Montreal is not what it used to be. During a visit to Canada’s second most-populous city earlier this year, one thing stood out to me – the huge volume of pro-Palestinian posters, on walls and shop windows, denouncing Israel’s war against Hamas. One read: ‘Manif de solidarité envers le peuple Palestinien (demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people).’ Another declared ‘Free Gaza Now’, alongside a cartoon protester wearing a red and white keffiyeh.
On the face of it, these posters made Montreal no different than any other big Western city, such as London or Berlin. What I didn’t understand at the time, however, is that Montreal also happens to be home to a 90,000-strong Jewish community, the second-largest in Canada. Remarkably, since the 7 October Hamas terror attack, the city has become one of the most dangerous places for Jews in North America.
According to an annual audit by B’nai Brith, incidents of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and violence in Canada increased by 109 per cent in 2023 when compared with 2022. More recently, Montreal police recorded a total of 191 ‘hate crimes and hate incidents’ against Jewish communities over the past nine months alone.
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