Confronting the Continuing Celebration of Evil
- Mark Sandler
- Feb 23
- 5 min read
Only a few weeks after Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre and kidnapping of innocents, I wrote an editorial entitled, “Double Standards and the Celebration of Barbarity.” Tragically, every word remains applicable 16 months later.
In that earlier editorial, I was distressed and angered by the celebration of evil on Canadian streets in the aftermath of October 7. Hundreds of people in Canada (and of course, so many thousands throughout the world) joined in glorifying and justifying Hamas’s brutalities. Nothing has changed.
We continue to witness those who cheer on Hamas, and its jihadist ideology. On Canadian streets, we have heard chants of “Sinwar, Sinwar, we have bullets for you,” a reference to supporting Yahya Sinwar, the architect of October 7, by violence. Or “by any means necessary.” Or “From Water to Water, Palestine Shall be Arab.” And then we have seen efforts to elevate Sinwar to martyrdom (along with other known terrorists) after their deaths.
This week, we watched helplessly the return of the bodily remains of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, nine-months old and four years old when abducted, and 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, along with the initial return of an unidentified body, rather than the children’s 32-year-old mother, Shiri.ⁱ
The return of these bodily remains was accompanied by a grotesque spectacle that even the morally compromised United Nations condemned as a violation of international law. This orchestrated event described the date each deceased Israeli, including baby Kfir, had been “arrested.” Hamas terrorists were cheered on by the assembled Gazans, followed by children’s dancing on the stage that moments before had displayed the coffins.
Over the past 16 months, I have heard anti-Israel extremists deny that Hamas attacked any civilians on October 7. Deny the documented atrocities against Israeli women and children. Accuse Israel of inventing these atrocities to divert attention from its own conduct. Or justify and excuse these war crimes. More important, these extremists are being invited to, and given voice, on Canadian campuses.
Take, as illustrative, an event formerly scheduled at the University of Ottawa and now scheduled at Carleton University under the title “Weaponing Feminism in the Service of Genocide.” It is being co-sponsored at Carleton by the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Independent Jewish Voices, and the Joint Chair in Women’s Studies. The event will feature Nada Elia, who claims that Israel invented claims of sexual assault on October 7 to justify genocide. She has a long history of making outrageous antisemitic claims, promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, advocating for terrorist organizations, and calling for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel, declaring she “doesn’t care” where they go.
Or, as reported by Hillel Ontario, reflect upon what Somar Abubaziza, the incoming President of York Federation of Students posted on social media, namely a photograph of one of three Israeli buses firebombed, accompanied by heart and fire emojis and a caption reading “A gift from Tulkarm (sic) camp.”
According to Times of Israel, “Hamas’s so-called Tulkarem Battalion lauded the explosions, [though] it stopped short of claiming the would-be attack.” Two undetonated devices were also discovered, and fortunately, buses had been emptied of passengers shortly before the detonations. The York Federation of Students previously issued a Statement of Solidarity for Palestine that legitimized October 7 as a strong act of resistance against “so-called Israel.”
The capacity of humans to discount facts that undermine their world view appears to be limitless. The capacity of governments, politicians, and radicalized faculty members to create unsustainable moral equivalencies appears boundless. The willingness of media outlets, like the CBC, to ignore evidence that counters one-sided narratives appears endless.
Whatever your views on the Middle East conflict, however critical you may be of Israel, its leadership or conduct, however pro-Palestinian you describe yourself, how can you see Hamas as anything other than the personification of evil itself?
How else do you explain the kidnapping of a nine-month-old baby, a four-month-old child, the infirm and the elderly, including Holocaust survivors?
How else do you explain the kidnapping and likely murder of 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, an advocate (as was murdered Israeli-Canadian Vivian Silver) for Palestinian rights who transported Palestinian children to Israeli hospitals for medical treatment?
How else do you explain the rape of Israeli women on October 7 and during their captivity in Gaza? Or the murders of innocents in unspeakable ways? Or the bragging about killing Jews? Or the videotaping of abducted Israelis, including a terrorized Shiri Bibas, clutching her children?
You can’t explain it. These aren’t “one-offs”. These are who Hamas is. Hamas has no interest in Palestinian human rights or Palestinian self-determination, unless these are interpreted to mean the destruction of the State of Israel and all Jews who live in “occupied Palestine.” By any means necessary. From the river to the sea. Through global intifada. Indeed, they revel in increasing the number of Palestinian deaths through their use as human shields and by diverting humanitarian aid for Hamas's own terrorist war machine.
Sixteen months ago, I said that “it is time for Canadians to support its Jewish community in times of its greatest need. It is equally important to support those Palestinian and Muslim voices who reject violence but crave peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Some members of the Jewish community are so justifiably enraged by Hamas’s atrocities – already well known but brought into sharper focus this week – that they see no scope for dialogue for those who are sharply critical of Israel. I respectfully disagree.
But dialogue can only take place with those who reject the celebration of barbarity and violence, hatred, and discrimination. I have no interest in speaking with extremists who seek my destruction or the destruction of the State of Israel.
The malevolent should be prosecuted criminally, their facilitators should be exposed and subject to robust legal accountability, the merely ignorant should be educated, and those who seek a better path should be engaged in meaningful dialogue.
Respectful dialogue is taking place, although exceedingly difficult in today’s toxic environment, between Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Jewish and Israeli Canadians. Professor Randall Schnoor has facilitated one such important dialogue at York University, now spreading more broadly. ALCCA is deeply committed to fostering respectful dialogue across the country. Dialogue that extends to Hindu, Catholic, Indigenous and so many other community members represented in our coalition.
There will be no solution in the Middle East and certainly no peace at home here in Canada unless Canadians reject extremism, give no shelter to terrorists operating here or abroad, and engage in respectful dialogue with those who hold divergent views but have much in common.
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Endnotes
i) Shortly before publication, Shiri Bibas’s bodily remains were returned.
About the Author
Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.