Matthew Taub: Eaton Centre mob wasn’t a protest. It was a warning

On Boxing Day, a pro-Palestinian mob took over the Eaton Centre, one of Canada’s busiest and most iconic public spaces, chanting for “intifada” in the heart of Toronto. Not on the fringes. Not quietly. In the middle of a mall filled with families, workers, tourists, and holiday shoppers.

This did not happen in a vacuum. And it cannot be dismissed as just another protest.

“Intifada” is not a vague political slogan. Many authorities, Jewish and otherwise, say it is a clear call for violent uprising. London’s Metropolitan Police arrested two people who called for intifada this month.

Historically, it has meant suicide bombings, stabbings, shootings, and the deliberate targeting of Jewish civilians. To chant it openly in Canada, just weeks after the mass murder of Jews at Bondi Beach, is not political expression.

It is intimidation. It is incitement. And it is a warning sign.

We need to stop pretending otherwise.

For more than two years, Canadian Jews have been told to politely “separate criticism of Israel from antisemitism.” That fiction ends when mobs openly chant for violent uprising in public spaces and Jews are instructed to remain calm, stay silent, and place their safety in the hands of institutions that have already failed them.

This is not about free speech. Free speech does not include calls for violence. It does not include glorifying mass murder. If a crowd took over a major Canadian mall chanting for violence against any other group, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, or LGBTQ Canadians, the response would be swift and unequivocal. Police intervention. Political condemnation. Media clarity.

But when Jews are the target, the reaction is hesitation, euphemism, and moral fog.

We are told it is complicated.

It is not.

This movement is not merely attempting to influence opinion about Israel. It is deliberately working to turn public sentiment against Jewish Canadians by association, casting Jews as foreign, illegitimate, colonial, or dangerous.

Once that narrative takes hold, the target does not stop with Jews.

History makes this painfully clear. Jews are never the final target. We are the first.

Today it is “Zionists.” Tomorrow, it will be Christians who refuse to renounce Israel. Then Hindus. Then, anyone who stands in the way of an ideological worldview that divides society into oppressors and enemies. The slogans themselves say this openly. “Globalize the intifada.” “By any means necessary.” “Resistance is justified.”

They are not hiding their intentions. We are choosing not to listen.

The Eaton Centre takeover matters not simply because it was disruptive, but because it crossed a critical line. The normalization of intimidation in shared public spaces. When mobs feel comfortable chanting for violent uprising in one of Canada’s most visible locations, with little consequence, it sends a message that this behaviour is tolerated.

That message is heard loudly.

It is heard by Jewish parents deciding whether it is safe for their children to wear a Star of David. By seniors who remember what it feels like when hatred stops being abstract. By students who now hesitate before identifying themselves on campus. And yes, it will eventually be heard by others who assume this has nothing to do with them.

Canada prides itself on pluralism, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence. But pluralism does not mean allowing one group to terrorize another in the name of activism. Tolerance does not mean tolerating calls for violence. And coexistence collapses when intimidation becomes normalized.

Calling this out is not anti-Palestinian. It is pro-Canadian. It is about defending a basic civic principle. Political disagreement does not grant permission to threaten your neighbours. You are welcome in Canada to advocate for the Palestinians. You are not welcome to call for attacks on Israelis and Jews.

Law enforcement must enforce existing laws against incitement and public intimidation consistently and without political hesitation. Media outlets must stop laundering extremist language through euphemisms that sanitize its meaning.

Most importantly, Canadians must understand that this is no longer a distant foreign conflict playing out symbolically here. It is a domestic issue now. When movements that glorify violence seize public spaces, the social contract begins to fracture.

We have seen this road before. We know how it starts.

The only question is whether we are willing to stop pretending we do not.

Because this was not just a protest.

It was a warning.

Matthew Taub is the founder of Unapologetically Jewish.