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Azriel Kerbel
Azriel Kerbel’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT)
Azriel Kerbel participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at UofT in May 2024 as part of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). He also promoted violence and joined in multiple anti-Israel protests in 2023 and 2024 in Toronto and Montreal.
On May 2, 2024, Kerbel participated [slide 1; 00:00:03] in the pro-Hamas encampment at UofT, describing the mood “as very electric and revolutionary.”
In a video on the @toronto_communist Instagram page, Kerbel said [slide 1; 00:00:23]: “What’s required next is to expand the struggle to the workplace within the community and fight the bosses and the imperialists to free Palestine.”
The Instagram post said: “Comrades in Toronto have formed a contingent at the UofT Encampments in solidarity with Palestine Solidarity with the students and the workers, globalize the intifada! / All out to U of T, mobilize!”
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
UofT is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
On May 2, 2024, activists from the UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) group “stormed down” [00:00:24] the fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas encampment, which they called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.”
That day, Occupy UofT called on “community members to…help us defend our encampment” at an emergency rally in the evening. Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. The activists also chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
One speaker, Nabil Jalbout, said [00:09:02]: “...we are not fighting for peace, we are fighting for liberation, because ‘peace’ is a white man's word.” Another speaker, Ahmad Jarrar Hajahmad, claimed [00:05:52]: “All these Israeli and Zionist entities fill all these politicians with money in their pockets…we already know who runs this system…”
Signs displayed at the encampment said: “LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA” and “LIBERATION FOR ALL REQUIRES RESISTANCE FROM ALL.”
On May 4, 2024, anti-Israel protesters at the encampment assaulted a Jewish man, punching him in the stomach as they forcibly took his Israeli flag. The attackers told the man [00:01:02]: “God bless the armed resistance,” and: “Go back to Europe!” They also reportedly called him “a “dirty Jew.”
Protesters “occupied” [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT’s warning they were trespassing. The group said they would not leave until UofT divested from companies that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine” and terminated partnerships with Israeli academic institutions.
Following the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle - - became a Hamas symbol. This symbol appeared on large signs at the encampment multiple times. Erin Mackey, one of the primary organizers, is openly pro-Hamas, having used the symbol in her activism. In addition, pro-Hamas marches that began in other parts of the city concluded at the encampment.
On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at the request of UofT’s Governing Council, requiring students to clear the encampment. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote [slides 5-6]: “We are just getting started…come fall, every incoming student will hear our message loud and clear…Whatever institution you have access to and influence over - you need to take this campaign there!” The statement concluded: “Long live the intifada.”
The encampment was one of over 140 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.
Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians. As of May 26, 2024, 125 hostages remained in Hamas captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
On October 19, 2023, following Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, Kerbel participated in an anti-Israel protest, screaming with the crowd while holding up an issue of the RCP publication titled: “Fightback.” On the cover was the Communist hammer-and-sickle and text that said: “DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM! / INTIFADA! REVOLUTION!”
On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. War crimes included mass rape and torture. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
On October 25, 2023, Kerbel participated [slide 4] in another anti-Israel walkout and sit-in protest at TMU organized by Socialist Fightback TMU. Kerbel appeared [slide 4] wearing a jean jacket, standing behind the speaker.
The protest was reportedly in response to the pro-terror group Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) “call for a national day of student walk out.”
During the protest, anti-Israel activists held [slide 1] a banner that read: “INTIFADA UNTIL VICTORY. WORKERS UNITE AGAINST IMPERIALISM.”
Azriel Kerbel is a supporter [00:00:20] of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of May 2024, Kerbel was a member of the RCP [slide 1; 00:00:01] and an activist with the RCP cell at the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) since at least August 2022 [slide 1]. TMU is formerly known as Ryerson University.
As of August 2024, Kerbel’s LinkedIn profile said he had been studying for a degree at TMU, slated to graduate in 2025. As of April 18, 2023, Azriel was reportedly a “second-year media production student” at TMU.
As of August 2024, Kerbel’s LinkedIn said he had been working as a part-time videographer and editor at Mabrook Entertainment since October 2023, and that he was located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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