A person attempted to set fire to a Vancouver synagogue Thursday evening without causing any injuries, a third anti-Semitic act of its kind in a few days in the country against a backdrop of tensions linked to the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
• Read also: Another Jewish school targeted by gunfire
• Read also: Toronto Jewish school targeted by shooting
“The fire did not cause significant property damage or injuries and was extinguished by members of the synagogue before it spread,” police in the western Canadian city said in a statement. Friday.
“This deliberate act of hatred was an attempt to intimidate the Jewish community. But we refuse to be intimidated or hide,” denounced the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.
The organization initially mentioned the throwing of an incendiary device at the synagogue to explain the start of the fire. But the first elements of the police show that it was a person who came to pour an flammable liquid before setting it on fire.
She also announced that she was strengthening her police presence in front of local Jewish institutions.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed X for “another act of despicable anti-Semitism.” “We cannot tolerate this hatred and these acts of violence. This is not the Canada we aspire to,” he added.
In less than a week, shots were also fired against two Jewish schools located in Toronto and Montreal, without causing any injuries either.
In November, a Jewish faith school in the French-speaking metropolis was also targeted twice in the same week by gunfire.
Canada’s special envoy for Holocaust remembrance and the fight against anti-Semitism, Deborah Lyons, said there was “no excuse for silence or inaction.”
“All levels of government must use the levers at their disposal to address this emergency. This means enforcing the law and not leaving hate incidents unaddressed,” she urged.
The Hamas attack, which sparked the war, led to the deaths of 1,189 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians killed on October 7, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures. Of the 252 people taken as hostages on October 7, 121 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 37 have died according to the Israeli army.
More than 36,280 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
