Winnipeg protesters call for ceasefire in Gaza

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This article was published 28/10/2023 (722 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hundreds of people gathered downtown Winnipeg on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as the death toll in the narrow stretch of territory continues to mount under Israel’s intensifying bombardment.

Demonstrators marched from Memorial Park, across from the Legislature, towards Portage and Main, where they shut down the intersection for roughly 20 minutes. Some carried Palestinian flags, while others were clad in black-and-white-checked keffiyeh scarves – a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. They carried signs with slogans like “CEASEFIRE NOW” and “Trudeau, there is blood on your hands!”

A similar march in support of Palestine was also held last weekend.

The war began three weeks ago when Hamas — which is classified as a terrorist entity by the Canadian government — launched a surprise attack on Israel, breaching the high-tech fence that surrounds Gaza and killing more than 1,400 Israelis. Hamas also took more than 220 Israelis hostage. Only four have been released.

At least 7,703 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. In recent days, humanitarian concern for residents of Gaza — nearly half of whom are children — has escalated sharply, as critical supplies run low following Israel’s escalation of its 16-year blockade of the strip.

On Friday, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution calling for an immediate “humanitarian truce” in Gaza and for essential supplies to be allowed into the territory. Canada abstained from the vote.

Nassar Abujabal, who immigrated from Palestine, first to the U.S., then to Winnipeg, came to Saturday’s march with his young son, Qais. His voice filled with emotion as he spoke of the more than 3,000 Gazan children killed since Oct. 7.

“When (my son) wakes up at night, I run to him – when he’s afraid of the darkness. Can you imagine their feeling?” he said. “People are writing the names of their kids (on their arms or legs) so that when they die they don’t go as numbers. And nobody is saying anything! Where is the humanity?

“I just cry every day. I don’t know any father in the world who won’t cry — any mother, any human who won’t cry. Those are kids, for God’s sake.”

Maha Zeid, who is on the board of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba, which organized Saturday’s event, said the march was intended to spread awareness of “the genocide that’s going on in Gaza.”

“There’s children everyday dying, every day. It’s just very heartbreaking. And now on top of that, no food, no water, no electricity,” she told the Free Press.

On Oct. 9, Israeli authorities implemented a total blockade on Gaza, halting the flow of food, gasoline, medical supplies and other goods into the territory of 2.3 million people.

“We just want peace all around,” Zeid added. “And for a solution to live together and to finally end this.”

Joanna Bergen, who spent two years in Israel and Palestine working with the Mennonite Central Committee, said she’s been hearing from terrified friends in Gaza over the last three weeks. (Information coming out of Gaza largely went quiet Friday, however, with reports that internet, cellular and landline service has been downed.)

“They always ask us to pray,” Bergen said. Asked what she prays for, Bergen replied: “A ceasefire. I want Israel-Palestine to be a place where everyone has equal human rights.”

Harold Shuster, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, a grassroots organization that advocates for justice and peace in Israel-Palestine, said that while politicians are quick to recognize Israel’s right to self-defence, Palestinians’ rights go unmentioned.

“The rights of Palestinians that have been denied for 75 years of apartheid, for 50 years of an illegal occupation in the West Bank and for 16 years in Gaza (under the blockade), those rights don’t seem to matter,” he said, as a chant of “free, free Palestine” rang out in the background.

Ana, who gave only her first name, marched with her sister and grandmother. Her mother is Bosnian, she said, and lived through the genocide there. And growing up, she added, their parents spoke with them about human rights and about Palestine.

“We’re asking not just for a ceasefire, but an end to this occupation that’s been going on now, for how many years –”

“Seventy-five,” Ana’s sister interjected.

A rally in support of Israel had initially been planned for the same time and place on Saturday but was postponed to Sunday. The Winnipeg police previously asked organizers of pro-Palestine and pro-Israel rallies not to hold simultaneous events.

Police were present at the march Saturday, monitoring and assisting with traffic.

marsha.mcleod@freepress.mb.ca