My latest: hate on tape

It’s the tale – the tell – of the tape.

You’d think after Rodney King, the anti-Israel cabal would know: everyone carries a camera and a camcorder in their pocket, these days. And, if you do something bad – cursing at an elderly Jewish woman, say, or vandalizing a sign for a Jewish religious group, or peering through the windows at a Zionist writer’s home – you’re likelier to be caught than in 1990.

In the very next year, 1991, Rodney King was nearly beaten to death by four Los Angeles police officers, at gunpoint, during a traffic stop. Someone videotaped the beating, which put King in the hospital for days. The four officers were charged with multiple offences because of the tape, then acquitted by a jury without a single black person on it. Riots started, and dozens of people died in the aftermath.

So, videotape evidence of hateful acts have become pretty important since Rodney King.

Ask Soheil Homayed and Hussein Salame, of the Canadian sales firm YESA, for example. A few days ago, these two hulking men showed up at a pro-Israel rally outside the big shopping mall in Belleville, Ont. They started to curse at an elderly Jewish woman, who looked to be about 90 pounds soaking wet. Here’s what they said to her, while someone else recorded the exchange off to the side.

Homayed, holding up his phone and apparently filming the woman, sneers at her: “You support genocide!” Salame, standing beside him in a YESA hoodie and sunglasses, repeats the allegation, then says: “You stand for murder!”

Both yell “F— Israel” a few times, and someone, possibly another person, seems to tell the Jewish woman to “go back to Israel.”

The elderly Jewish woman is completely unfazed by Homayed and Salame, who tower over her.

“We’re not bothering you! Go over there,” she says, pointing at a group of pro-Palestinian protesters who have set up down the block.

Homayed and Salame curse at her some more and then slouch away.

Since they were wearing YESA insignia and employed there, we contacted the company.

“Both of these gentlemen received corrective and disciplinary actions of a serious nature,” a spokesperson said, refusing to say what the “serious nature” discipline was.

She wouldn’t say if they had been dismissed, either, although photos of the two men are (for now) not found on the YESA website. Asked about the apparent “go back to Israel” comment in emails, Homayed did not respond.

Another incident was also caught on tape. on Monday.

Just 24 hours after 50,000 Jews and allies marched up Bathurst St. in Toronto for the UJA’s Walk With Israel, two masked men appeared on Bathurst. One was holding a Palestinian flag. As cars and trucks go by, they commenced vandalizing a sign promoting a pro-Israel event hosted by the Jewish Charity Chabad Ontario.

A resident happened to be at the corner of Bathurst St. and Wilson Ave. and started filming. In the resulting video, the pair can be seen crossing out the word “Israel” with black marker and drawing an inverted red triangle below it, along with the words, “Free Gaza.”

Why the red triangle? Because it’s a symbol of Hamas. Hamas use the red triangle to identify Jews who have been marked for a targeted killing.

So, one day after 50,000 Jews celebrated being together, anti-Israel types show up to literally promote assassination of Jews. In broad daylight.

Facts Matter, a group that opposes anti-Semitism (and which was founded, in part, by this writer), notified Chabad Ontario and the Toronto Police Service, who are now investigating.

Final example of video evidence, closer to home: while I was at the Walk With Israel event, an unidentified man was caught on tape peering in windows at remote and unlisted rural home – and, later, moving in and out of the home of a “neighbor” who has publicly accused Israel of genocide. The OPP are investigating that, too.

Moral of the story, for Canadian Jews and their allies: always keep your phone close, and always be ready to capture some video.

You never know when it might come in handy.

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