Swastika drawn on poster of baby and other Hamas hostages in Toronto park

• Published date: 10 April 2024
• Author: MICHAEL STARR
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The black swastikas were mostly drawn on the faces of the hostages, which included the one-year-old and four-year-old Bibas children. The Toronto Police Service said that it was aware of the incident and that the posters had been taken down

Lyons told The Jerusalem Post that "seeing those posters was very shocking," and while in the past there had been posters ripped down, she hadn't seen graffiti of that nature in the area before. She decried putting the symbol associated with Nazi Germany on the faces of Jewish people who had been held hostage or killed by Hamas since the October 7 massacre.

"We need to stand together and call out antisemitism when we see it," said Lyons. "It's one thing to have an opinion about what's going on in the world, but it's another to do something so hateful and that causes fear."

Lyons explained that the park is full of many posters like the hostage posters, and that there is a high concentration of Jewish residents in the area.

Jewish Canadian organizations also condemned the antisemitic vandalism.

"Such vile and callous acts of antisemitism are not acceptable anywhere," said The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in a social media post on Tuesday. "This hate has to stop!"

Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said that it had notified the Toronto Police of the graffiti and called on Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to speak out about the incident.

"It takes an inhumane, hate-filled individual to vandalize the posters of kidnapped and murdered hostages, including children," FSWC said on X on Tuesday. "We are horrified to see this in our city."

Canadian Shaare Zedek Hospital Foundation national executive director Rafi Yablonsky, a friend of Lyon's, said on X on Tuesday that the vandalism represented "a new low for Toronto."

"I'm at loss for words. Who vandalizes posters of kidnapped and murdered people? Mayor Olivia Chow, your silence only encourages this hate...