Today in Toronto, in front of the Israeli consulate, there was an Anti-Israel rally, with a distinct pro-Hezbollah theme. The pictures below tell the story. Disclosure: a couple are photoshopped, only to blur the faces of children in the crowd.
But before I get to the photos, I have to say that I am continually amazed at the protestors of the Left. Maybe I am too naive, maybe too new to attending protests, or think too straight that I can’t get my mind around them, but, they seem so much like contradictions in action.

It is a supposed peace rally. The signs posted around the city say that they are getting together to “Stop Israel Bombing Lebanon.” There were numerous speakers throughout the rally, all representing supposed disenfranchised or displaced groups. All wanting Israel to stop killing Lebanese innocents. (Never a mention of the constant bombardment of Northern Israel, indiscriminately, by Hezbollah - but whatever). But then, about half way through the rally, the guy who seemed like the rally leader got up as said, and I quote from the best of my memory:

I have good news for all of you. Today, Hezbollah has killed 21 Israeli troops!

Cheers and applause go up from the crowd.

He continues:

And yesterday, Hezbollah killed 25 Israeli soldiers!

Even more cheers and applause.

I was astounded. And I realized, while that crowd is mixed and complicated, and I am sure not everyone was happy about that (I am trying to be optimistic, and, see my note after the photos), what this crowd wanted was not peace between Lebanon and Israel. What this crowd wanted was not the bombs to stop. This crowd did not want ceasefire (which had already been worked out by today). This crowd wanted Israel, among others, but especially Israel, to be eliminated. I mean, why else would a crowd cheer…cheer and applaud and laugh and rejoice…when 46 people die?

So, here’s the pictures. I should say that, while I support Israel in the conflict, I wandered between the groups of protestors in order to take photos, documenting the event.

Of course, again Che has to make an appearance:

A couple of shots of the crowd. Here you see the counter-protest in the foreground, with the anti-Israel group behind. The police between did a good job of keeping the groups apart…though it was only the anti-Israel crowd that tried to cross the line.

The pro-Israel crowd - the guy with the bullhorn lead the chants on this side:

Two small boys with signs of Nasrallah. This was the most discouraging part of the day for me:

Another young child with a portrait of Nasrallah, on a parent’s shoulders:

What it seems they want:

Um, yeah, unless its staged or photoshopped:

Police had to continually ask (read: tell, sometimes quite forcefully), the anti-Israel crowd to get back to their place. They kept antagonizing the pro-Israel group.

At this point is when the leader of the rally called out about the dead Israeli soldiers, and I thought this sign ironic:

As the crowd dispersed for the march, this guy felt it necessary to come back to the pro-Israel group for some antagonism. He’s flipping them off now:

On to the march, with a load of Hezbollah flags, Nasrallah portraits, and some self-proclaimed Hezbollah guerillas:

Is it just me, or is their openess disturbing?:

The crowd, large (probably near 1000), and chanting different things in different parts of the line up, at one point was clearly shouting: “Nasrallah is not a killer.”

As interesting as it was, all in all the experience was quite discouraging for me. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. They commit War Crimes against their own people by hiding among civilians, placing their rockets in civilian populated areas, and they indiscriminately fire rockets at civilian centers in Northern Israel, deliberately trying to kill civilians. This particular group cheered at the news that Israeli soldiers had been killed by Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, a violent organization, and this group was openly aligning itself with that terrorist organization. This is something that I think we should be aware of in North America. Worried about “home-grown terror,” start by looking at these photographs.

There were two redeeming aspects of the rally for me though. First, the counter-protest, outnumbered as they were, stood for their beliefs, and challenged the much larger anti-Israel crowd. It was encouraging - encouraging that not everyone’s thought processes are screwed up.

Secondly, a woman approached me from the anti-Israel crowd. She explained to me how she thought that the rally was misguided. When I asked which rally, she said that at least with the pro-Israeli crowd, you knew what they stood for. But with the larger crowd, it was so mixed up, and, according to her, misguided. She told me that she and her party had arrived early and unfurled her banner, which decried both the actions of Israel, and the terrorism of Hezbollah. She said, “My sign says: stop Israeli agggression, stop Hezbollah’s terrorism.” Now, whatever you think of her opinion on “Israeli agression,” it is a more balanced view than the majority of people in that anti-Israeli crowd. She said that when they took out their banner, they were asked by the rally organizers to put it away, as, they were trying to focus on Lebanon, not Hezbollah. She protested, saying that they then should make sure that all of those Hezbollah flags, and Nasrallah portraits were also put away. They said that they would. Obviously they did not. She was very discouraged by the announcement of the dead Israeli soldiers. Why was this encouraging for me? Because she, with a semi-balanced point of view (at least she really was for peace…or seemed to be), recognized Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and said to me that those people were ignorant and mixed up…and that it saddened her. It gave me a little bit of hope.

But, then again, maybe I am just a bit naive.

More on the Toronto rally at Girl on the Right and there are more photos here.

Other anti-Israel events are covered at Hot Air and Zombietime.

technorati tags : Hezbollah Lebanon Israel Anti+Israel Pro+Hezbollah Protest Terrorism

Update: After reading some of the literature I was given at the rally yesterday, and especially the literature from woman I spoke of in the paragraph above (which is from “The Third Camp: Against US Militarism and Islamic Terrorism” and “The Worker-Communist Party of Iran”), I have to say that I definately disagree with her/their views on Israel. However, I am still encouraged that her literature takes a stance against what it calls: “Islamic terrorism;” and “political Islam.” Interesting, to say the least.

Posted by casey on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 1:46 am.