More than 100 Jewish and Palestinian activists occupied the Canadian parliament building in Ottawa, Canada.
Over 100 Jewish and Palestinian activists held a sit-in on Tuesday at the Confederation Building in Ottawa, which houses many members of Parliament, Canadian media reported.
The demonstrators carried signs and called for an arms embargo against Israel.
“Our politicians cannot be complacent in these marble hallways while Israel continues to burn Palestinians alive in their tents,” said Niall Ricardo, an organizer with the Independent Jewish Voices Canada group, in a statement.
Protesters accused the Canadian government of “arming” Israel by exporting weapons and military parts to the United States, which are then supplied to Israel.
They also demanded an end to the import of military goods and technology from Israel.
BREAKING — Hundreds of Canadian Jews are currently occupying a parliamentary building in Ottawa to protest the war on Gaza. “Canada needs to stop arming Israel and implement an immediate arms embargo,” says organizer Rachel Small. pic.twitter.com/H3PdGQDUjq
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) December 3, 2024
“The warplanes and attack helicopters raining destruction on civilians could not fly without hundreds of Canadian-made components,” said Ricardo, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“Canada’s ongoing arms exports and diplomatic support make it complicit in these atrocities.”
The protest began at approximately 8:45 am local time, and by 10 am, the Parliamentary Protection Service (PPS), with assistance from Ottawa police, removed the protesters from the building. The demonstrators continued their protest outside.
The PPS later issued a statement saying that the activists “were intercepted and released without charges by PPS officers, and provided with trespass notices on Parliament Hill.”
Jews Say No to Genocide is described as a “direct-action-oriented coalition formed by members of World Beyond War, IfNotNow, Showing Up for Racial Justice, United Jewish People’s Order, Independent Jewish Voices Toronto-York Region and the Jewish Faculty Network,” according to the Public Studio website.
“Our protest signs and banners are our cries of anger, our tears of mourning, and our pledges of solidarity to Palestinian liberation,” a statement on the website read.
BREAKING: One hundred of us – Jewish Canadians and allies including IJV members – have occupied a parliamentary building in Ottawa to demand Canada stop arming and participating in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. @JewsSayNo pic.twitter.com/CHyIChIt59
— Independent Jewish Voices (@IndJewishVoices) December 3, 2024
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,500 Palestinians have been killed, and 105,454 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, Anadolu)
