Iqaluit rally for Gaza ceasefire planned for Saturday
‘This is the time just to be together’ to call for end to suffering, organizer says
Jennifer Lane, centre, shown at a previous rally in Iqaluit, is one of the co-organizers of the peaceful solidarity rally for Palestine planned for Iqaluit on Saturday. (Photo by Meral Jamal, special to Nunatsiaq News)
A rally calling for a ceasefire in the three-month-old war in Gaza is planned for Saturday in Iqaluit.
In a social media post, organizers said they want an end to Israel’s siege so that humanitarian aid can be delivered to the war-torn territory. The rally is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Four Corners.
One of the organizers, Meral Jamal, said it is being planned as a peaceful rally to show solidarity with the Palestinian people over what she said is “genocide” being carried out against them by the Israeli government in its war with Hamas in Gaza.
“We do have Palestinians living here in Iqaluit,” Jamal said.
While they might not be directly impacted by the war’s destruction, she said it’s important to protest because “we are paying attention to the violence in Gaza that is documented on social media.”
Jamal said that “no matter where you are in your beliefs and how you are feeling, I think this is the time just to be together,” adding many people wish the conflict would end.
“Iqaluit has a small and mighty Muslim and Jewish community,” noted Jamal.
She said “we would like for the community just to be together to be raising awareness and to feel less alone in their hurt and in their healing and their advocacy to come together to call for a ceasefire.”
On the United Nations website, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the conflict has “created appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Tensions have existed around Israel and its Arab neighbours since the founding of Israel in 1948.
The current war in Gaza started Oct. 7 when the militant group Hamas, which oversees Gaza, launched a surprise attack in the southwest area of Israel near Gaza, killing an estimated 1,200 Israelis and taking several hundred hostages.
Since then, more than 22,000 people in Gaza have been killed in fighting between Israeli and Hamas fighters and much of the infrastructure and buildings in the territory has been destroyed, according to the Associated Press.
Saturday’s rally will be at least the second anti-war protest in Iqaluit since the conflict started.
On Nov. 4, approximately 30 people marched to the legislature carrying signs calling for a ceasefire to end what organizer Jennifer Lane called a “real-time genocide of an oppressed people.”
Yes please rally and be sure to direct your demands to the Palestinian and Iranian backed Hamas and Hezbollah Terrorists and their supporters who started and continue their attacks on Israel and the Red Sea access.
75 years of apartheid and oppression. Typical that a western educated person wouldn’t understand.
But you can’t say that. There is only one sides to any discussion re Israel: with or antisemitic. There is no discussion, unfortunately. Imagine the UN said to Canada, all west of the Ontario/Manitoba border is now USA, and by the way, they control the border east, south and west. Maybe we too would get a tad ticked off.
Why do these protesters never denounce hamas terrorism? Not once have we yet seen a sign calling hamas what they truly are.
Still this looks slightly classier than those masked protester thugs down south harassing shoppers in malls and vandalizing Starbucks’s.
Why does Canada never denounce apartheid Israel, whose government commits war crime after war crime, drops dumb bombs onto hospitals and apartment buildings (which independent investigations then determine are not at all connected to Hamas), harvests organs and skin from Palestinian bodies without consent, conducts medical experiments and forced sterilizations on Palestinians and Ethiopian Jews, tests experimental weapons on a civilian population that they have blockaded for nearly two decades, burns olive trees that date back thousands of years and have been cared for by generations of Palestinian families, outlaws Palestinians harvesting food from the land, holds children hostage with no charges even though they call them prisoners, perpetrates extremely graphic forms of violence against civilians that I won’t name here, and lies constantly about what their state has done and what has been done to their state for the last 75 years?
Terrorism by the state is still terrorism, and it has killed over 20,000 civilians in the last three months (more likely 30,000 with people trapped under rubble). And this did not start on October 7th, or with Hamas. There is plenty of information available on why Israel and its Western allies created this state, and what their plans are and have always been to cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank. But of course it’s being sold as one religion vs another or ‘children of light’ and ‘children of darkness’ as Netanyahu has put it. Thankfully some people are waking up and are not as gullible as they were 20 years ago with the US.
♫…you should come to Nunavut and stay here ♫. 868 is a dud. Nobody, NOBODY is taking free palestine protesters seriously until they denounce hamas.
