Despite claims by proponents that it’s a mark of resistance, calls are growing in Canada to declare the image of a red, inverted triangle — commonly seen at anti-Israel protests — to be a symbol of hate.
Last month, an emergency motion passed in Berlin’s state legislature urged Germany’s federal government to extend the country’s ban on terror groups like Hamas to include the red, inverted triangle, following claims that “sympathizers of Palestinian terror organizations” were using the symbol to “mark possible sites for attack, to threaten opponents and claim public space as their own.”
Casey Babb, a senior fellow with the Macdonald Laurier Institute and an advisor to Secure Canada, said that the issue needs to be examined in Canada.
“We’ve been seeing so much damaging and disruptive extremist activity over the past 10 months that I really think there needs to be serious and comprehensive conversations about really trying to crack down on a lot of what we’ve been seeing,” he said.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel, Canada has seen an explosion of overt anti-Semitism at anti-Israel rallies, university encampments and even Toronto’s Jewish neigbourhoods — as well as a concerning increase in crimes targeting Jewish families, organizations and buildings.
Anti-Israel vandals commonly spray-paint inverted red triangles on buildings, signs and statues as a means to intimidate Jews and those who don’t share their views.
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“The inverted red triangle is a symbol literally used by Hamas to mark targets before they are struck,” Spadina-Fort York MP Kevin Vuong told TheToronto Sun.
“Those naive enough to use it are not showing solidarity with some misguided sense of ‘resistance,’ they are cosplaying a terrorist group.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the symbol entered popular use shortly after Oct. 7, and can “signify support for violent Palestinian resistance against Israel,” and first appeared in propaganda videos produced by the al-Qassam brigades — the military wing of Hamas — which uses inverted red triangles to mark targets.
“Not only should Canada follow Germany in rightfully criminalizing this terrorist symbology of the inverted red triangle for what it is — incitement of violence — Canada should also follow our German ally in recognizing the slogan ‘from the river to the sea’ as a call for genocide and the elimination of the state of Israel,” Vuong added.
Inverted red triangles are symbols with a sinister past — used by Nazi Germany to signify political prisoners in concentration camps.
“It’s the new swastika,” Babb said. “You aren’t just seeing them at pro-Palestinian rallies … you see upside-down triangles spray-painted on synagogues, Jewish schools — you see them on Twitter handles of individuals who regularly share extremist content.”
The symbol, he said, is also being used by anti-Israel extremists on social media to target politicians, journalists and others they want to intimidate.
“Governments need to crack down on this,” Babb added. “You can’t have this happening any longer.”
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