Protests Like This Should Never Be Ordinary
Normalization leads down a frightening, well-trodden path
Most mornings, I find myself listening to the John Moore Show. Recently, he was talking about how the protests just seem normal now. People just get on a different subway, or take a streetcar to get where they’re going.
And the thought occurred to me that these protests, the way they’ve evolved should never be normal. It shouldn’t be normal to march in the streets promising genocide (if you stop and consider the From the River To The Sea chant- that’s what that means) or using the inverted triangle- a symbol acknowledged as Hamas’ way of signaling who is next to be killed. It shouldn’t be normal to block access to a synagogue, or shoot bullets at a day school. And it shouldn’t be normal to vandalize Canadian businesses just for having a Jewish owner.
It shouldn’t be normal to make students feel uncomfortable on a university campus for simply being Jewish. It shouldn’t be normal for the facts to be so lost, and forgotten, that we just allow the protests to continue out-of-control without questioning it. Hamas attacked Israel, killed over a thousand people, kidnapped over 200, and raped women. These are the facts that form the understanding of how the latest conflict began. It shouldn’t be normal to forget them.
It shouldn’t be normal to spit in the face of elected officials, or spray paint the swastika on the outside of their office, and call for their deaths for supporting Jews, something that their party leaders are not doing. It shouldn’t be normal for the casualty number provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health (aka Hamas, since 2007), to be reported as gospel. And used in a largely symbolic motion by our Parliament.
Normalizing these things allows the lies to spread. It leads us down a well-worn path that ends in the now meaningless sentiment of Never Forget, because we’ve forgotten.