Gaza

The palette of protest

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Protesters picket the Hall auditorium. Photo Alice Martin

Alice Martin,
Local Journalism Initiative

Rarely will you see protests without art, and often will you see it go beyond symbolism

Most of the time, protesters don’t march in the streets empty-handed.

They brandish handmade signs, banners or anything to get their message across. In any protest, art serves multiple purposes to strengthen the broader cause.

“I personally really love the use of art in organizing and protests,” Arts and Science Federation of Association (ASFA) academic coordinator Angelica Antonakopoulos said. “Art in protest is a very eye-catching way to send a message, instead of having to go person-to-person and tell them what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Tuition hike strikes

Over five days last March, the tuition hike strikes mobilized students from select student associations to enforce hard picket lines. Hard pickets require students congregating in front of a classroom to dissuade other students from entering. 

With dozens of classes having to be picketed at the same time, and only so many students, protesters used hand-painted banners with dual purposes: displaying their demands and protecting protesters.

“[Banners] are big, they’re flashy,” Antonakopoulos said. “They have a message on them. [Students] don’t have to come up and talk to you and they still get the gist of what the protest is about.”

According to Antonakopoulos, Concordia’s Code of Conduct prohibits students from physically blocking a classroom. She said banners act as a bypass.

“[Students] were more than free to lift the banner and go underneath if [they] really want to go into class,” she said. “It protected both students that were picketing and students that were dissenting towards the cause.” 

She said that banners help students “think twice” before crossing a picket line, as well as avoid physical confrontation.

“There was a lot of verbal engagement with students with flyers and FAQ sheets coming out,” she said, noting that that was what picketers were told to do. “[But banners] send a poignant message in a non-confrontational, peaceful vehicle.”

Students paint Mackay Street to advocate for its pedestrianization. Photo Alice Martin

Pedestrianize Mackay

In September 2023, the Pedestrianize Mackay group staged a protest demanding that Mackay St., between Sherbrooke St. and Maisonneuve St., be closed to vehicles and converted into a pedestrian area for students.

For Mowat Tokonitz, communications vice president with the Urban Planning Association, it was one of the first student mobilizations he was part of.

“It’s something that really interests me and it relates to my program,” Tokonitz said. “I think it’s important to have actual campus space outside that we can use, while also having less cars.”

The protest consisted of blocking Mackay St. at the intersection of Sherbrooke St. Demonstrators also painted an enormous version of the vibrant pink, green, blue and yellow Pedestrianize Mackay logo on the road.

Tokonitz said painting the road was a good way to appropriate the street and show its potential to a wide range of Concordia students who pass by daily.

“The fact that we also had the street blocked off, and we had picnic tables and banners and things in the street, it gave a very basic example of what that space could be in the future,” he said. “It really didn’t take very long for there to be street furniture on Mackay and for people to be out eating lunch. I can only imagine what it would be like if that was permanent.”

Looking back on the tuition hike strikes and Pedestrianize Mackay, Antonakopoulous said the mural painting was a great way to engage students in the cause.

“It’s always really a fantastic way to build community because mural painting is not like a picket. It’s not like a protest,” she said. “We need to be cognizant that there are a lot of people that don’t engage with that, right? They don’t engage with noise, they don’t engage with confrontation.”

Ned Mansour’s sixth chalk drawing, made on Aug. 30. Photo Alice Martin

Divest for Gaza

The pro-Palestine student encampment at McGill University stood strong for over 70 days before being demolished on July 10. To protect itself and the privacy of campers, the encampment used a variety of colourful handmade signs from different student movements on the gates.

When a private security firm dismantled the camp, the colour didn’t stop. Activists still gather daily in front of the Roddick Gates to repeat their demand: for McGill to divest from companies involved in arms manufacturing and the settlements in Gaza and the West Bank.

This is the case of Ned Mansour, a Montreal artist whose father is Palestinian. He has been coming to the gates for over a week—a new tradition for him. He aims to go to the Roddick Gates every day, barring rain and other engagements.

