Organizer of the Windsor4Palestine protests says the group was unaware that Victoria Boulevard was a predominately Jewish neighbourhood when they planned their New Year's Eve march.
After the march, that started on Dougall Avenue and travelled around the block down Victoria, the Windsor Jewish Federation issued a statement saying they believe the march was an attempt to intimidate the local Jewish community.
"This South Windsor neighbourhood is historically known for its significant Jewish population, and we believe the choice of this route was deliberate. Similarly, in Toronto, pro-Palestinian protesters recently blockaded the Avenue Road Bridge, located near numerous synagogues and a hub of kosher bakeries. Michael Levitt, CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, commented on the Toronto blockade in a heavily-Jewish residential area, stating, 'The targeting of the Avenue Road overpass in north Toronto by the anti-Israel mob is far from random,' and described it as an 'attempt to intimidate the local Jewish community.' This statement is equally applicable to the situation in South Windsor," reads the statement from the Windsor Jewish Federation.
"It was not intentional. The police were aware of the route beforehand and if the police would have known beforehand this was their area they would have told us to switch it up because the are not going to put any community member in jeopardy or feeling threatened in any way and we are not for that either," said Rasha Zaid, a protest organizer.
Zaid said calling the group a "mob" is not a fair representation of the demonstration.
"There has not been a single radical action done by the protesters in Windsor. We haven't had radical actions from our protesters at all so insinuating that this is a comparison to another protest that actually made a lot of chaos in Toronto is an unfair comparison," said Zaid.
The Windsor4Palestine group has been organizing weekly demonstrations throughout Windsor since October 7, 2023.
