Pro-Palestinian rally in Montreal Saturday as Oct. 7 anniversary approaches
Posted October 5, 2024 4:41 pm.
Last Updated October 5, 2024 5:24 pm.
Montrealers came together for a Pro-Palestinian rally downtown at Place des Arts Saturday.
It’s been nearly a full year since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which saw some 1,200 Israelis killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Gaza’s health ministry says nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed amid the war.
Here’s what pro-Palestinian protesters told CityNews.
Rama Al Malah, Palestinian Youth Movement
“We are here today with different segments of society. We have labour formations, unions, we have a student contingent, health care workers and lawyers who are all here today again calling on our government to end its complicity, calling for the siege to be lifted off our people in Gaza, that this war stops expanding into a regional war while Canada and the U.S. provide military support and diplomatic cover.
“This is not operating in a vacuum. Gaza has been under siege for 17 years now that has confined 2.2 million people into an open-air prison. We have seen a global movement rise up for the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation.
“The Palestinian youth movement has also launched an international fundraiser calling to raise $1 million to help rebuild Gaza and provide that aid to the Gaza population. So also donate on that front but also continue supporting the students, the city-wide mobilizations and being aware of the complicity of our governments.”
Hélène Bissonnette, Student Strike for Palestine
“Enough is enough. That’s what we say and we cannot just ask for governments who are literally supporting Israel to stop that. And so we think that we need a broad mass movement starting with the youth who are actually showing the way, they have shown the way with mass demonstration, with the encampments, but now we need to go further to the next step. And this is why we have launched this campaign for a student strike for Palestine to show the way and also with that to broaden the movement to the workers.
“Want to put an end to the complicity of our governments and the hypocrisy of our governments in this conflict who are denouncing Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran but are saying nothing on Israel.”
Emma El Ghaddan, Action Montreal
“I’m from Palestinian-Lebanese origins, I also identify as Quebecoise and so we’re here for humanity … exercising my legal rights to communicate, to protest, to talk to politicians, to talk to people and educate them and this is what I’ve been doing for the past year, actually for longer than that.
“You know we all go to school and we study about all these things that happened in society, like the horrible things that happened to humanity and we’re like, oh you know if I was there I would have… You are here today, never again means never again for everybody and never again is now.
“We just have to remember this is a humanitarian struggle.”
