About 125 people marched in downtown Halifax today to protest against Israeli oppression of Palestinians and to celebrate the recent international Freedom March which focused attention on the plight of the 1.5 million people who live in Gaza.
The Halifax marchers chanted slogans including, “People of Gaza under attack. What do we do? Stand up and fight back,” and “One, two, three, four. We don’t want your racist war.”
The march, sponsored by Canadians, Arabs and Jews for a Just Peace, university groups, unions and peace organizations, came one year after Israel’s 22-day military assault on Gaza which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and injured 5,000.
As they marched along Robie St. toward the meeting hall at St. Andrew’s United Church, the protesters waved placards with a variety of messages including ones urging an economic boycott of Israel and calling for an end to the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza.
- Ehab Lotayef
Once inside the church hall, the marchers listened as Montreal photographer, poet and activist, Ehab Lotayef described his two most recent trips to a Gaza devastated by sustained Israeli bombardment from the air, land and sea.
“The young people in Gaza have no hope,” the Egyptian-born Lotayef said as he showed a slide of a 12-year-old boy whose four friends had been killed. He added that the boy would “feel anger for years to come and a sadness that I don’t think will ever be cured.” To underline his point, Lotayef then showed a slide of a Palestinian child’s drawing depicting a bright yellow sun, a tree and a flower with a huge helicopter gunship hovering ominously overhead.
“I think Israel knows quite well the kind of opponent it has in the Palestinian people,” he said. “The crux of the matter is that the Palestinians are not going to disappear.”
Lotayef also spoke about his participation in the international Freedom March which began in Cairo in late December. The 1,362 marchers, from a wide variety of countries, were prevented from entering Gaza by Egyptian police. On the surface, the Freedom March was a failure, Lotayef acknowledged because it couldn’t breach the Israeli/Egyptian blockade which is cutting off the free flow of goods and people into Gaza. “But if the goal of the Gaza Freedom March was to bring the world’s attention to that blockade, then it was a great success,” he added.
Lotayef’s slides showed freedom marchers blocking streets, occupying Cairo’s main square and displaying the Palestinian flag on an Egyptian pyramid. Some of the marchers suffered cut faces and broken ribs as they were dragged away and beaten by police. “In spite of the injuries, everyone was very proud of what they were able to do,” Lotayef said adding that protests and demonstrations are not allowed in Egypt.
He pointed to the Cairo Declaration adopted by the Freedom Marchers on January 1st. It demands an end to Israeli oppression of Palestinians and endorses an economic boycott and sanctions to compel Israel to abide by international law.
“I believe the Cairo Declaration is a tool for all of us to work with,” Lotayef said. “I hope Halifax will be one of the cities where the implementation of the Cairo Declaration takes place loud and clear.”
During the question period, people complained that the Halifax media had given little or no coverage to the Freedom March in Cairo even though at least one Haligonian had participated in it. Lotayef said there was a bit more coverage in the Montreal media, but then he added this rueful comment:
“We know the nature of the beast. The media like blood, they like explosions, but they don’t like human rights.”
This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2010.
Mr. Lotayef you say you are for human rights, you just seem to be one sided with your opinion. Was it not Israel that pulled out of Gaza for the sake of peace? What did Israel get for trying to keep the peace process going? It had rockets fired at its people and cities. Mr. Lotayef you are trying to put all the blame on Israel for all the Palestinians killed or wounded. Even though it is a fact that Hamas used civilians as shields, hid in their homes and made the civilians run ammunition for their fighters. Look at history of the Palestinians forcing out the Jews from their own land. The Jews have been in that land for a very long time. Just be happy that right now you are only facing the tribe of Juda and not the lost tribes of Israel, be patient Israel will come home when GOD tells them to
Lotayef, where were you when Jews in Sedorot endured 8 years of rocket bombardments from Gaza? Did you demonstrate on behalf the Jewish children’s rights? Given your silence then and your acts now, it seems that you are content when Jews are getting killed but you only get upset when Jews stand up and defend themselves.
Peaceful demonstrations are an essential element of democratic societies and the basic right of every citizen. Since when the right to peaceful assembly and free expression is curtailed in Halifax!! I can’t believe the previous comments… are you justifying the Israeli intensive shelling from air and sea inside Gaza? Israel caused a “human dignity crisis”, including a massive destruction of livelihoods and as well as significant damage and destruction to infrastructure and basic services: hospital, water & power plants. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza hit children and women most. Children bore the brunt of the conflict; 410 Palestinian children have been killed and close to 2000 have been injured in this crisis.
I am disgusted by the lack of main media coverage and denial of the humanitarian crisis by Israel supporters.
Rabid Zionists aren’t better than Palestinian terrorists, you’re both unreasonable and devalue the lives of the other side. Unless you are willing to compromise there won’t be peace. Israel needs to let Gazans fish, farm, and have complete access to aid. At one point Israel wouldn’t allow PASTA into Gaza!
(me) a little cardboard robot trying to promote peace and respectful civil dialogue to interested parties (you) on the internet.
make PAX not War.
pax_101 on twitter and pax_101 facebook.
Social media and civil dialogue are the hope for the future.
Paxfully yours…
Why does anyone even bother about this any more ? these people are obviously happy to be killing each other. THey have been doing so for thousands of years. For those who read the bible, the story of Abraham & his 2 sons Isaac & Ishmael one son from a jewish wife the other son from an arab wife, following Abraham to the ‘promised land’ & never the two shall get along forever…well here we are a couple thousand years later & they’re still killing each other.
Too bad one side or the other would get good at it & put this tired stupid conflict to an end.
Internal family feuds are the worst !!!
why do westerns who enjoy all the comforts and privilages the west offer consistently support enemies of the west.any jews in any government position in any palestinian government.no.are there arabs in isreali’s government.yes.so why support an oppresive governement(palestinians) and not support a government that allows other groups to share power in(isreal).
you support a group (palestinians) that it is okay to strap bombs to your children to blow up other peoples children.they target non-combatives.they engage the idf(which is defensive) behind children.what the fuck is wrong with this.how can you legitamize this group.
do not say the isreali’s do the same.they don’t.they are defensive which means they engage after they are fired upon.so of course civilians get killed by idf forces.because there enemy purposely makes the battlefield with civilians in it.also look at this.look at how few civilian causalities there actually are by idf forces.if they were no concerned about minimizing civilian causalties there would be a hell of a lot more.city blocks would be wiped out in one attack.the destructive power isreal has could easily solve the palistinian problem if they wanted to.so educate yourselves before you support a western enemy with bullshit arguments.that are grounded on nothing
to summarize do you support a government that shares power with all its citizens(isreal) or do you support the opposite(palestinians).
from there base your arguments accordingly.because someone who supports the palestinians cannot support freedom or human rights