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by Faisal Kutty TORONTO (IslamOnline) - More than 3,000 protestors hit the streets of Toronto Sunday in a show of support for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The march through the heart of Canada's largest city was one of many held over the last few days throughout the country.
Marchers gathered in front of the United States Consulate on University Avenue, a major downtown street, and called on the Clinton administration to stop defending Israel. Protestors held up signs such as, "Clinton work for U.S.A. interests for a change" and shouted, "Long live Palestine." The multi-racial crowd then made its way along the two-kilometer route to the Israeli Consulate on Bloor Street, one of the busiest streets in Toronto. "How can the world sit still after seeing soldiers firing live bullets at youth throwing rocks," asks Ahmed Duale, a Somali who traveled two hours to join the demonstrators. "Is there no less lethal way to bring order?" The protest forced the closure of a number of downtown streets. "The objective of this protest is to show the Israelis that there are people all over the world united behind the Palestinian leadership in the struggle for the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians," said organizer Rashad Saleh of the Palestine House. The Palestine House was vandalized more than a week ago, along with a number of synagogues in the city as tensions mounted in the Middle East. No arrests have been made in any of the cases yet. Saleh added that "there will be no peace and no rest until a Palestinian state becomes a reality and Jerusalem is liberated." Once in front of the Israeli consulate, the crowd expressed its anger at the Israeli government for its excessive use of force against Palestinian protestors. To date more than 100 Palestinians have lost their lives and more than 3,000 have been injured. The crowd was kept back from the consulate by between 200 and 300 riot police, including some on horseback. The emotional crowd shouted out, "How many kids did you kill today?" and held up posters reading "Killing children in cold blood does not lead to peace," "Zionism = Nazism," and "With sticks and stones, we will liberate our homes." Two days before, the Israeli consulate was the site of a candlelight vigil attended by about 450 people organized by the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), a Toronto-based national advocacy organization. "It was a silent prayer for the dozens of Palestinians killed by Israel," said Jehad Al-Iweivi, Executive Director of CAF. Many non-Arabs attended the event. "I decided to participate to show my opposition to the innocent victims of Israeli aggression," says Steven Goldfarb, a Jewish student. Unlike the candlelight vigil, Sunday's protest was loud and fiery. Speaker after speaker called on the Israeli government to stop killing children and also called on the Canadian government to support a just peace. The speakers were mostly community leaders, but Federal Member of Parliament for the Scarborough-Agincourt riding, Jim Karygiannis, also addressed the crowd. "This peaceful demonstration is a message for Canadians that peace is needed in the Middle East and that we must, as a country, help in bringing this about," said Karygiannis. A number of protestors then went against the wishes of organizers and burned Israeli flags. According to participants, most of the mainstream media in the city did not give much attention to the protest even though it was much larger than pro-Israeli rallies that grabbed headlines days earlier. Some that did cover the event focused on the flag burning. Organizers were expecting a larger turnout, but pointed to the rain and traffic slowdown due to an international marathon winding its way through the heart of the city at the same time. Toronto is home to more than 250,000 Muslims, and nearly 50,000 Arab Christians. |
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