A year of war in Gaza | A pro-Palestinian demonstration was held in downtown Montreal

Des manifestants ont afflué par milliers vers le centre-ville de Montréal, où s’est déroulé samedi après-midi un rassemblement pour dénoncer la guerre que mène Israël à Gaza, près d’un an après le début du conflit.

La manifestation, organisée par une coalition de groupes militants propalestiniens, vise à « marquer un an de génocide qui a tué plus de 40 000 martyrs », selon une publication de Palestinian Youth Movement, un des organisateurs du rassemblement.

Drapeaux palestiniens à la main et coiffés de keffiehs, quelques milliers de manifestants se sont massés à l’intersection des rues Sainte-Catherine et Saint-Urbain, avant de défiler vers l’ouest. La foule s’est déplacée pacifiquement jusqu’au consulat général d’Israël, au rythme de tambours et de slogans.

Les manifestants se sont dispersés dans le calme après la manifestation, qui a duré près de cinq heures.

Les manifestants dénonçaient également l’offensive terrestre d’Israël au Liban, qui a fait plus de 2000 morts depuis deux semaines. « Je suis libanaise, et ma famille habite encore [en banlieue sud de Beyrouth]so I am directly impacted by the war,” underlined Mariam El-Amine, who marched with the pro-Palestinian group from the Laurier–Sainte-Marie constituency.

The protester wants the Canadian government to put more pressure to obtain a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon. “Words are no longer enough, real sanctions are needed,” she said.

“It’s been going on for quite a long time”

Many protesters expressed fed up with a conflict which does not seem to be easing, a year after the Hamas attack against Israel which triggered the conflict, on October 7, 2023. “It’s been long enough for this to last, it doesn’t make sense,” exclaimed Rachel Ochitwa, who demonstrated with her two young children.

For Benoît Allard, spokesperson for the Divest for Palestine collective, the activists are not running out of steam, although the pro-Palestinian camps which appeared on campuses and in public spaces this summer have been dismantled by the authorities. “The camps have given new life to the Palestinian resistance,” he said. The fight continues. »

“We want the government to stop taking our money to finance weapons used in war,” said Sidonie Auclair-Gendron, a demonstrator, on the sidelines of the gathering. “Protesting is all we can do to be heard. »

According to Zeyad Abisaab, general coordinator of Concordia’s Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) group, the number of demonstrators was “between 7,000 and 10,000.”

No overflows

The Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) anticipated “excesses” during the event, according to an internal email from the Brotherhood of Police Officers of Montreal (FPPM) obtained by The Press.

But the demonstration was intended to be peaceful, said Rama Al Malah, spokesperson for the Palestinian Youth Movement, before it got underway. “But repression is increasingly strong against us, both from universities and the police,” she added.

Around thirty demonstrations against the war in Gaza took place across the world, notably in Ottawa and Quebec, on Saturday afternoon.

With information from Daniel Renaud, The Press