Why dismiss 868. Everything they say is verifiable, and known through sites with journalistic and academic integrity. No where did they say they condone Hamas behaviour. The way I see it they are simply stating what, for the most part, is withheld from mainstream media sources. I value their comments. The only part that is news to me is the skin harvesting, and i will do due diligence to try to determine proof of that. I am very encouraged and energized when i see Jews and Arabs are coming together. Here’s to Iqaluit taking action!
Canada is not even a super power to begin with. What makes gn employees think they can call a cease fire between two war torn countries?
It’s hard to say what makes them think this is possible, or if it is even animated by the ‘possible,’ and not something else. I lean toward this spectacle being more about the protestors than anything else.
This idea of public demonstration for the conflict in Israel and Palestine appears to be prompted by less than humanitarian motives. Assuming the demonstrators are adults, they must be aware of current and recent past conflicts around the globe that are substantially more cruel and prolonged. Why have they ignored those? Ignorance, indifference, lack of compassion, nepotism?
The demonstrators must have motives orher than humanitarian ones. Are they promoting classism, racism, or even, just themselves? What self-centered gain do they expect to achieve?
There is more narcissism at play here than any serious person could ignore.
Many of us feel helpless seeing the slaughter of Gazans. We’ve signed petitions, written to our MPs, boycotted etc. If protests help show solidarity, the I’m there!
Well, perhaps if fewer Gazans were supporting a genocidal organization like Hamas, fewer of them would be ‘slaughtered’?
Really, Palestinians are a difficult people to have sympathy for, they have thrown away so many opportunities at peace and their own state. As has been said, they’ve never missed an opportunity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Thanks, DWWC; if you’d like to be useful, really useful, give up floor space to a homeless person this weekend. Feed them too.
It’s too bad people are not protesting over what they might have some power over like: more housing, carbon Tax, better health care, education, food prices. Support local to help the many not the few.
Ooo, someone felt uncomfortable shopping? Imagine 75 years of violent oppression by evil, colonizing Zionists.
“Never again” should mean “never again for anyone.” I’m so sorry I can’t fly to Iqaluit to be a part of this cry for humanity.
Why demonstrate for a cease-fire?
Why not demonstrate for peace and an end to conflict in the region?
As long as hamas and hezbollah are in power they will keep poking the dragon. Need leaders that want peace but hamas want nothing but complete annihilation and extermination of Israel and jews. But that’s who Gaza voted for so and now I’m sure they regret it
You do not know whether Gazans support Hamas or not. Over 50% of Gazans were born since the last election was held.
And I’ll rise up
I’ll rise like the day
I’ll rise up
I’ll rise unafraid
I’ll rise up
And I’ll do it a thousand times again
And I’ll rise up
High like the waves
I’ll rise up
In spite of the ache
I’ll rise up
And I’ll do it a thousand times again
In the end, it is something that needs to be fixed from inside. North Korea, Iran, Iraq, pick one, anyone, from inside.
Never mind Gaza they don’t care about Iqaluit, mind our own people first are homeless ones & the one’s that goes with out food mind Iqaluit first and the people that lives in it take care of our own people first .
Didn’t have “John Murphy supports colonizers” on my Bingo card…
Canada wasn’t a superpower in 1939 either but we sure did our bit to prevent the widespread massacre of innocent civilians then and should do the same now.
Unfortunately, not true.
.
In spite of protests and demonstrations in Canada (my uncle was one of the demonstraters), on June 7, 1939 the Canadian government of the day refused to let the MS St. Louis land in Canada. It was forced to return to Europe with 907 Jewish refugees who were fleeing from Nazi Germany.
.
But Canada was not alone. No other country would accept them. No one wanted to annoy Germany.
And Palestinians have been paying for the West’s crimes against Jews. Jews were not historically persecuted in Palestine, but Western governments wanted to give them a country to avoid taking them in after the Holocaust (though Zionism started much earlier), and to create a forever ally who could act in their interests in the region. And they’ll kill whoever they have to to protect it, unless the international community stops them.
Jennifer has no idea what she’s standing for …
Go to middle east n find out first hand . Otherwise go on with your life
Jennifer is standing for Gaza and against colonization. You’d think this would be an easy side to pick for Nunavummiut.
