“Rent-a-crowd” refers to a group of usually carefully organized people recruited to make some rally, protest or other public event appear more popular than it is. The “rent” part mocks the altruistic or heartfelt motivation of group members by declaring they’re renting their services mainly for the money. This practice has just been exposed by the Toronto Sun to describe the slogan-shouting and placard-wielding hordes of people demonstrating against Israel’s attempt to destroy the Hamas terrorist organization that carried out unspeakable horrors, blatant war crimes and crimes against humanity against Israeli civilians on Saturday, October 7 2023, a day that will live in Jewish infamy, when the country was invaded by several thousand Hamas terrorists and other Gaza citizens.The motive for the vicious and unprovoked murder of some 1,200 Israelis was crystal clear: a fanatical desire, rooted in Muslim religious beliefs and contrived grievances, both buttressed by fake history, to exterminate the Jews of Israel.This is no histrionic conjecture. As the 1988 Hamas Charter says:“The Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah and whose way of life is Islam, strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine the State of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf (Holy Possession) consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part or abandon it or any part of it. Palestine is an Islamic land. The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them.”Despite this well-known motive and its manifestation by 10 wars and countless other attacks against Israel since 1948, a country always defined as the aggressor by its many Middle Eastern and other enemies, including radicalized university students in the western world propagandized by a mind-numbingly simplistic binary distinction between oppressors and oppressed.The angst, real or feigned, of Palestinian and other Moslem peoples, aided and abetted by these beguiled students, sometimes even including a few self-hating Jewish ones, has been expressed by hundreds of marches, rallies and road blockades across the country.Since October 7 in Toronto alone, there have been an unprecedented 308 protests and demonstrations across the sprawling city resulting in the arrest of 54 people and the laying of 117 charges.Many observers have wondered how such large rallies and marches, some numbering in the thousands, could have been sustained for a cause public-opinion polls show most Canadians blame on the perfidy and genocidal intent of Hamas.An early November Mainstreet Research poll showed 75% of Canadians held Hamas (33%) or Iran (42%) responsible for the October 7 attack against Israel. Most Canadians (76%) classified Hamas as a terrorist organization and another 9% said it is a proxy for Iran. Just 8% considered Hamas to be freedom fighters. Overall, 71% of Canadians supported Canada calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas but 81% claimed a ceasefire must start with the return of hostages taken by Hamas.This poll is no outlier: an Aurora Strategy Global poll conducted in late October showed most Canadians (60%) agreed Israel was right to invade Gaza and remove the Hamas leadership. Three quarters (75%) of Canadians didn’t believe Hamas was justified in attacking Israel as part of their struggle for a Palestinian State; more than two-thirds (71%) believed Iran should be held accountable for the actions of Hamas against Israel; Canadians (57%) expressed their concern over the pro-Hamas protest taking place in Canada; almost half of Canadians (46%) felt that antisemitism is on the rise in Canada.So how does one account for the counter-narrative expressed by the scores of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protests since October 7?Apart from ethnic chauvinism and historically-rooted Jew hatred among Canadian Muslims, especially immigrants and their descendants from Gaza and the West Bank, together with the internalization of political propaganda expressed in hateful slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free (of all Jews)” among ill-informed but fanatic university students, a simple answer has now been revealed. “Follow the money.”Just as it is well-known Middle East terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi movement, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and dozens of others are lavishly funded by Shi’a Muslim countries such as Iran and Qatar, it is now clear such funding is also being given directly or indirectly to support the raucous marches and rallies that have become a “normal” part of the Canadian landscape.The “Canadian street” is now a homegrown version of the “Arab street.”According to Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella, “What many have suspected has now been confirmed by this newspaper and a few courageous Canadians: pro-Palestine — and, increasingly, pro-Hamas — protestors are being paid to protest. To block highways and roads. To intimidate and threaten Jews and non-Jews. To cause chaos.”This should not be surprising. In the past, most such demonstrations usually involved a handful of people waving homemade signs. That all changed after October 7. Now we see hundreds, sometimes thousands of protestors carrying huge and pricey factory-produced banners and other fancy signage. “They’ve got transportation and food and drink. And they’ve got organizers who wear uniforms and control the crowds. And who distribute the cash,” says Kinsella.Who is funding these protests?The Toronto Sun was told a Victoria BC organization was distributing thousands of dollars to anti-Israel protestors. The Plenty Collective, as it’s called, created a “Solidarity Fund” for Victoria-area “folks or groups” to pay for “costs related to supporting or organizing actions in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian people.” Translation: pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas protestors are being paid to block highways and roads and to harass Jews and their supporters.Ian Ward, a municipal councillor on Vancouver Island, together with local activist Charles Bodi, discovered the rent-a-crowd scheme. According to Ward, “They are highly organized. I’ve watched them. A van pulls up and they’ve got flags, signs and they’ve got organizers from the Plenty Collective wearing orange vests controlling the crowds. And they have control because they are holding the cash for the protestors.”Ward also claimed some of the money seems to be coming from overseas: “We don’t see them being this organized and this well-funded, without offshore money.” Offshore means Iran and Qatar, among other bad actors such as Russia and China.Victoria also happens to be home to Susan Kim, a city councillor and one of only two elected Canadian politicians to sign a November petition dismissing widespread evidence that Hamas terrorists committed mass-rape on October 7. The other signatory was Sarah Jama, an Ontario MPP who was expelled from the Ontario NDP after justifying the massacres as an act of “decolonization,” a libellous claim because Israel has never colonized any other country.According to Kinsella, Victoria BC is only the tip of the iceberg. “In the U.S., there is now confirmation that anti-Israel — and often antisemitic and violent — protestors are getting paid to protest,” he says.Two funders of attacks on the very existence of the State of Israel are a multi-millionaire tech mogul, Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans who have been bankrolling pro-Palestinian protests since last year. Their “People’s Forum” has organized many anti-Israel protests since October 7, including many attempts to “shut down” public and private sector offices. On November 24, they posted on Twitter ("X"): “Are you ready to disrupt business as usual? No celebrating in peace while genocide takes place!” claims Kinsella.What is the aim of these protests apart from trying to artificially inflate opposition to Israel’s valiant fight against Hamas?According to Councillor Ward: “They’re paying for protestors to try and lend credibility to their movement. October 7 was just stage one. They are really an attack on western democracy and western values. Our way of life is literally being challenged here. And we are in danger.”Hymie Rubenstein is editor of REAL Indigenous Report and a retired professor of anthropology at the University of Manitoba.
