Toronto police open hate-crime investigation after ArtHouseTO shares 'Death to the IDF!' image

Yahoo

24-07-2025

The Toronto police have opened a hate-crime investigation into an art group after they shared a graphic on Instagram proclaiming: 'Death, Death to the IDF!'
The refrain, chanted by British rap duo Bob Vylan during a performance at the Glastonbury Festival in June, was reshared on the social media account of ArtHouseTO alongside a cartoon of a skeleton wearing a military helmet with the Israeli flag and a bullet hole dripping with blood.
'Hell yeah! From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free, will be, Inshallah, it will be free!' says the original post, which was published on June 29 by @ryanazak and then reshared by ArtHouseTO.
On June 30, Facts Matter, an antisemitism watchdog group, reported the matter to the Toronto Police Service (TPS). On July 16, Facts Matter issued a press release announcing a hate-crime investigation had been opened. TPS independently verified the development this week, telling National Post in a brief written statement 'that the Hate Crime Unit is investigating' the matter.
'We applaud the Toronto Police for acting swiftly and taking this matter seriously,' Canadian journalist and Facts Matter founder Warren Kinsella said in the press release. 'Hate has no place in Toronto, and no amount of artistic expression can disguise the promotion of violence and bigotry.'
ArtHouseTO co-creator Geoff Doner told the Post in an email on Tuesday that the artwork 'was another artist's (not our work) creative rendering of a chant heard at Glastonbury Festival, artwork we felt culturally relevant at the time.
'Because we take responses to our content seriously, we chose to take down the artwork as it was deemed offensive by some,' Doner said.
Although the graphic has been deleted, ArtHouseTO has left several messages of support for the statement on their Instagram feed. On July 2, the communal art group reposted another message defending Bob Vylan's call. 'Chanting 'Death, Death to the IDF' is a morally required rallying cry against a genocidal army that continues to mass murder, starve, torture, rape, displace and maim Palestinians at an unprecedented rate,' reads the post from @jewssaynotogenocide.
Two days later, ArtHouseTO reposted a social media message from an Australian commentator bemoaning how 'people opposing genocide are called hateful Nazis, where genocidal soldiers are a protected group and chanting for their death is a hate crime.'
Other controversial posts ArtHouseTO has reportedly reshared on Instagram include one from @cakes_stencils, which shows a cartoon stick figure throwing the flag of Israel in the garbage above the caption: 'Zionism will be thrown in same garbage dump of history of exploitative and racist ethno-nationalist ideologies,' listing white supremacy, Nazism and Apartheid South Africa.
Doner called Facts Matter's police report a form of 'harassment (which) has made it unsafe for my family and for my neighbours.'
'We were never contacted directly or invited for dialogue by anyone in regards to hearing our perspective and have since been subjected to doxxing and harassment online and in person at our Cultural Hub,' he said, adding that he has also 'initiated a police investigation into the individuals harassing us online and in person at our Cultural Hub.'
Corey Herscu, a senior advisor with Facts Matter, expressed no interest in speaking with ArtHouseTO.
'As our name implies, we only deal in facts. And the fact is that group posted, 'Death to the IDF.' They are the author of their own misfortune,' he told the Post in a written statement.
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