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Montreal-area synagogue firebombed for the second time since October 2023
Congregation Beth Tikvah, in the West Island municipality of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, was hit by a firebomb early on Dec. 18, marking the second time this has happened since October 2023.
Police arrived on the scene around 3 a.m., responding to 911 calls, and found the remains of an incendiary device after putting out the fire outdoors with a fire extinguisher.
Arson investigators are at the site, which is also home to a Jewish day school and is nearby satellite offices of Federation CJA, also struck with minor damage.
There was no significant damage to the building apart from a broken door and window and smoke damage, according to Montreal police, who are examining local surveillance cameras. There are no suspects and no arrest have been made.
The synagogue and centre were also targeted by firebombs on Nov. 7, 2023, during the initial wave of antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks against Israel. Back then, when the adjacent community centre was also attacked, Mayor Valérie Plante famously condemned the “violent attack on a mosque” before her statement was corrected. Her office blamed a young, unexperienced staffer who posted on behalf of the mayor.
A swift reaction to a familiar crime
Beth Tikvah Cantor Henry Topas, who is also B’nai Brith Canada’s regional director for Quebec and Atlantic Canada, said in a statement, “It’s a terrifying reminder that Montreal is increasingly unsafe for Jewish people.” He called it the result of the failure of leaders at all levels to hold accountable “those responsible for the hate and violence that is infesting Canadian society. Specifically, Mayor Valerie Plante must act now to stop the exponential rise in hate and antisemitism which she has permitted to get out of control in Montreal.”
The attack, the B’nai Brith statement adds, is just the latest in a series of incidents targeting Jewish institutions across the country, “including an attempted arson in Vancouver.” In May, a fire was intentionally set on the steps of Congregation Schara Tzedeck in Vancouver while worshippers were inside.
On Wednesday morning, the Jewish Community Council of Montreal expressed grave concern and outrage. “This second attack on the same location is deeply disturbing and a stark reminder of the persistence of antisemitic hatred,” said executive director Rabbi Saul Emanuel. “This is not an isolated incident—it is a repeated assault on a cornerstone of our community that serves as a hub for education, faith, and social services. Such acts of violence cannot be ignored or minimized.” Emphasizing the need for enhanced security measures at Jewish institutions to ensure the community’s safety, Rabbi Emanuel said, “These repeated attacks are meant to instill fear, but our community remains resolute. We will not be intimidated.”
West Island resident Lissa Albert woke up to the news, telling The CJN, “We’ve seen this happen before,” enumerating the attacks over the last year. In April 2023, Israeli flags outside the Hebrew Foundation School were set on fire, the perpetrators filming themselves and posting it on social media.
She walked up to the synagogue on the morning she heard the news. “It felt like going to visit a shivah, to be with family. Yes, I’m sad. Yes, it’s emotional. But I’m also angry and determined. These attacks always include the school or community centre, so it’s coordinated, and they know exactly what they’re hitting—they’re trying to terrorize us because they want us to cower in fear. But they will fail, because all they’re doing is strengthening our resolve.”
Mount-Royal MP Anthony Housefather grew up in that neighbourhood and had his bar mitzvah at Beth Tikvah. “This is the second time that someone has attempted to firebomb it,” he told The CJN. “I expect the police to make every effort to quickly arrest anyone responsible and for all leaders to denounce this deplorable attack.”
Quebec Security Minister François Bonnardel posted on social media, “Once again, completely unacceptable actions have been taken against the Jewish community in Montreal as buildings were set on fire yesterday.”
Israel’s Consul-General Paul Hirschson posted that he was “saddened to wake in the early hours to learn antisemitism continues unabated in Montréal. Encouraged by Premier Legault’s and others’ condemnation. Montreal Jewry, 100,000 strong, is proud of its contribution to building this city.”
Just a year ago, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre stood at the site of Wednesday’s attack to light a menorah in solidarity with Montreal’s Jewish community. On Wednesday morning, Senator Leo Housakos posted, “Political leaders who have turned their backs on Jewish Canadians fail not just a community but the values they claim to uphold. Empty words won’t protect against antisemitism—action will. It’s time to stand up, or step aside.”
Albert agreed and said, “Do I hold Justin Trudeau partly responsible? Well yes, I do. There’s very little control or action other than the symbolic naming of emissaries and advisors on antisemitism, two of them who can’t get the job done.”
Federation CJA put out a statement late Wednesday morning saying the community “is again outraged and demanding justice and swift action after yet other cowardly acts of intimidation” noting there is damage to the exterior and interior of the buildings, but protective measures implemented by Federation CJA’s Community Security Network have ensured the damage was minimal.
“This is another cowardly act in the middle of the night to intimidate and harass the Jewish community,” said president and CEO Yair Szlak. “In the last 14 months, this is the SEVENTH instance where a Jewish institution has been targeted in Montreal and the SECOND time these institutions are targeted.
“Let’s not mince words: this is a stark reminder of what happens when politicians fail to call out antisemitism and prevent the escalation of violence on our streets. We call on Mayor Plante to act immediately to crack down on the unacceptable rise in antisemitism in Montreal. Our community is outraged and so should all Quebec citizens. We expect the authorities to treat this incident with the highest level of care and consider all likely motives. Enough is enough.”
Dollard-des-Ormeaux mayor Alex Bottausci did just that early Wednesday, stating “this cowardly act of antisemitism will not be tolerated. The safety of our residents is our top priority and any threat to stability and peace will be dealt with immediately.”
He acknowledged it is a mayor’s duty to ensure security of all residents, pledging to “all the members of the Jewish community feeling threatened by this heinous act, I want to assure you that an investigation is currently underway and that our city is invested in the safety of our community and is working closely with the SPVM and our municipal patrol to ensure your security.”
Federation’s Community Security Network is on site and coordinating with the SPVM, who will increase their presence and visibility around Jewish institutions in the coming days. Federation CJA says there is no indication of a specific threat to the community at this time.
Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar posted on social media: “I strongly condemn the antisemitic attack on Montréal’s Beit Tikvah synagogue. This surge in antisemitism must not be tolerated! This is the second(!) act of arson on Beit Tikvah – the first synagogue attacked after October 7th. I call on the Canadian authorities to take the strongest possible stance against antisemitism!”
Others took issue with the lack of any comment by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Pierrefonds-Dollard MP Sameer Zuberi by press time, some eight hours after the attack.
Zuberi did send a tweet at 12:05 p.m.: “Places of worship are sanctuaries. Yet, for the second time, a synagogue in Dollard has been targeted by arson. Antisemitism has no place in our community. Police must act to bring those responsible to justice. None should live in fear because of their faith.”
Past-president of the synagogue Jamie Goren laid part of the blame at the feet of his MP who was involved in the anti-Israel movement at Concordia University in the past, including the 2002 riot that blocked then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking at Concordia. Zuberi has been “just sitting on his hands and ignoring his own constituents’ sense of insecurity and fear. It’s the result of a slow and steady erosion of Canadian values.”
Another resident who lives walking distance from the local Jewish community campus told The CJN, “Life in the West Island is becoming more complicated. There is no other motive than to terrorize and make Jews uncomfortable. Kids go to school there. Where is the local MP?”
The post Montreal-area synagogue firebombed for the second time since October 2023 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.