organized by several groups<\/a>, including Independent Jewish Voices Edmonton, Edmonton Jews Against Zionism and the Palestinian Student Alliance of MacEwan University, had been scheduled from 1:11 to 3:33 p.m. that day.<\/p>\nLeavitt-Wright said, in the course of the early afternoon, the protest escalated as the crowd increased, a megaphone came out, and people started chanting loudly. The protest became disruptive to the pavilion because of the way the tents were situated, moving closer to the dance stage.<\/p>\n
As the protest grew in size and noise, police on bicycles arrived, maintaining a presence between the protesters and a group that consisted of Jewish community members and the local Iranian community who came to lend their support to the Israel pavilion.<\/p>\n
The attempted knife attack happened close to 3 p.m. while the noise from the protest was intensifying and dancers were set to go on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the dancers and volunteers present shelter in place until things were sorted out for their safety and security, just to make sure that everything was all clear,\u201d Leavitt-Wright said.<\/p>\n
After a brief delay, the dancers scheduled to perform at 3 p.m. took the stage, and, according to organizers, many who were in the pavilion were unaware of what was taking place nearby.<\/p>\n
Muslim organization alleges anti-Palestinian content<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a social media group, Muslim Connects \u2013 Edmonton, is calling on the festival to investigate the Israel pavilion for playing the song \u201cHarbu Darbu,\u201d a 2023 Israeli hip-hop number released shortly after Oct. 7, which some critics describe as a vitriolic attack on Palestinians and their supporters.<\/p>\n
Organizers of the Israel pavilion said that, in the ensuing confusion following the knife incident, they decided to play music on the stage. When one of their volunteers recognized the song was playing, they quickly stopped the recording.<\/p>\n
The Jewish Federation of Edmonton sent an apology to festival organizers for playing the song and said that they will have a vetted playlist ready in the future.<\/p>\n
The presence of the Israel pavilion at the festival had been the subject of continuing opposition from pro-Palestinian groups. In May, a joint letter from Independent Jewish Voices Edmonton and Edmonton Jews Against Zionism called on festival organizers not to include the Israel pavilion.<\/p>\n
Earlier this summer, Edmonton city councillor Michael Janz also publicly suggested that \u201ccertain countries\u201d should not be included in the festival as their presence would make many residents of the city \u201cuncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
On July 10, Janz posted on social media, \u201cIf you have a newborn baby, right now, anywhere in the world, your brand new baby is statistically more likely to be killed by Israel than dying in any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s longstanding presence at the festival<\/p>\n
The Edmonton Heritage Festival is one of the largest multicultural events in Canada, featuring 67 pavilions that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The Israel pavilion and volunteers from the Jewish Federation of Edmonton have been a regular presence at the festival for 47 years.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s pavilion featured a story wall that presented moments from Israel\u2019s history, along with large photo canvases, activities such as an archaeology dig for children, and a market curated from Israeli products.<\/p>\n
Close to 70 people volunteered for the Israel pavilion at the 2026 festival. Attendance numbers were down this year as the festival reduced hours due to heavy rainfall and strong winds on Saturday and Sunday. An estimated 100,000 visitors attended the festival on Monday.<\/p>\n
Some who have posted the video online described the suspect as a Somalian man. The CJN has been unable to confirm the person\u2019s identity and nationality.<\/p>\n
The Edmonton Police Service has not issued a statement on the reported knife incident. According to representatives of the Jewish community, the investigation is still active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unsettling video taken outside the Israel pavilion at Edmonton\u2019s Heritage Festival on Aug. 3 appears to show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10959,3124,52,1445],"class_list":["post-159806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-anti-zionism","tag-antisemitism","tag-edmonton","tag-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786129027_460_image-1.png\")
A person uses a knife to tear through the tent of the Israeli pavilion at Edmonton\u2019s heritage festival on Aug. 3, 2026. (Screenshot: @l3v1at4an\/X)<\/p>\n