Long gone were the timid pleas of a crowd begging for a ceasefire. Instead the speakers promised retribution to failed democracies they perceive as having betrayed them.
About 300 Palestine supporters rallied at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Victoria, for the eight weekend in a row, vowing to continue their struggle until Palestine is free or the last one of them falls.
Indeed long gone were the timid pleas for a ceasefire and futile appeals to our elected representatives’ sense of humanity. Every speaker who took the stage today to denounce Israel’s war crimes and Western democracies’ eager complicity had something to say about the latter’s perceived failure. One of them even chanted “Free Canada!” alongside “Free Palestine!”, echoing recent disillusion worldwide in regard to democracies not heeding the will of the people.
Another speaker spoke of her stay in Gaza, where she the teacher had to be taught the basics of survival by pupils used from childhood to hurling tear gas canisters back at tanks while dodging fire from rooftop snipers—and that was before the recent escalation. Two speakers reacted in outrage to dystopian allegations that the IDF is using artificial intelligence to maximise casualties. Others delivered a message to resist our own authorities, flirting with outright sedition, while drawing parallels between Israel’s occupation of Gaza and Canada’s own ongoing colonial baggage.
None of them had anything nice to say about a certain Justin Trudeau for enabling these atrocities. They were instead supportive of city councillor Susan Kim for speaking up against these, and cheered at the announcement that the petition to vindicate her had surpassed 3000 signatures. Lines are being drawn in the sand, and protesters will neither forget nor forgive the failings of whoever chose not to stand alongside them in this time of crisis.
Tensions are indeed escalating, and it works both ways. A hostile driver tried to ram into a protester on the Legislature precincts, and engaged with the crowd in a racist tirade. Four police officers were needed to subdue the suspect, who resisted vehemently. I heard him shout rather inarticulately, and judging from how he felt about whoever “bombed our synagogues” I infer him to be Jewish; I wish he’d instead had a word with Independent Jewish Voices, who took the stage today. No other arrests were made, and no one was injured. This time.
I’m pointing this out because this is no longer about boycotting Starbucks, signing petitions, and shaming lone hecklers away. This war is spreading worldwide with the promise of civil disorder ahead by increasingly polarised masses who grow weary of rhetoric. Countries such as the US (or even Canada), whose electoral landscapes do not allow for a satisfying correction at the polls, may even face derives into authoritarianism or collapse. What I witness even in this normally peaceful town is disenchanted folks taking matters into their own hands, and no democratically-elected government can sustain this indefinitely, regardless of what polling figures say. Brace yourselves for tear gas in the coming year, and not in Gaza, but here, because both sides think it’s not even about winning anymore, but settling the grievances of the past no matter the cost to themselves.
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Never take your rights for granted. Women in particular know even hard-earned ones are never far from being taken away.
Although the event was a relative success, its outcome leaves me most apprehensive. Regretfully, we had to end it early.