Mansour was working on his sixth painting when he met with The Link. This painting was inspired by a photo he took. 

“I try to choose something that has to do with what’s happening right now, with the genocide, and just a reminder of how many days it’s been since the genocide has started,” he said. “I try to pick images that are visually striking and can fit on this thin column.”

Mansour’s paintings are made with chalk, something protesters have been using every day to write messages and demands on sidewalks and university grounds. As a wedding photographer with experience in drawing, Mansour applied his skills to McGill’s walls.

Despite squabbles with security, his motivation to keep drawing remains steadfast.

“Every day that passes, somebody’s being killed in Palestine, and the genocide is happening in real-time,” Mansour said. “So I wanted to do something that’s in real-time as well. We feel here, it seems like it’s almost a mirror image of what’s happening in Palestine. Obviously, we’re not being killed, but there are forces that are trying to silence us.”

Mansour’s chalk drawings, like the days that go by, are ephemeral. Every night after he finishes drawing, security washes them away, providing him with a fresh slate for another drawing.

“They think that by erasing our work and our message, that we will stop, but what they’re doing is actually encouraging us to come back and remind them again of what’s happening,” Mansour said. “Just like the Palestinian people that are being erased right now.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

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One year since Oct. 7

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Protesters marched through downtown Montreal for the Palestinian liberation cause on Feb. 18, 2024. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Hannah Scott-Talib,
Local Journalism Initiative

Reflecting on the heights of activism this past year and the future of the movement

It will soon be one year since Oct. 7.

Exactly 357 days ago, the Palestinian militant group Hamas fired rockets into and re-entered the occupied territory known as Israel, killing over a thousand Israeli civilians, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s retaliation of the event continues, with the displacement of over 2 million Palestinians and 42,000 confirmed Palestinian civilian murders to date, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

Reflecting on the past year, advocates for Palestine in Montreal talk about how the Palestinian liberation movement has progressed and discuss where it is now. 

Peaks of activism

Last year, the first peak in mobilization came immediately after Israel’s escalated attacks on Gaza. 

“In the heat of the moment, everyone just wanted to do something for Palestine. They didn’t care what we were doing [or] how we did it, as long as we did something,” said Hassan Ridha, a member of Concordia University’s Thaqalayn Muslim Students’ Association and an active advocate for Palestine. 

“We hadn’t mobilized this quickly and this efficiently until an attack happened, until we saw the death numbers rise significantly within a matter of days,” Ridha said. “So this is when we reacted.” 

Ridha added that, over the past year, another key point in the liberation movement was the establishment of the encampment at McGill University.

“When students came together to say ‘No, we’re not going to get used to what is happening in Gaza, until the university meets [our] demands we’re not just going to sit idly,’” he said, “I think this revived the spirit of many people who weren’t as involved anymore with the movement.”

Ridha isn’t the only one that feels like the encampment was a key step towards liberation. 

“The encampment set a precedent,” said a member of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance Concordia (SPHR ConU), who has been granted anonymity for safety reasons. They said that the encampment saw a huge surge in student mobilization in particular, and that it set a precedent for what was considered fair protest in Montreal through McGill’s two rejected injunctions to dismantle the encampment.

According to Ridha, throughout the year, collective activism for the Palestinian cause was the most prominent directly following Israel’s heaviest attacks. He said there was a surge in activism most recently following Israel’s air strikes on Lebanon that began on Sept. 23.

“People came back together after they saw the heavy bombardment of Beirut,” Ridha said, “which at least shows consistency, that we are able to come back together [and mobilize].”

The future of the Palestinian cause 

“Over the last year, I think we’ve seen action from the masses at, what I would say, is an unprecedented and an inspiring level,” said Haya, a member of The Palestinian Youth Movement’s (PYM) Montreal chapter, whose last name has been kept anonymous for safety reasons. “People have responded to the fact that the genocide has been going on for a year and continue to respond to it.”