You’re applying a Western concept of colonization to a problem in a region very different from the West. This is not a story of white European Colonizers much as social media would like you to believe. Looking at this through a Western view is ignorant and colonial. “European” Jews are only European because they were ethnically cleansed from Israel and they are the minority of Israelis.
The creation of Israel was a Land Back movement,Indigenous people returning to the land that was taken from them.
It’s not land back…see comment below.
Unfortunately, the majority of commenters are white transplants, experts at exploitation and capitalism. They are afraid for their jobs. Money moves people to extremes, but their narrow minds are telling of their mentality.
The Israeli government is doing horrible things and they should be held accountable. What happened on October 7 was not “resistance to an oppressive force”. Hamas did not target Israeli leaders or soldiers. They targeted civilians- and the ones most supportive of their liberation at the kibbutz- and committed terrorist acts. Hamas should be held accountable. There are no good guys in this fight- and both Palestinian and Israeli citizens are paying the price for their warmongering leaders actions. If there’s any chance at peace, both groups need new leadership.
I pray for peace for both Israelis and Palestinians, but I fail to see how anyone with support a ceasefire that doesn’t include the immediate return of all Israeli civilians being held hostage
It really wasn’t. Firstly there is clear evidence that both Palestinians and Jews are the descendants of ancient peoples who lived in the land. The Jews were exiled from Egypt, and went to Canaan, where people were already living. People intermarried, converted to Christianity and Islam, etc. Jews were never cleansed from Palestine. Where are you getting that information from? They have always lived there.
The Zionist project (spearheaded by non-religious-Jews despite their religious claim to the land), wanted to create an all-Jewish state, even though that actually goes against their religion (Hasidic Jews for example are seen at protests against Israel because they say their religious books prohibit the formation of a Jewish homeland). This was new – never before had only Jews lived on that land. So it’s not land back. It’s people who lived in Europe for centuries and were wrongfully persecuted coming to Palestine as refugees, being welcomed by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and then locking the Christians and Muslims out of their homes (again people whose bloodlines date back at least as far as any Palestinian Jew), assaulting and killing people, displacing nearly a million people, and over time building walls to hinder their movements, and perpetuating incredible injustices against them from 1948 to this very day.
So many Israelis are waking up to this, it would be a shame if those of us who were not indoctrinated as children could take the time to learn and think critically. So maybe it’s not what settler colonialism looks like here, but Israelis do call themselves settlers in Palestinian territories…call it what you want, it’s not ‘land back’. It’s ‘I want rights to this land and I don’t want you to have them, and I’ll do whatever is necessary to ensure that reality’. And many innocent people are lied to about why this needs to happen so that they can support the Zionist project. The British Empire literally looked at carving out a piece of land in Ethiopia for Israel before settling on Palestine.
Hasidic Jews are a small group and their beliefs are often different from other Jewish groups just as Sunni and Shiite Muslims have different views and practices and Catholic People and Protestant Christians and Evangelical Christians have different beliefs and practices.
If you’re not Jewish, don’t speak for Jews and their beliefs
If you are not Palestinian don’t speak for Palestinians and their beliefs.
If you’re not Israeli don’t speak for Israelis.
If you are not Muslim don’t speak for Muslim people and their beliefs.
If you want to support Palestinians elevate Palestinian voices rather than adding your two cents about what they need or who they are.
Stop centering yourselves. This isn’t about you.
Don’t tokenize small groups from a section of society to support your narrative.
Don’t contribute to antisemitism or Islamophobia to push your agenda. You’re not fighting oppression when you do that. You’re contributing to it.
Whoever thinks this war will stop before Hamas is eliminated is detached from reality. Israel’s Prime Minister has made it clear. “Elimination of the terrorists group hamas, release of the hostages and removal of the threat to all human life from Hamas in gaza, and the war will end.”
It is that simple, disarm and remove Hamas from Gaza (and Hezbula from Lebanon) and the Palestinians (and Lebanese) will have peace. Peace they’ve never really known and experienced. Israel is not fighting the “Palestinian people” it is fighting a demented sect of terrorists claiming to represent Palestinians.
Nunavut needs to find a better cause to stand for. Canada is not even a super power to begin with. They should have protest papers that say, reform nunavut and its infrastructure. Nunavut housing for every man and woman of age. This israel Hamas war they want to end. It will not end. Israel will not know peace until they accept God as their covenant. God himself making sure of that. If they want peace, fight the war.