How a pro-Ukraine media outlet smeared pro-Palestine protest in Canada

Palestinians face a lot of hardships in their life. They have been driven away from their homes, barred from entering their ancestral farmlands and killed in the tens of thousands as evident in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

And online the censure and discrimination they face is apparent in the media coverage of pro-Palestine protests by Western countries. Take the example of what happened in Toronto, Canada, over the weekend.

A US-based real estate company had organised a marketing event at the Aish Hatorah synagogue in Thornhill exclusively for Jewish people who want to buy property in the occupied West Bank.

Israel has been building illegal settlements in the West Bank, which is part of occupied Palestinian lands. The Jewish settlements are internationally recognised as illegal - even by the United States.

So what happens when a group of protestors made up of Palestinians and their allies demonstrate against the illegal sale of occupied real estate?

Well, a pro-Israel news outlet paints the peaceful demonstration as an attack on the synogouge and its worshippers.

What happened?

Rabbi David Mivasair, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, who was part of the demonstration, said in a video on X, that he is “outside a synagogue where they’re selling properties built on land stolen from Palestinians.”

“There’s a real estate agency that’s come here today to Toronto to sell properties built on stolen Palestinian land. It’s kind of unbelievable that Canada permits this, it's clearly illegal. So we’re here today to call that out and God willing to make it stop” he adds.

Keller Williams (KW), the real estate company, reportedly wanted to sell land in the illegal Israeli settlement city Modi'in Illit, which is built on the land of five Palestinian villages: Ni'lin, Kharbata, Saffa, Bil'in and Dir Qadis.

But when demonstrators went there to voice their concern, Visegrád 24, an online news outlet, framed them as “Anti-Israel protesters” who had gathered to “harass Jews attending their religious service”.

Visegrád 24, which has nearly one million followers on X, reported the “breaking news” story without providing any context about the real estate event that was being protested against.

Faisal Kutty, a lawyer, legal academic and commentator tells TRT World that Visegrád 24’s coverage is concerning as it paints those opposing illegal activities “as antisemites and not people concerned about human rights and dignity for all.”

“The result of such illegal land sales is the continued theft of Palestinian land and their displacement. It has been a strategy of the occupiers to change the facts on the ground by taking over land and pushing out the indigenous population,” Kutty explains.

“(This coverage) perpetuates the dehumanisation of Palestinians and those supporting their fundamental right to existence and self-determination,” Kutty adds.

'Half truths and a bunch of lies'

Visegrád 24 was founded by Polish journalist Adam Starzynski and advertiser Stefan Thompson, who is associated with the pro-Donald Trump group MEGA, and also started The Jewish Chronicle, a London-based weekly Jewish newspaper.

Visegrad attracted a large audience due to its coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. It was included in a list of reliable sources of information related to the war created by researchers at the University of Tartu in Estonia.

But its current coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza, has been anything but reliable, as its stories almost always take a pro-Israel stance.

Visegrád 24 credits its report on the rally to the former Canadian Ambassador to Israel, Vivian Bercovici, who claimed “a masked female youth apparently assaulted a cop” and referred to the protesters as “a bunch of masked thugs”.

With its post on X, the news outlet shared a video, alleging that it shows harassment of Synagogue-goers. But the video depicts no harassment, instead showing a group of protesters waving flags and chanting “Free, Free Palestine''.

Many outraged social media users including Egyptian-American comedian and television host Bassem Youssef slammed Visegrád 24’s reporting as propaganda filled with “half truths and a bunch of lies”.

In a video shared by Kutty on X, on Monday, a man explains he is on his way to the real estate event and shows a flyer titled “Israel Real Estate Expo - Thornhill”.

Another video also showed how Jewish representatives from Aish Hatorah synagogue denied entry and verbally insulted a man wearing a hat that says ‘Palestine’ who tried to attend the event after completing the registration formalities.

Showing his confirmation email, he asks Jewish representatives and police and security officials where he can park his car to enter the event.

“Sir, are you Jewish?”

“No I’m not Jewish.”

“Then why are you here?”

When the man explains he has come to buy land, one Jewish representative says “not for you” and the other asks him: “then why are you wearing that (Palestine) hat?”

This was not the only event where homes in illegally built Jewish settlements are being openly marketed. In fact this week, several such real estate events are planned with one scheduled for Tuesday in Montreal at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and another again in Toronto but at The BAYT Synagogue.

X to the rescue

Kutty tells TRT World that “Canada has a duty to enforce and punish” these types of illegal sales.

“On the domestic front, we will have to explore legal options on how best to bring challenges to these illegal transactions. But that appears to be too much to ask and expect at this stage given that Canada itself is complicit in breaching its international law obligations,” he says.

“At the international level we need the global community of nations to put an end to settler colonialism,” Kutty says.

In response to the outrage at Visegrád 24’s reporting, the social media platform X added a “community note” under the post that provided the correct context for the protest:

“Readers added context: The synagogue is hosting a real estate sales event selling land in the West Bank. Only Jews are permitted to buy, in violation of US anti-discrimination laws and UN rulings that is what's being protested. No one is being targeted for their religion.”

The community note also included a link to some tweets including one of a video of Rich Siegel, 25-year Jewish home owner in Teaneck, New Jersey, who voices concern for an Israeli real estate event scheduled on March 10.

“That event violates both domestic law and international law. It violates domestic law because we had a civil rights act in 1965 and a fair housing act in 1968. We don’t allow real estate events to be for Whites only, for Jews only, or anybody only,” Siegel says.

Siegel says the event violates international law because homes from three illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank are going to be available for sale.

“Now as Jews we don’t get to fly under the radar and break the law and hide it in a synagogue,” Siegel says.