Now, Haya added, PYM is looking to shift to more long-term forms of activism. She said that PYM recently launched a new campaign entitled “Mask Off Maersk.” which aims to target one of the largest shipping companies in the world, the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. 

“[Maersk] acts as a middleman for arms and weapons shipments to Israel,” Haya said. According to her, by interrupting the logistics of shipping, this campaign will attack weapons and arms manufacturers “across the board.”

Meanwhile, the SPHR ConU member said they feel that—through heightened awareness for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement—successfully pressuring Concordia, McGill and other large Montreal institutions to divest from Israel is a realistic goal for 2025. 

“We’re closer to divestment than ever,” they said. “[The] BDS movement has grown so much it’s become a [central] topic in the city.”

They added that, in relation to the BDS movement, the next step after divestment would be an academic boycott of institutions such as Concordia. 

“Everyone has the freedom to learn whatever they want, but if it’s at the cost of the occupation of a people, or if it’s at the cost of killing people, then I don’t think that’s academic freedom,” they said. 

Still, activists like Ridha believe that certain important accomplishments have already been made since Oct. 7, 2023.

“The biggest achievement, for me, is awareness—it’s something you can’t lose,” Ridha said. “Over time, people might lose interest in participating in protests or in doing active work for Palestine, but no one is going to go home and forget about the companies to boycott.”

He added that new activists for the Palestinian cause have learned so much more about the movement as a whole over the past year, from the meaning of the keffiyeh to the history of Palestinian resistance. 

“This, I think, is the best thing we have achieved since Oct. 7,” Ridha said. “It’s the gaining of knowledge that gives us a foundation for the next time.” 

With files from Menna Nayel

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 3, published October 1, 2024.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters continue demanding for a ceasefire

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Speakers commence the demonstration at Dorchester Square on March 24, 2024. Photo by Ellie Wand

Ellie Wand & Finn Tennyson Lean
Local Journalism Initiative

On March 23, hundreds of protesters gathered in Dorchester Square to protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The demonstration was the first protest organized by la Coalition du Québec URGENCE Palestine, a newly formed coalition of pro-Palestinian organizations from Quebec. The coalition was supported by 228 organizations, including The Confédération des syndicats nationaux and the FTQ, as well as political parties such as Québec Solidaire and the Communist Party of Québec.

“We thought that it was important that we do something to express our ideas, to express our solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to protest against the action or inaction of our government,” said Diane Lamoureux, an administration committee member of the Ligue des droits et libertés, one of the member organizations of the coalition.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023. Humanitarian aid is still facing blockades and is unable to reach many Palestinians, despite funding from countries around the world, including Turkey, the U.A.E, and Egypt. Canada pledged $40 million in aid for Gaza in January 2024, shortly after pausing funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. In February, the United Nations (UN) warned that a quarter of Gaza’s population is at risk of imminent famine.

The coalition’s focus at the protest was to call for an immediate ceasefire and the safe passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk activist, spoke at the demonstration to urge Quebecers to stand for Palestine in the same way they should stand for Indigenous people. 

“As Indigenous people, we have always known there exists double standards,” said Gabriel. “We see the cracks that Gaza has revealed. When we see something as horrific as is happening in Gaza—the murder, the psychopaths with weapons killing innocent people and children and maiming them—to me, there are no more words to describe the evil that they have been unleashing against the Palestinians.”

Gabriel also spoke about the illegality of the situation in Gaza. “It’s really important for people to show up and call out the hypocrisy of Western states,” she Gabriel. “What they’re doing is not only against the Geneva Convention, but international human rights law, and I think they should be held to account not just by the people who are here.”

On March 23, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, visited Cairo, Egypt, where he restated the UN’s support for a ceasefire in Palestine. Despite international pressure, Israel rejected ceasefire terms proposed by Hamas in February.

On March 25, the UN Security Council voted in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan. 14 votes were cast in support, including Canada. The United States abstained. 

