For better or worse, there was a lot of action at this weekend's rally for Palestine. Here's a concise debrief for those who missed it—or wish to reflect upon it.
310 protesters rallied at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Victoria, for the thirty-fourth weekend in a row, to once more call for a ceasefire in Gaza, sanctions against the Zionist regime, and freedom for Palestine.
The demonstration comes as the US publicly urges Hamas to accept the terms of Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal, which is rich considering that Israel rejected a similar deal by Hamas and a team of mediators not one month ago. The proposal is unlikely to fly anyway, since internal dissension within the Knesset threatens the collapse of the Israeli government in the event of a ceasefire deal, extremist voices within the ruling coalition refusing anything short of Hamas’ obliteration. In any case, Netanyahu has vowed to press on in Rafah irrespective of a ceasefire agreement, making the debate pointless.
This of course had one regular speaker at the rallies expressing his utter confusion in this regard, quoting Ali Abunimah who wrote on Twitter: “Israel has adamantly rejected its own offer to itself and is now cutting off negotiations and diplomatic relations with itself in order to send itself a strong message: Israel will not surrender to Israel’s terms!”
Ali keeps at it in an opinion piece on Electronic Intifada, in which he eviscerates US President Joe Biden’s address exhorting Hamas to accept the deal. I have to admit that reading the transcript of this demented fossil’s speech made my head spin. No wonder speakers today have denounced world leaders as being completely out of touch with reality.
But the marchers aren’t giving up. Today’s itinerary was the same as last Monday’s emergency rally for Rafah, which had VicPD fuming over an unsanctioned march throughout downtown. Yet this time even Mark Jenkins seemed okay with the procession going through the segment of Humboldt Street that is narrowed down due to construction, in sharp contrast to the previous time during which he had called the itinerary “completely unacceptable.”
On its way, the crowd briefly besieged Starbucks at the Douglas and Fairfield location, which unlike the one at Government and Yates isn’t used to protesters chanting within metres of its windows. Two VicPD officers preemptively blocked the entrance, anticipating the marchers otherwise walking in, like some did last December.
Also worth mention is that the mere two Zionists that have come to bait the crowd into talking to their camera have gone home content with their harvest. The protesters have engaged with the hostiles continually throughout the march while the latter merely smirked. Expect more of these bloodsucking fleas to show up next time as a result, when they find out just how obliging some of us were this afternoon.
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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.
