Quebec inked an economic partnership agreement with Israel this fall in Jerusalem. Attracting little attention from major media outlets, Quebec’s bilateral accord was signed during a government-led delegation to Israel that included high-level state officials and corporate representatives this past September, amidst Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza.
Photo: Wissam Nassar. Smoke rises over Gaza City during Israeli bombardment.
Concerns about Israel’s use of non-conventional and experimental weapons in the Gaza Strip are growing, with evasive comments from spokesmen and reluctance to allow independent journalists inside the tiny enclave only fueling speculation.
The most prominent controversy is over the use of shells containing white phosphorus, which causes horrific burns when it comes into contact with skin. Under international law, phosphorus is allowed as a smokescreen to protect soldiers but treated as a chemical weapon when used against civilians.
Thousands gathered in downtown Montreal in freezing winds on Saturday, January 10th for a major demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, currently under bombardment from a major Israeli military offensive.
Protesters gathered in Montreal as the Israeli offensive into Gaza has killed over 800 Palestinians and wounded nearly 4000. Israeli military forces are threatening to intensify the military campaign within the upcoming days, “the Israeli Defense Forces will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip,” read leaflets in Arabic dropped from Israeli military planes over Gaza this past weekend. Protests have swept the world in recent weeks in solidarity with Gaza, from the streets in Europe, to the Middle East, to Latin America to the streets in Montreal protesters have gathered in unprecedented numbers.
Photo: Palestinians walked past a house damaged by an Israeli air strike in Rafah.
It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.
In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.” The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—BDS for short—was born.
Photo: Members from the Samouni family being laid to rest in the Gaza Strip.
Bitterly cold, famished, and thirsty they may have been. But the dozens of men, women, children and elderly of the extended Samouni family, sheltering in the unfinished warehouse-like building owned by one of their relatives, at least felt relatively secure.
Some explain that Israeli troops had explicitly told them to remain in the building – in several cases after actually escorting them there. They were relieved to wake to find the neighbourhood quiet for the first time since the ground offensive had began 36 hours earlier. So much so, according to one of them, that some time after 6am, four of the men decided to set out and bring an uncle and his family to their refuge.
This war, perhaps more than its predecessors, is exposing the true deep veins of Israeli society. Racism and hatred are rearing their heads, as is the impulse for revenge and the thirst for blood. The “inclination of the commander” in the Israel Defense Forces is now “to kill as many as possible,” as the military correspondents on television describe it. And even if the reference is to Hamas fighters, this inclination is still chilling.
Photo: Israeli bombing strikes Palestinian housing in Gaza.
On behalf of the 56,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, I am writing to demand that the Canadian government condemn the military assault on the people of Gaza that the state of Israel commenced on December 26th, 2008.
Protests against the current Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip have swept the world, including major demonstrations across Europe. Major demonstrations have also occurred across Italy, including in Milan. Demonstrations are planned to continue throughout the upcoming days across the world, as Israel is currently refusing to respect a U.N. security council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Photos documenting the Montreal protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Montreal protesting the current siege on the Gaza Strip. Effectively shutting down daily operations at the Israeli Consulate this morning activists severed an eviction notice and successfully shut-down the daily operations at the Consulate.
Protesters are outraged at Israel’s latest assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government’s refusal to condemn these massacres that have left 700 dead and over 3000 wounded since December 27, 2008.
