A past anti-Israel protest in London. Photo: Claudia Gabriela Marques Vieira via Wikimedia Commons.

The lives of a Canadian Jewish kosher store owner and his family were threatened following an anti-Israel protest outside Jewish-owned businesses in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill.

“Shabbat Shalom b*tches,” the protestors shouted while waving Palestinian flags last Friday, which was also Canada Day.

During the demonstration, the owner of Taste of Israel — who has not been named — was told by one of the protestors that the group knew his address and would show up at his house. The same protestor also maintained that her gripe was against Zionists, not Jews.

On Sunday, he received a phone call from someone who said, “We are coming to kill you.”

Canadian Jewish leaders have since expressed concern about what transpired.

“This is not anti-Zionism — it’s a blatant act of antisemitic hate which must be condemned by everyone,” tweeted Canadian MP Melissa Lantsman on Friday. “You don’t come to a Jewish neighborhood and yell anti-Semitic tropes if it isn’t about hating Jews.”

Also commenting on Twitter, StopAntisemitism, an online antisemitism watchdog said the protest was “sickening” and represented “pure and unadulterated Jew hatred.”

Canada’s Jewish community, has experienced record highs of antisemitic hate crimes for six consecutive years, with almost eight incidents occurring per day in 2021.

MP Lantsman said incidents like last Friday’s should also be classified as a hate crime “so open Jew hatred in our streets ends, today.”

The York Regional Police arrested one of the offenders before clarifying on Tuesday that was unaware “of any other offenses having occurred.”