Rally and Creative Action Against the Wall and in Solidarity with Gaza
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Saturday July 19, 2014
2:00pm-4:00pm
Location: Parc Jarry, in front of the G4S Headquarters
Corner Gary-Carter/St Laurent
Metro De Castelnau
Ten years ago, on July 9th 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a historic advisory opinion, deeming Israel’s apartheid wall illegal. At the time, the Court called for the wall to be dismantled, for Palestinian residents to be compensated, and for Israeli compliance to be enforced by the International community. One year later, Palestinian civil society launched an appeal to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the Israeli state until it complied with international law.
One decade later, settlements have expanded, land has been expropriated, and wall construction has continued with impunity. If completed, the Wall will stretch more than 800 km, annexing an estimated 46% of the West Bank. Already the effects of the Wall have been devastating, as it has cut off farmers from their lands, workers from their jobs, students from their campuses and communities from each other.
This anniversary also unfolds as Israel carries out a campaign of collective punishment, launched against Palestinians in the wake of the killing of three young Israeli settlers. Since June 12, Israeli Occupation Forces have raided West Bank villages and arrested more than 800 people. Last week, Israel launched a massive assault upon Gaza- the third such operation in six years. To date, 193 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1200 injured in a series of 1250 airstrikes, carried out upon one of the most densely populated places on earth.
A number of companies also profit considerably from the dispossession, displacement, discrimination and violence waged against Palestinians. Among them is G4S, a British-Danish security company that provides services to Megiddo and Ketziot prisons, where the abuse and torture of Palestinian political prisoners has been rampant. Beyond its involvement in the Israeli prison system, G4S also provides luggage-screening and full-body scanning equipment to the more than 500 checkpoints that operate on the Wall and impede Palestinian freedom of movement. In Canada, G4S has obtained a $366 million contract to provide screening services to airports and was paid $19 million to provide services to the Metro West Detention Center in Toronto. Despite its complicity in the oppression of Palestinian political prisoners, and in the criminalization of migrants on a local level, the Quebec government continues to hold shares in G4S.
In response, Palestinians have called on allies around the world to make July a month of action against the Wall. Join Tadamon! for a rally and creative action at the parc Jarry, in front of G4S headquarters to demand an end to Israeli impunity and corporate complicity, and in solidarity with the Palestinian population currently under a violent siege in Gaza.
For more information:
Tadamon! Montréal
email: info@tadamon.ca
www.tadamon.ca