by Dave Gordon
A wide range of pro-Israel allies represented “ethnicities and nationalities, who have seen their own identities attacked by others,” per an organizer.
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About 400 people rallied in Toronto to state that anti-Zionism is Jew-hatred, April 16, 2025. Credit: Amy Fernandes. |
Some 400 Jews, Hindus, Christians, Venezuelans, Iranians, Iraqis and others braved near freezing temperatures on a windy Wednesday in Toronto to send the message that anti-Zionism is Jew-hatred.
The non-Jewish allies represented “ethnicities and nationalities, who have seen their own identities attacked by others,” Amir Epstein, co-founder and director of the Jewish civil-rights group Tafsik, which organized the rally, told JNS.
Epstein told JNS that the event aimed to take back the narrative that Jew-haters have corrupted.
“This is the first rally where we are fighting back against anti-Zionism, and we’re doing it to tell people it’s just another form of antisemitism,” he said. “For way too long, we’ve not adopted our own identity, but as Jews, we should define Jews.”
“Our haters should not get to define us anymore. They seek to define what we are, what we believe, what our identities are,” he added. “They’ve convinced others that Zionism is colonialism. But Zionism has been intertwined with Judaism since the beginning, since Moses. We can and should define ourselves.”
The main theme of the event was to “define Zionism according to the facts, according to thousands of years of documented history,” Ali Siadatan, Tafsik’s director of education, told JNS.
Siadatan, of Iranian descent, gave a speech at the event.
“Throughout the world, a fictional and nefarious definition is provided that is conspiratorial and false, and then that is used to persecute Zionists,” he told JNS. “We just wanted to stand against that and set the record straight—that it’s not a nebulous idea. It’s a very well-defined idea with deep roots among Jews and Christians.”
The former Ottawa-area legislator Goldie Ghamari, a first-generation immigrant, told attendees at Mel Lastman Square that she isn’t Israeli. “I’m not Jewish. I’m Iranian, born in Iran,” she said. “I’m also a proud Zionist.”
“Do not let terrorists define your identity. You are indigenous to Israel. That is your birthright,” she said. “The silver lining of the genocidal massacre of Oct. 7 was that it brought our societies, our cultures and our civilizations together.”
Toronto Zionist Council president Guidy Mamann, activist Esther Mordechai, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem national executive director Donna Holbrook, activist Michelle Factor and recent Venezuelan immigrant Alessa Polga, of Ladies of Liberty Alliance, also addressed attendees.
Salman Sima, a former Iranian political prisoner who spoke at the event, told JNS that both the mullahs in Tehran and terror supporters in the West manipulate language.
“The jihadists in Canada are using the same tactic that the Islamic regime in Iran has been using for over 46 years,” he said. “The Islamic regime covers antisemitism under the banner of anti-Zionism. This playing with words is so familiar for Iranians.”
“In 1979, the unity between leftists and Islamists ruined my beautiful homeland, Iran. The same forces of evil are working here against our Canadian values,” Sima said. “We don’t want jihad. We don’t want Sharia law.”
Having lost his freedom once in Iran, Sima told JNS that he doesn’t want to lose it again in Canada.
“For the sake of freedom, we need to fight together against antisemitism,” he said. “We cannot rely on the government. The rally was for the people. It was not for politicians that just do the talking.”
John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, which is part of the U.S. Military Academy, sent a note to Epstein to read at the event.
“I’m not Jewish, but I am a champion of truth. And the truth is this. Anti-Zionism is Jew-hatred,” Spencer stated in the note. “I’ve seen the double standards, the demonization and the effort to strip Israel of its right to exist. That’s not justice.”
“That’s antisemitism, repackaged,” he added.
Holbrook, of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told JNS that she and her organization sought to show “unconditional Christian support for Israel and the Jewish community.” They also aimed to “clearly state what Zionism is,” she said.
Dave Gordon
Source: https://www.jns.org/our-haters-should-not-get-to-define-us-rally-stating-anti-zionism-is-jew-hatred-draws-hundreds-in-toronto/
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