Pro-Palestinian protesters came together and marched in downtown Ottawa to show their solidarity with Palestine on Oct. 5.
Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), the event marked the International Day of Action, closing in on the one-year mark of the Oct. 7, 2023 events. The streets were filled with protesters chanting, “Trudeau, Trudeau, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!”
Sarah Abdul-Karim, a PYM organizer, said that despite it being the one-year mark for the escalating violence, there has been a long history of oppression.
“There’s this clear media push to outline this whole thing as if it only just started on Oct.7,” Abdul-Karim said. “But the reality is, Palestinian lands have been colonized violently and brutally for 76 years.”
She said there is a universality to the Palestinian struggle, highlighting how oppressed peoples are interconnected through a common fight for freedom.
“To the colonial violence that has occupied our land since 1917, our struggle is one,” Abdul-Karim said. “Palestine will only truly be free when all Indigenous lands across Turtle Island and across the globe are free.”
Minutes before the march set into action, Nadia Abu-Zahra, a professor from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa, addressed the Canadian response to Palestinians’ plight.
“[Canadians] need to restore humanity to the 300,000 Palestinians and others murdered by forced disease, molestation, incineration, forced starvation and dehumanization,” Abu-Zahra said.
“As an Indigenous person, I see the struggle against settler-colonialism around the world and I can relate to what is happening in Palestine because Israel is committing settler-colonialism,” Serena said. “It is clear that this is not just a concept of the past, but something that is still going on and must be challenged.”
Carleton has invested more than $2 million in four companies that were listed in a June 2023 UN human rights report, according to a December 2023 document obtained by the Charlatan.
Bessan, the president of Students for Justice in Palestine Carleton, emphasized her role in educating her community about the living conditions in Gaza. She asked that her full name not be used as she desires privacy and fears repercussions.
Students for Justice in Palestine is “a student-led club that aims to raise awareness and educate [Carleton’s] student body to organize and mobilize … towards the liberation of Palestine,” Bessan said.
She said that hope remains for students living in Gaza despite ongoing damage to their academic spaces..
“Our people continue to educate themselves in Gaza, even though all 12 universities and over 500 of their schools have been destroyed,” Bessan said.
Bessan said she urges uOttawa and Carleton administrations to listen to their students’ demands amid failed divestment talks at Carleton.
“[The] university responds to its students’ demands of disclosure and divestment with empty promises and claims of wanting to stay neutral in this conflict [makes] it blatantly clear whose side they choose,” Bessan said.
Hailey, a first-year community and justice services student at Algonquin College, said she was first introduced to the history of the conflict by her step-mother who worked as a travel nurse near the Gaza Strip. Hailey asked that her full name not be used as she desires privacy and fears repercussions.
She said the real-life circumstances in Palestine and the ongoing protests in solidarity are not taught in her classes.
“Unless you are aware of it, you don’t know anything about it,” she said.
“We’re all adults at Carleton, Algonquin and uOttawa. We’re in there 24/7 and if the schools can start showing the protests, and what’s happening, what to look at, we can get a lot more people involved,” Hailey said.
The protest featured strong criticism for the government’s lack of action to help Palestinians and its failure to impose more severe sanctions on Israel.
In a statement to the Charlatan, Abdul-Karim explained that the “amended” arms embargo passed in the House of Commons on Mar. 18 would end future arms contracts with Israel. However, the government has since tabled these decisions.
“We saw the NDP motion for an arms embargo that passed as a non-binding motion,” Abdul-Karim said. “The Liberal Party amend[ed] the motion to say that they wouldn’t start any new contracts with Israel.”
“There are millions of dollars worth of existing arms contracts that are essentially allowing the Canadian government to continue trading arms with Israel,” she said.
Bessan said that Canadians have a duty to care for the oppressed throughout the world because “everyone is connected.”
“Freedom for some is freedom for none,” she said.
Featured Image by Angeleah Brazeau.
