Mayor Olivia Chow says she’s been forced to remove a video she posted to social media in which she welcomed a Palestinian family to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, after they faced a barrage of online abuse.
In a post to Instagram on Monday, Chow criticized Israel over the deepening crisis in Gaza, saying she supports “the Canadian government’s recent condemnation” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “as the humanitarian disaster worsens.”
“Israel must allow Palestinians to access food, water and humanitarian aid. Famine should never be used as a weapon,” the mayor wrote in the post.
She added: “The violence must come to a permanent end, through a ceasefire and the release of hostages.”
The post originally included a video of her greeting a Palestinian family that fled Gaza, as they arrived at Pearson International Airport on Friday.
An updated message on the mayor’s Instagram account said her office took it down “due to abusive comments and safety concerns.” A spokesperson for Chow clarified the video was deleted Tuesday out of concern for the family, not because of threats against the mayor.
The mayor’s office didn’t quote specific posts, but the video remains online elsewhere and has attracted comments claiming the footage is evidence Gazans aren’t starving, despite international reporting to the contrary, and claiming with no evidence the family would pose a security threat to Canadians.
In a copy of the footage her office shared with the Star, the mayor is at city hall holding a video call with three women at the airport, as a group of children rummage through bags filled with toys and snacks at their feet.
“It is so wonderful to have you arriving to our great city,” Chow says. She tells the women: “It’s so wonderful to see children” and “we’re opening our arms and welcoming them.”
A person acting as interpreter responds, saying the women thank the mayor, but “their husbands who are just skin and bones are still stuck there (in Gaza), and their families aren’t complete without them.”
“Let them know I understand. We will do what we can to help them settle,” Chow replies.
The mayor’s Instagram post also included screenshots of a March 2024 opinion piece she wrote for the Star, in which she likened the suffering Gazans were facing with her own family’s struggle against starvation in China during the Second World War.
Chow’s post comes as global leaders express mounting alarm at the situation in Gaza. As of Tuesday more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the 21-month conflict with Israel, , and experts are warning of famine as starvation deaths rise in the territory of more than two million people.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney posted a statement to social media in which he called on Israel to stop controlling aid distribution in Gaza and allow desperately needed supplies into the strip. He wrote that the Israeli government had failed “to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster†in the enclave, where aid has been prevented from reaching “starving civilians.” He alleged the denial of aid was “a violation of international law.”
The Israeli government has denied it’s preventing aid from entering Gaza, and accused the United Nations of failing to deliver supplies.
In recent days, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have both said their countries will recognize a Palestinian state, in an effort to pressure Israel to end the conflict. Israel says plans to recognize a Palestinian state embolden Hamas.
Since it began nearly two years ago, Chow has faced criticism from all sides over her response to the Israel-Hamas conflict, and has at times acknowledged she needed to do better when addressing the issue that evokes such polarized reactions from ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½nians.
In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel in which the armed group killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages, the mayor condemned the “horrific attacks” on civilians. But she later apologized for a post she made as Israel began retaliatory airstrikes, which said it was important to “acknowledge Palestinian pain and severe loss of life at this time.”
Last fall, Israel’s supporters in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ slammed Chow for failing to appear at a vigil marking the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. She apologized and blamed her no-show on a miscommunication.
In October 2023, pro-Palestinian advocates were outraged when the mayor described a rally some were planning in Nathan Phillips Square as ””
Some of her supporters have also criticized her decision in May to back a version of a so-called “bubble zone” bylaw that limits protests around places of worship and other institutions. Some members of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s Jewish community say the law was necessary protection against antisemitism that has spiked since the conflict began, while critics charge it will limit free speech.
