SJP at TMU Out for Jewish Blood

On November 5, 2025, members of a virulently anti-Israel mob in Toronto attacked a Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Students Supporting Israel (SSI) event featuring Israeli Defense Force (IDF) veterans.

The scene that ensued resulted in the IDF soldier taking charge despite being gashed with broken glass and attacked with a drill. He protected the students, expelling the pro-Hamas protesters and helping the police keep the rest of the baying crowd out of the building.

Injuries, hospitalizations, police involvement and arrests were the “order” of the day, ironically mirroring the title of the talk, “Triggered: Combat to Campus.”

Who Was Behind the Melee?

Hours before the event, TMU Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – in conjunction with University of Toronto Occupy for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto, Toronto 4 Palestine and Palestine Solidarity Collective at York University – posted a call for an “ALL OUT” emergency rally to shut down the event.

The groups stated, “WAR CRIMINALS WILL NEVER BE WELCOME IN OUR COMMUNITIES. SHOW UP NOW.”

It is unknown how the SJP group discovered the event’s location. After being rebuffed numerous times by the university to host the event on campus, SSI decided to hold the event off campus and make it private.

“For months, our group has jumped through administrative hoops trying to organize educational events. Each time, we were told to resubmit our applications, adjust our speaker lists, and revisit our security protocols. Each time, the university found a reason to say no. ‘Too controversial.’ ‘Too sensitive.’ ‘Too risky,’” related Liat Schwartz, president of SSI at TMU (formerly Ryerson University).

“TMU had denied our request to host the event on campus three times, citing vague safety concerns,” she said, noting, “This was in stark contrast to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which continues to host events freely and publicly on campus.”

“Out of an abundance of caution,” the group rented a private room off campus and invited only a few “trusted” attendees.

The Attack

The “emergency rally” was called for 1 p.m., a half an hour before the event was to begin. A threatening crowd of about 40 protesters, faces wrapped in kefiyyehs, amassed outside the venue and began chanting “Free Palestine,” “IDF off our campus,” and “Shame, shame IDF, shame, shame SSI.”

Five protesters entered the building and proceeded to the venue, a hypnosis clinic, where the organizers and IDF soldier Jonathan Karten were setting up. The protesters first entered the clinic’s waiting room, then two sneaked into the lecture room where the talk was to take place.

Sensing the threat, Karten jumped into action, securing the door to the lecture room to prevent more protesters from entering.

In a video of the event, Karten can be seen first trying to explain to the protesters in the lecture room, “It’s not a genocide. I was there … We are not war criminals. I went to defend civilians. I put my life on the line to differentiate between civilians and combatants.”

It was then that one of the pro-Hamas protesters, who police later identified as Qabil Ibrahim, used an instrument to smash the lecture room door, which was made mainly from glass. Karten can then be seen jumping through the door to chase the protesters out of the waiting room. Dripping in blood from gashes on both arms, Karten later reported that one of the protesters (later identified as Ibrahim) attacked him with a drill bit.

He then asked the venue's owner if he wanted the protesters, who had already trespassed on private property and vandalized it, removed. With the owner's approval and amid the screams of the protesters, Karten proceeded to push them out, first from the lecture room and then from the waiting room.

The crowd began to bang on the waiting room doors, which were also made from glass. Karten, meanwhile, piled up furniture as a barricade. To no avail, the owner pleaded with the protesters, saying, “I have nothing to do with this.”

By the time police arrived, a large crowd had amassed outside the building and was trying to force its way in. With an offer of help from Karten, police were able to secure the front door from the inside.

The officers outside were attacked as well. In the end, they chased the suspects, catching up with them at a nearby subway station and apprehending five females. Two males directly involved in the violence and vandalism escaped police and are still at large.

Karten, accompanied by SSI participants, was taken to a hospital for stitches and a tetanus shot. Protesters reportedly followed them to the medical facility.

Arrestees

A week after the event, police arrested Qabil Ibrahim, 26, of Toronto, charging him with forcible entry, criminal mischief, assault and being a member of an unlawful assembly while masked.

Seven months earlier, on April 4, 2025, Ibrahim was arrested for arson, possession of an incendiary material for arson and nuisance, after he climbed up on wooden scaffolding during an anti-Israel demonstration, lit an Israeli flag on fire, poured accelerant on the fire and left.

Five suspects were arrested the day of the event, all females between the ages of 21 and 29:

1. Nicole Baiton, 25, of Oakville, who was charged with forcible entry, being a member of an unlawful assembly and obstructing a peace officer
2. Kiana Alexis, 22, of Toronto, who was also charged with forcible entry, being a member of an unlawful assembly and obstructing a peace officer. Alexis is a babysitter by profession and describes herself as "caring, fun and responsible"
3. Fatimah Mugni, 23, of Toronto, who was charged with forcible entry and being a member of an unlawful assembly
4. Chelsea Wu, 29, of Toronto, who was charged with obstructing and assaulting a peace officer
5. Manal Kamran, 21, of Toronto, who was charged with obstructing a peace officer. Kamran graduated from the University of Toronto in 2025

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the event, Schwartz noted, “The right to protest is sacred in a democracy, but the right to protest ends where intimidation and violence begin. What happened on Nov. 5 was not an exchange of ideas, it was an attempt to suppress them.”

Schwartz said that “what hurts the most” is the “double standard exhibited by the university.”

“Jewish and Israeli students are told that inclusion and equity are core values of the university, until those values are inconvenient,” she added. “Then, silence. Bureaucratic distance. A quiet shrug of indifference. And when violence finally erupts, statements are drafted about ‘tensions on campus,’ as though both sides share equal blame. They do not.”

Meanwhile, the Middle East Eye, a pro-Palestinian news outlet and prominent purveyor of anti-Israel propaganda, cut the video to make Karten look like the aggressor and reframed the incident as “peaceful protesters … [who were] violently assaulted by an IDF soldier.”

SJP TMU similarly claimed victimhood, characterizing the melee as “CANADIAN STUDENTS ADVOCATING FOR PALESTINE ATTACKED BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS AND TPS.” The group declared, “This incident is yet another example of Canadian Institutions’ continued violence against Palestinian students and their allies.”