Community members and Carleton University advocates marched Saturday to protest two years of Israel’s military siege in Gaza, hitting the pavement outside Parliament Hill with Palestinian flags and keffiyehs in hand.
Groups such as the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Palestinian Students’ Association at Carleton University, Students for Justice in Palestine at Carleton and INSAF uOttawa were in attendance.
“We have student organizations, labour organizations, community organizations all united together to protest this genocide,” said attendee Ammar Afaneh.
“Nothing in the world could justify starving these people, depriving them of military aid, killing doctors, targeting healthcare (workers),” said Duncan Ault, another demonstrator.
“The world is just letting this happen. It’s infuriating.”
Ault said there is no justification for Israel’s actions.
“Israeli policy is not defence. It is not national protection. It is murder.”
“Look at the students, the unions, the artists, the mothers, the children,” Afaneh said. “Look at the workers in Italy, who block the ports to stop weapons shipments. All of them in every corner of the world say: ‘Enough.’”
Nathan Prier, the president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, also pointed to the power in numbers in an address to the crowd.
“Individuals doing brave things don’t amount to much, but lots of workers doing escalating things together is one of the most decisive forces in history.”
The last speaker, Algonquin Anishinaabe activist and researcher at the University of Ottawa Dara Wawatie-Chabot, added this is a moment for people to stand together.
“We need land back, not just here in Turtle Island, but across the world. We need a free Palestine.”
Nir Hagigi, the president of Independent Jewish Voices Carleton, attended the protest and said that Carleton University is complicit in funding Israeli’s siege in Gaza through alleged investments in companies with ties to Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.
“We have been demanding for two years now that Carleton divest from these frankly genocidal companies,” Hagigi said.
At the end of the march, organizers broadcasted a message from Mskwaasin Agnew, a Cree and Dene activist taking part in the Sumud Flotilla, an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians.
Agnew said that her vessel, named Conscience, is crewed by journalists and medics who stand in solidarity with Gaza.
“Thank you Ottawa for your unwavering support,” she told the crowd. “Palestine will free the world.”
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Featured image by Brendon Poste/the Charlatan.
