Photo essay by Sabrien Amrov on Montreal demonstration in solidarity with Gaza.
Photo: Sabrien Amrov. Hundreds gather in downtown Montreal in solidarity with Gaza.
Montreal, Quebec December 2008: In response to the current Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip, hundreds gathered in downtown Montreal to protest the Israeli assault which has until now killed an estimated 300 Palestinians, the majority civilians. Air strikes continue to pound Gaza for the fourth consecutive day, as high level Israeli officials have labelled the offensive an “all-out war”, while from Beirut to Cairo major protests have swept across the Middle East. Additional protests and actions in solidarity with Gaza will occur in Montreal within the upcoming days.
Quelques centaines de personnes ont marché dans les rues du centre-ville de Montréal, cet après-midi, pour condamner les raids israéliens sur la bande de Gaza. Les manifestants ont vertement critiqué la réaction du gouvernement Harper, qu’ils ont qualifiée de «trop frileuse» au lendemain des attaques qui ont tué près de 300 Palestiniens et en ont blessé plus de 700 autres.
«Israël: assassin! Harper: complice!» ont scandé les protestataires alors qu’ils défilaient dans la rue Sainte-Catherine. Dans la foule, des pancartes demandant «que cesse le blocus de Gaza» ou qualifiant les attaques de «génocide massif» s’élevaient au-dessus des têtes parmi des drapeaux palestiniens.
Here’s an update on what’s happening here from where I am, the second night of Israeli air (and sea) raids on Gaza.
It’s 1:30am but it feels like the sun should be up already. For the past few hours there’s been simultaneous, heavy aerial bombardment of Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. It feels like the longest night of my life. In my area it started with the bombing of workshops (usually located in the ground floor of private/family residential buildings), garages and warehouses in one of the most highly condensed areas in Gaza City, “Askoola.”
“I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing.” Those were the words, spoken on Al Jazeera today by Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in the Sderot area adjacent to Gaza, as images of Israel’s latest massacres were broadcast around the world.
A short time earlier, US-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters dropped over 100 bombs on dozens of locations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip killing at least 195 persons and injuring hundreds more. Many of these locations were police stations located, like police stations the world over, in the middle of civilian areas. The US government was one of the first to offer its support for Israel’s attacks, and others will follow.
Photo: Hatem Omar. Israel’s siege has forced bakeries in the Gaza Strip to close.
Israel’s siege of Gaza began on 5 November, the day after an Israeli attack inside the strip, no doubt designed finally to undermine the truce between Israel and Hamas established last June. Although both sides had violated the agreement before, this incursion was on a different scale. Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel and the violence has not abated since then. Israel’s siege has two fundamental goals. One is to ensure that the Palestinians there are seen merely as a humanitarian problem, beggars who have no political identity and therefore can have no political claims. The second is to foist Gaza onto Egypt. That is why the Israelis tolerate the hundreds of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt around which an informal but increasingly regulated commercial sector has begun to form. The overwhelming majority of Gazans are impoverished and officially 49.1 per cent are unemployed. In fact the prospect of steady employment is rapidly disappearing for the majority of the population.
Sameh A. Habeeb writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, 25 December 2008.
Photo: Matthew Cassel. Running on the downed Israeli-built wall with Egypt.
Israeli politicians, in the run-up to elections, are promising to deal a severe blow to Gaza as this is how Israeli policy is made. However, every household in Gaza is already under siege. In Gaza you can only find pale, angry and frustrated faces. If you visit my house you won’t find power, while my neighbor is out of gas. Another neighbor seeks potable water as power outages have left him without for four days. A third neighbor desparately looks for milk for his child but does so in vain. Another friend who lives on the corner needs medicine that can’t currently be found in Gaza.
