toronto4Palestine, has previously amplified atrocity – and Holocaust denial – on social media. One such post accused the “Je*ish occupation” of lying about what happened on Oct. 7. And if they would lie about that, this post went on, is it “likely they may have lied about certain details of a previous big genocide that may have occurred?”
Consider also that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York was loudly targeted in January by pro-Palestinian protesters, upset about a donor.
Many Canadian Jews have felt undone by the events of Oct. 7. There are still more than 100 hostages being held by Hamas. This alone is traumatic, even for those of us who oppose Benjamin Netanyahu and the brutality of his military response. The antisemitism that has arisen since has further traumatized us. Jewish Canadians are feeling vulnerable and scared.
There have been protests outside Jewish restaurants, shots fired at a Jewish school and the alleged targeting of a Jewish grocery store. Some Canadian Jews have stopped wearing or started hiding Jewish-identifying jewellery.
Please don’t offer a “cry me a river” retort about this. This is unacceptable, full stop. Racism against any other ethnicity would not and should not be tolerated. Why should Jews have to accept it?
So forgive Jews for being on edge here in Canada. But protesting outside a hospital, any hospital, is unforgivable.