According to The Associated Press, around 80 per cent of people in Gaza have had to leave their homes since Oct. 7, 2023. Following military operations in the northern part of Gaza, people have fled south towards Egypt. 

Ghida, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Youth Movement, who did not wish to reveal her last name for safety reasons, has been organizing weekly protests in Montreal since October. She said that sustained pressure—in any form—is essential for change. “We should always be demanding more,” she said. “I would never underestimate any form of action. Everything is important because a movement needs different action to be a movement.”

Just two weeks ago, on March 9, protestors gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for the National March for Gaza, which was said to have been one of the largest pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the city.

“You shouldn’t be an activist by yourself,” said Ghida. “Join a movement, join your local neighbourhood organization, because we can only put pressure as a collective.”

Hélène Denoncourt, who has been active in different forms of protests since she was a teenager, attended the demonstration with her friend, Johanne Laplante. While they both believe protests help to show solidarity and build community, they think politicians have the real power to affect change. 

“It’s to be together,” said Denocourt when asked why she was attending the protest. “It’s to feel that you’re not alone.”

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Montrealers march for Israeli hostages

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By Joel Goldenberg

Numerous Montrealers marched from Hampstead Park to the Ben Weider Jewish Community Centre in Snowdon, demanding the immediate release of hostages held since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas in which 1,400 people were murdered.The walk was part of the global effort Run For Their Lives to help the 136 hostages still being held in Gaza.

The New York Times reported Feb. 6 that Israeli intelligence concluded 32 of the 136 have died, but to Jews, a body is sacrosanct and requires a proper burial, and thus those who died are still considered hostages.

One of those participating was Eric Hazan, second cousin of hostage Omer Shem Tov, who turned 21 during his captivity. “It’s really important that people don’t forget that we still have hostages being held in Gaza and these are innocent people who need to come back home,” Hazan told The Suburban. “The families are anxious to have them come back, they are devastated. The whole nation is devastated. Millions of Jews around the world are devastated by all this.”

At the Y, the names of the remaining hostages were read, and songs were sung. Ysabella Hazan, who spoke at pro-Israel rallies at Concordia late last year and in Washington, D.C., told attendees at Kellert Hall at the Y that she saw the 43-minute film of the Oct. 7 massacre that journalists have been invited to see. After seeing that, “I don’t even want to think about the condition of the hostages. I don’t want to know what Hamas is doing on their own territory. This [conflict] is as much an ideological war as a physical war waged against us.We have to keep our spirits very high in honour of the hostages, and we have to be united.”

Hazan added that we have to, “encourage students to go on campus and to have rallies like this one! It’s amazing that we have this rally in the community centre, as we should, but where’s the youth? We need to be empowered also!”

She also said those rallying in Canada “are here to show the world that we are one collective soul. As long as they are held hostage, we are held hostage! Our souls are held hostage! Our hearts are in Gaza until they are free! We are going to fight for Jewish rights! We are not going to allow people to call our hostages colonizers! We are Jews! We are not colonizers from the land that we are from!”

Also on hand were Snowdon councillor Sonny Moroz, Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather and CSL councillor Dida Berku, amongst many others.

“I’ve heard from relatives, I’ve heard from Montrealers and from my residents, not just from the Jewish community, who are in solidarity with those who were taken from their homes and want them returned,” Moroz told The Suburban. “For me, it’s a moral clarity issue. We need to resolve this open wound, not just impacting local Jews in Montreal, but Jews around the world.”

Housefather told The Suburban that with the hostages being held for more than 100 days, “it’s really important for our local community to show our support for them.

“I do my own part by being here too and joining my fellow citizens.” n

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100,000 protesters rally in Ottawa for Palestine

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Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Iness Rifay & Hannah Vogan
Local Journalism Initiative

In his eight years of bus driving, Mourae Mouassine feels he has never taken a more important contract than the drive from Montreal to Ottawa on Nov. 25.

