What I saw and what they saw
What happened at a rally to stand with Israel in Halifax on Sunday looked different depending which side of the fence you stood on.
This is a tale of two perspectives. One that has been weighing heavily on my mind since Sunday. One that I am not entirely sure what to make of.
I am going to recount events in reverse chronological order, because I feel that this is perhaps the best way to explain the cognitive dissonance I am currently struggling with.
On Monday morning I was scrolling Instagram as I waited for my computer to play its daily game of did-you-finally-die roulette. Among the first posts on my feed was one from the Halifax for Free Palestine account that I started following several weeks ago to know when and where protests would be taking place in order to could better avoid them. The post, a reel, was video footage of Halifax police preventing anti-Israel protestors from crossing the fence into Victoria Park on Sunday afternoon. You can hear the protestors shouting “Free, free Palestine!” in the background. The text across the video asked Halifax police who they are protecting.
My first thought was: me. On Sunday afternoon, Halifax police were protecting me.
Throughout the day I saw more posts from that account and other similar local accounts calling out police and criticizing those who had gathered in Victoria Park. I read comments praising the anti-Israel protestors for standing up to the “Zios”.
Just before noon on Sunday, wearing my IDF t-shirt, Ariel Tidhar Magen David, and Shlomit Ofir heart and tzedek, tzedek, tirdof bracelets, my dog and I walked to Victoria Park to join a crowd of friendly faces from both synagogues, AEPi, and “atheist goyim for Israel” at Victoria Park in downtown Halifax to stand in solidarity with Israel. Upon arriving, someone passed me an Israeli flag, which I tied to my dog’s harness - an act that attracted more attention than I anticipated. Together we stood and listened as members of the community spoke about the plight of the hostages, prayed for their welfare and that of the state of Israel, and sang Hatikvah. All to the ambient noise of anti-Israel protestors who did not remain on the opposite side of the road has they had been directed, shouting “There is only one solution; Intifada revolution!” - the slogan that veers just a tad too close another type of solution previously applied to the Jewish community for my personal comfort.
The scheduled programming of the rally lasted approximately one hour. During that time, the anti-Israel protestors had encircled the park, effectively trapping us inside (and literally doing so when a child was directed to hold her Palestinian flag across the line they had formed and tell a member of our cohort she was not allowed to pass). So we stayed. We sang along to Eden Golan’s Eurovision song “Hurricane” and blasted the bad Israeli pop music that immediately recalled the hours seated on my Birthright bus driving across Israel nine years ago. We took turns retrieving teenagers and younger undergraduate students who began walking over to engage with the counter-protestors, telling them “it’s not worth it”.
During this time, the police continued to hold back the Anti-Israel protestors and once things were sufficiently calmed, came over to recommend that we depart from the area. When we expressed a desire to not leave before they did, we were soberly told that after weeks of police observing the Anti-Israel protests that take place each Saturday in the same location, this would not happen, and the only way for police to remove them would be for us to depart first. So we did.
We, two friends, one of the rabbis, my dog, and I, meandered away from Victoria Park, doing our best to avoid taking a direct route. I put my dog’s flag in my backpack and zipped my raincoat over my shirt. The only remaining possible identification that we were a group of Jews walking was the rabbi’s kippah. This was sufficient. Some 10 minutes into our walk, a Palestinian flag was shoved out a car window as it came upon us from behind and the passengers shouted an indecipherable slogan about Palestine. I want to tell myself that it was because they recognized us from the park, but given that we were standing well into the centre of the crowd, and not near the counter-protestors, I’m not sure.
On Saturday night, I was scrolling Instagram when I came upon a post from the Halifax for Free Palestine account calling on individuals to come out to engage in a counter-protest against the rally for Israel that would be taking place the next day in Victoria Park. This was to be in addition to their regular weekly protest that had taken place earlier that day. I expected that we would likely encounter a counter-demonstration when the Victoria Park gathering was first shared with members of the Synagogue. I was surprised to witness such a blatant call out to antagonize us on social media.
What I saw on Sunday, and what those who posted the videos to Instagram from the other side of the police line saw was very different. And this is what I struggle with. I find a great deal of comfort in the ability to tell myself that I know the events of October 7 and what I am witnessing with the global rise of Antisemitism are real because, in addition to the overwhelming evidence of these things, I am not someone who questions the nature of their reality. And my reality is that these things are very true. What I saw online on Monday was the contortion of a situation to present a very different reality from the one I experienced.
Dr. Tal Becker, who gave submissions for Israel before the International Court of Justice, in a recent talk for the Streicker Centre, talked about how arriving at the Hague to a collection of pro-Palestinian protestors, he felt as though he was living in a reality that for some reason, no one else was seeing. This is the reality that nearly nine months ago, Hamas committed a horrendous act of terror, pulling Israel into a war it did not want to be in. This is the reality of what urban warfare has always looked like, despite many of us never having experienced it in our lifetimes, and certainly not in an age of smartphones and social media. This is the reality that since 2006, a terrorist organization has been the controlling authority in Gaza and has spent that time spreading hatred and depriving the Palestinian people of their basic needs. It is the reality that in living memory of the Holocaust, we are seeing the justification of attacks on Jewish spaces, including schools and synagogues, and Jewish people, as part of supporting Palestinian resistance.
We, members of the Halifax Jewish community and our allies, were not victims on Sunday. I am grateful to members of Halifax police for ensuring that our event went smoothly and minimizing the interruptions to the greatest extent possible. It is exceptionally frustrating to be confronted by a mob who came out with the express purpose of making us feel unsafe in our city. It is disheartening to see those who believe they are on the side of progress chant for what I can only describe as the opposite of peace.
I very much want to believe that a rational person viewing the videos I saw posted by Anti-Israel protestors after the events of Sunday will see police keeping us safe, or will at the very least ask themselves whether there is more to the story than what is being shown on camera.
Note: I know I normally put these at the start. And I’ll be frank, it feels a little strange to put one at the end, but since we are telling stories out of order today, perhaps it’s on theme. I have specifically chosen not to hyperlink the social media posts I am referring to. This is for two reasons. The first is that, as Sacha Baron Cohen so perfectly phrased it in his 2019 speech for the ADL, I believe in freedom of speech, not freedom of reach. The second, is more practical: these were feed posts so until they are specifically taken down, they remain online (which is the case at the time of publication), and I believe that I have provided sufficient information for anyone wishing to see the videos to which I am referring, to find them on Instagram.
Sadie, it pained me deeply to read of this happening in my idyllic childhood hometown. Halifax of the 60's was such a beautiful place. In September 22 I went especially to visit, after 53 years and walked down memory lane, enjoying every precious moment there. visited my old school ,the shul (Beth Israel) and apartment, So much has remained the same, so much of Halifax remains within my heart and soul, even though I have lived very far away for so long. People I met were so kind and welcoming. I cannot imagine that 'toxic waste' that has piled up there over time, to contaminate the city. Don't let them get away with it ! 'Farewell to Nova Scotia', indeed. Stay strong and keep those thugs and bullies at bay. I'm afraid Canada is not Canada any more, either.