Dozens of pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated in the Carrefour Laval shopping center on Tuesday afternoon, as it was filled with thousands of customers looking for post-Christmas sales.
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Protesters gathered around 2 p.m. inside the shopping center and marched through the corridors, going from one store to another. Other people sat in front of at least one entrance to Carrefour Laval, outside.
“Viva viva Palestina”, “Let’s boycott Israel, let’s boycott the criminals” or even “Terrorist Israel”, shouted the people on site.
These targeted stores like H&M and Zara, targets of a boycott campaign. The Swedish clothing brand is condemned for having four stores in Israel in 2010. The Spanish company Zara, for its part, found itself in hot water due to an advertising campaign deemed insensitive and accused of making fun of suffering suffered by Palestinians.
“The civilians of Gaza, this is for them […]. It’s for our martyrs and for the money you spend on companies like H&M and Zara. If you are an employee here, question your leaders. If you are a customer, don’t buy anything,” one of the demonstrators chanted in English.
Everything took place under the gaze of the few security agents of the shopping center, visibly overwhelmed. The Laval police also intervened, but no excess had been noted by mid-afternoon.
This is not the first time that pro-Palestinian protesters have taken to shopping malls to make their message heard. In London, around a hundred people formed a human chain in a shopping district.
On Saturday, protesters invaded the Eaton Center in Toronto, in the middle of a last-minute shopping day. In Montreal, the Zara store on Sainte-Catherine Street was also targeted in mid-December.