Hundreds peacefully rallied in front of the Israeli embassy in downtown Ottawa to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinian victims at a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening.
The vigil was held prior to the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Thursday, which halted 11 days of violence that brought widespread destruction to the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Students Association at Carleton University organized the vigil for Palestine to coincide with a Palestinian general labour strike that occurred across the West Bank, Gaza and Israel on May 18.
During the strike, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens stopped working in protest of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, the violence against Arab Israelis and the threat of forced displacement for several families from their homes in East Jerusalem.
The student-led vigil honoured the lives of at least 230 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women who were killed in the recent violence, according to reports from the Gaza Health Ministry and the Associated Press.
According to Israeli authorities, 12 people have died in Israel, including two children.
The event followed a recent Ottawa protest which also called for an end to Palestinian oppression.
The vigil began with a singing of the Palestinian anthem “Mawtani” or “My Homeland,” written by Palestinian poet Ibrahim Tuqan, which is often considered an anti-colonial song. Afterwards, organizers read the names of the Palestinian children killed during the ongoing violence.
Demonstrators quietly listened as they held Palestinian flags and lit candles for the lives lost.
Camille Mikhael, a 52-year-old Lebanese-Canadian, listened solemnly to each name as they were read. Mikhael said he hopes the display of solidarity will encourage the Canadian government and international community to take a stronger stance and call for an end to the violence.
“I don’t think on a personal level we can do anything individually, but as a mass hopefully the message gets across that what’s happening is not right, not humane and something needs to be done to correct it for the sake of humanity,” Mikhael said.
Sally Majjane, 27, a Syrian-Canadian pharmacist who attended the vigil with her siblings, expressed hope for freedom and peace. She carried a sign she prepared earlier that day that read, “I pray for the day when the children of Palestine and Syria wake up to the sound of birds, not bombs.”
Majjane said as a Syrian, she understands the experience of forced displacement and will continue to advocate for Palestinian freedom “from now until forever.”
“Peace means just to live your normal daily life. To wake up every day from your mom’s voice shouting at you to wake up and you can go to your school and your mom wouldn’t be worried that you won’t come back,” Majjane said. “That’s what we need, it’s the simplest life requirement.”
Human rights activist Fareed Khan, founder of Canadians United Against Hate, participated in both the protest and vigil to show his support for the Palestinian community.
“I am here to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to call attention to 73 years of brutality and injustice at the hands of the Israeli government,” Khan said.
Sherena Razek, a PhD student in modern culture and media at Brown University, said she felt it was her responsibility as a Palestinian-Canadian to attend the vigil as an expression of solidarity.
Razek acknowledged Canada’s responsibility to hold itself to account for its legacy of settler-colonialism and implement sanctions against the Israeli government.
“We are obliged as Canadians, as Palestinian-Canadians, to speak up about Indigenous issues here as well. We’re protesting a settler colony on stolen Anishinaabe-Algonquin land,” Razek said. “I feel doubly obliged to be here in that sense.”
Razek said it was extremely moving to see how the situation in Palestine connects to all people striving for equality and liberation.
“When you look around this crowd there are a lot of people who aren’t Palestinian here, which is amazing to see these expressions of solidarity,” Razek said.
“Palestine is a feminist issue, it’s an abolitionist issue. Palestine is an Indigenous issue and I think you see people here from all sorts of different intersections and the ways in which Palestine speaks to them, their cause and their liberation projects.”
Featured image by: Spencer Colby
