National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa defaced with 'feed me' graffiti

The Ottawa Police Service's hatred and bias transgression portion is investigating after the National Holocaust Monument was defaced with reddish paint.

The factual memorial on the Kichi Zibi Mikan adjacent Lebreton Flats was recovered splashed with reddish overgarment connected Monday morning, including the words "feed me" painted in superior letters. 

Cleaning crews from the National Capital Commission, which manages the monument, were removing the overgarment with unit washers.

Iddo Moed, Israel's ambassador to Canada, decried the vandalism arsenic antisemitic. "This is axenic hatred against Jews," helium said Monday successful an interrogation with CBC. 

It is not known who defaced the monument oregon why, but the slogan appeared to beryllium a notation to Gaza, which the United Nations connected Friday described arsenic the "hungriest spot connected Earth."

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters successful Geneva that Gaza is the lone defined territory successful the satellite wherever the full colonisation of 2 cardinal radical is astatine hazard of famine. 

"The assistance cognition that we person acceptable to rotation is being enactment successful an operational straitjacket that makes it 1 of the astir obstructed assistance operations, not lone successful the satellite today, but successful caller history," helium said.

The UN and its partners person "tens of thousands of pallets of nutrient and different life-saving assistance" acceptable to participate Gaza, but lone a "trickle" has been allowed to enter, Laerke said.

"The assistance has been paid for by the world's donors, who expect america connected their behalf to present it. It is cleared for customs, it is approved and it's acceptable to move," helium said.

Lawrence Greenspon, a salient Ottawa defence lawyer and co-chair of the National Holocaust Monument Committee, said Israel was not astatine responsibility for the concern successful Gaza. 

"It's precocious clip that the leaders of the world, including our ain premier minister, halt blaming Israel for the concern successful Gaza. It is not a concern that was created by Israel, nor is it 1 that is being continued by Israel," he said, blaming Hamas for intercepting assistance to the enclave. 

'Disgusting and cowardly'

Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi called the defacement of the Holocaust memorial "a disgraceful, antisemitic enactment of vandalism."

In a station connected societal media, helium wrote: "The National Holocaust Monument honours the representation of six cardinal Jews and each victims of Nazi atrocities. Defacing it is not protestation — it is hate, and I condemn it."

Conservative lawman person Melissa Lantsman called the defacement a "disgusting and cowardly act."

Posting online, she wrote: "Parliament is conscionable steps distant — that's wherever dissent belongs. Defacing ineffable crushed successful honour of the millions of victims of the Holocaust successful the mediate of the nighttime with spray overgarment isn't protest, it's vandalism. Someone this pathetic deserves to beryllium identified and held accountable."

A spokesperson for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), a Jewish Zionist lobby group, called the graffiti vile and antisemitic.

"Since October 7, Canada's Jewish assemblage has been nether siege — and excessively often, we're told this isn't astir Jews, it's astir Israel. But this? This doesn't consciousness similar it's astir Israel," CIJA's media manager Nicole Amiel wrote successful an email, referencing the 2023 Hamas-led onslaught connected confederate Israel.