Netanyahu burned in effigy in Montreal anti-Israel riot

At least four people have been arrested so far as mobs of masked demonstrators rampaged through the center of town.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In a pro-Palestinian riot Friday night in Montreal, a few hundred people vandalized businesses, set cars on fire and set off smoke bombs as they shouted against Israel and burned an effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The organizers for the Collective for Disinvestment for Palestine converged with an anti-NATO protest outside the city’s convention center, where 300 delegates from NATO countries were meeting on issues such as climate change and the Ukraine-Russia war.

They chanted slogans such as “Viva, viva Palestina,” carried anti-Israel banners in English, French and Arabic, and then many turned violent, damaging buildings with bricks, hammers and axes as they marched down a central street.

Nioh Berg, a Jewish Iranian monarchist, posted a video of a man with a bandanna around his lower face setting fire to a small effigy lying on the ground that had the words “Netanyahu to the Hague” written on its chest.

On Thursday, the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza, a claim completely rejected by Israelis across the political spectrum, except the Arab Israeli parties.

The Montreal police used loudspeakers on top of a van warning the crowd to leave, and then waded in with batons and pepper spray to disperse them when they did not heed the message.

They were sprayed with paint, as were journalists reporting from the scene and innocent passersby.

At least four people have been arrested so far, with charges ranging from vandalism to injuring a police officer, as one had to be taken for medical treatment.

The riot was roundly condemned by Canadian political leaders.

“The violent and hateful scenes we witnessed last night in the streets of Montreal, with attacks specifically targeting the Jewish community, are unacceptable,” Premier François Legault posted on to social media Saturday morning.

“Burning cars and ransacking windows is not a message, it is causing chaos. Such acts have no place in a peaceful society such as Quebec,” he added.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was attending a rock concert in Toronto as his home city was attacked, was criticized harshly by the Opposition.

Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre juxtaposed on X scenes of Trudeau dancing with the rioters smashing windows, writing, “We can’t go on like this. Trudeau is not worth the cost.”

“Complete lawlessness in Montreal as the Pro-Hamas terror mobs emboldened by the Trudeau Liberals” go on a “violent rampage and not a single word from our government,” Conservative co-deputy leader MP Melissa Lantsman commented separately over a video clip of masked men running down a city street, setting off red smoke flares and hitting a window with an axe.

Trudeau eventually condemned the “acts of antisemitism, intimidation and violence,” and called for the rioters to be “held accountable.”

The violence came one day after an anti-Israel mob briefly occupied a building in the city’s Concordia University during student strikes across Quebec to demand that their institutions divest from Israel.

Some wore Hamas symbols, flew Palestinian flags, used the Nazi salute, and one told a small group of Jewish counter-protestors that a “final solution” was on the way.

The two groups screamed at each other while being separated and protected by dozens of police officers.