*WHEN: 2pm on Saturday January 3rd, 2009
*WHERE: Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto (buses leave Palestine House 1:15pm sharp)
Join in demonstrating against the latest Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.
At least 400 Palestinians have been killed and at least 1600 have been injured in the on-going assault on the Gaza Strip that began on Saturday.
This is the single largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied the area in 1967. The numbers of dead are mounting, especially as the already limited medical supplies are running out due to the brutal siege of Gaza since 2005.
While the Western media reports that the raids targeted Hamas 'operatives,' the dead include women, children and men in all areas of life in Gaza. "Operation Cast Lead" has echoes of previous Israeli raids into Gaza that have been characterized by indiscriminate attacks on civilian population centers, mass detentions, violent house demolitions and other forms of collective punishment. Such actions need to be strongly and unconditionally condemned.
This attack comes just days after the so-called 'ceasefire' between Hamas and Israel expired. During this alleged ceasefire, Israel continued to impose its brutal siege on Gaza, restricting the flow of aid, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities of life into the territory. For the past two years Gaza has been undergoing the daily violence of a wide-ranging humanitarian catastrophe triggered by severely reduced access to energy, food, and medicines. In effect, Gaza is the world's largest open air prison. The UN and others in the international community condemned the humanitarian disaster created by Israel's siege during the time of this 'ceasefire'. Israel now claims that this operation is in response to Hamas refusing to renew this sham of a ceasefire. Once again, Israel is imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza for electing a Hamas government.
Organizers are particularly angered by the Canadian government's on-going support for the Israeli apartheid regime - including the intensification of bilateral military, political and economic links between Canada and Israel. These latest war crimes occur in the context of official Canadian complicity with and support for Israel's illegal siege and starvation of the civilian population in Gaza.
At this moment, we can only reaffirm our commitment in the strongest possible terms to continue mobilizing to respond to the call by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations for a comprehensive campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to end Israeli Apartheid. As H.E. Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, President of the United Nations General Assembly state in a recent speech: "More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new
generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations."
CONTACT:
Palestine House
info@palestinehouse.com
Demonstration Organized By:
Palestine House
Canadian Arab Federation
Women in Solidarity with Palestine (WSP)
Not In Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
Muslim Association of Hamilton
International Jewish anti-Zionist Network – Toronto
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Muslim Unity
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Canadian Druze Society
Canadian Syrian Social Club
Al Huda
Islamic Relief
Steel Workers Union
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Ontario)
Educators for Peace and Justice
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