THUNDER BAY — Local residents held a rally and march to call on Canada to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow aid into Gaza.
The rally was held at Hillcrest Park on Saturday to show solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and to prompt the government to demand an immediate end what the protesters call Canada’s complicity in Israeli war crimes and settler-colonialism.
The rally of around 200 people today was part of a national day of action across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., according to Fares Ismail, one of the local organizers, who said that what the various groups participating are looking for is an end to the aggression.
“We want a cease-fire. We want the Canadian government to act. We want Canada to remember that unwavering support to Israel is basically saying that Israel is above the law,” he said.
“We want people to know that we want a ceasefire now. We want an end to the siege on Gaza.”
Ismail stressed that the rally and the issue surrounding it had nothing to do with Jewish people as a whole but rather with the state of Israel.
“It's not a war on religion. Sometimes we get it conflated. It's actually a fight for human rights and oppressor versus oppressed, because at the end of the day, it's not really a both sides issue, it's more of an oppressor, a colonizer versus the oppressed, the colonized,” he said.
“And this has been going on far before Oct. 7. It's been happening for 75 years. The foundation of the state of Israel itself was founded based on the forced removal and displacement of 750,000 Palestinians, very similar to what we're seeing here on Turtle Island with the genocide of First Nations people.”
Daniel Hannah, president of Shaarey Shomayim Congregation, said that it is important to support and cherish everyone’s right to freedom of expression.
“I don't have any objections to this protest as long as it remains peaceful and doesn't devolve into hate speech,” he said. “I think the one thing we all hope is that we can recognize the value of human life, both Israeli and Palestinian, and that we can recognize the damage wrought by dehumanization in this conflict.”
Hannah said that many members of the congregation are feeling pretty emotionally drained by the ongoing conflict.
“We have many members in the community who have close ties to Israel, and so there's been a lot of high emotions, grief and anger over the last few weeks,” he said.
“I think members have been deeply disturbed by the brutality of the attacks by Hamas, by the ongoing hostage situation and by the scale of the casualties in Gaza as well.”
Ismail said that what his group wants is the right for Palestinian people to return to their homelands without the fear of more military intervention.
“We want the right of returns as per UN resolution 194 of the Palestinian people to be allowed to return to their homelands, to live in peace with our Jewish brothers and sisters, because, again, this is not an issue about religion,” he said.