“This is more than work,” he said, seated in the school bus driver’s seat with a keffiyeh hanging from his shoulders. “I am proud to be here to support humanity.”

Mouassine was one of the bus drivers who volunteered with Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) to mobilize protesters from across Canada to Parliament Hill. Nine sold-out PYM-affiliated buses departed from Place du Canada around 9:30 a.m., all of which carried about 50 participants per busload.

Mouassine keeps a folder on his phone filled with pictures of the children who have died since the attacks on Gaza started. Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 26, over 6,000 Palestinian children have been killed. Following the collapse of Gaza’s health system, the Health Ministry has been unable to keep a regular count of the casualties, but it believes the toll continues to rise sharply.

“I have four kids,” he said. “Every time I see this murder, I can’t sleep. Imagine if it was my child, my friend’s child, my neighbour’s child; I cannot accept this.”

Upon arriving in Ottawa, Mouassine stood on Parliament Hill alongside his family who drove from Montreal to attend with him. They joined over 100,000 protesters gathered from all around the country in what organizer PYM considers the largest pro-Palestinian protest in Canadian history. 
 
“We are not standing on the hills of Parliament because we think we can convince or appeal to Justin Trudeau or the Canadian government’s morality,” said Yara Shoufani, a PYM member. “We are standing here because we know that by building a movement of the masses, we can force the Canadian government to change its direction.”

Speeches began echoing against the walls of Parliament around 1 p.m., delivered by a variety of speakers. Among them were independent Hamilton Centre member of provincial parliament Sarah Jama, who was removed from the Ontario New Democratic Party caucus; Dr. Tarek Loubani, a medic who worked in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital; Montreal Mohawk activist Ellen Gabriel and journalist Desmond Cole. 

“We will never be bullied or intimidated into silence while Justin Trudeau and his partners in crime continue to support the genocidal Israeli regime in the slaughter of more than 14,000 people,” Jama said. 

On Nov. 24, Israel granted a four-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange 50 of the 240 Israeli hostages held by Hamas with 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention. For Loubani, this isn’t enough. 

Loubani shared his experiences with protesters of “sewing up children’s heads” in Gaza without anesthesia prior to the events of Oct. 7. 

“Ceasefire is not my only demand,” Loubani shared with the crowd. “I will not go back to treating patients without tools. I will not go back to making up for the failures of the world to treat our Palestinian brothers, sisters and siblings.”

Protesters began marching through Ottawa at 3:40 p.m., with the demonstration looping back to reestablish its place on Parliament Hill around 5 p.m. Palestinian flags and signs of all sizes waved in the dry, chilly wind. The signs read “stop killing children” and “end the genocide in Gaza.”

Janine—a Palestinian protester who wished to keep her last name anonymous for safety reasons—has witnessed the Israeli occupation first hand. She feels that what is happening in Palestine is unjust, and deserves nothing less than demonstrators to dedicate their Saturday to solidarity. 

“[Our politicians] are the ones who are in control of this situation, they are the ones who are murdering the children—maybe not first hand—but they are not calling for the ceasefire,” said Janine. “For us to be such a huge number in the capital of our country puts a lot of pressure on Justin Trudeau who is complicit.”

English, Arabic, and French chants were loudly, and diligently, repeated throughout the protest. “The people united, will never be defeated,” “From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” and “Ceasefire now” were among the chants cried out in unison by the masses.

Jina —who wished to keep her last name anonymous for safety reasons— is another Palestinian protester who wore face paint that read “Free Palestine” on her cheek. Jina partook in the protest because Palestinians “deserve to have a land, and deserve to live in it.” 

Jina recalled how when she was little, she would bear jealousy, as her classmates who weren’t from Canada would share about going home for the summer, while she had to stay. “I couldn’t go home, there’s no such thing for me. I just know that’s a feeling that a lot of other [Palestianians] feel,” expressed Jina. “I don’t think that is a feeling that anyone should feel.”

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