Montreal: Rally for Gaza
- Friday, December 21
12 noon to 1pm
The Israeli Consulate
Peel & Rene Levesque
Since Monday, December 17, in a series of air strikes that are continuing, Israel killed 24 and wounded dozens of residents of the Gaza strip leaving some of them with severed limbs. Israeli air strikes in the past also bombed crowded streets and markets in Gaza — Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth — resulting in many civilian casualties.
Israel’s policy of extra judicial assassinations is illegal under international law, and is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory.
It would be naive to accept the Israeli claim that this is in retaliation against the homemade shells fired from Gaza across the border into Israel. A truce arranged by Hamas and adhered to by all Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza last year did not result in any lessening of Israeli attacks. In fact, Israeli assaults and invasions into Gaza increased after Hamas declared the ceasefire.
The Palestinian people in Gaza live under complete Israeli control of all their borders: land, sea and air space. They have been imprisoned inside Gaza with nearly no entry or exit allowed for anyone, even the severely ill, since June. Gravely ill people including children have died because they were not allowed to leave for medical care which they cannot find locally due to the Israeli embargo. Even prior to that, restrictions were in place which allowed very few people to go in or out.
Let’s not forget what is entirely eclipsed in the mainstream media which is the ever deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Trade embargoes, travel restrictions, Israeli attacks and food, fuel and medical shortages are plaguing the civilian population – pushing Gaza further to the brink of an all out humanitarian catastrophe, as attested to by many Human Rights groups, UN agencies and even the World Bank. The reasons for this human rights disaster are twofold – Israeli restrictions and international sanctions imposed since the Hamas election victory in 2006.
We all have a responsibility.
