Victoria Marches for Palestine, Take Forty-six

140 Palestine supporters held a fourth silent march across Victoria as it rallied for a forty-sixth weekend in a row, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, freedom for Palestine, and accountability for the perpetrators of war crimes against political prisoners in Israel.

The event was spearheaded by two university students reporting on the news from the front lines of Palestine advocacy and activism. The first one, affiliated with the socialist movement, announced an upcoming national university student strike as they flock back to campuses following the summer recess. The initiative was presented as a logical step in escalation from the rather disappointing wave of university encampments which swept the country, the last which was just removed just one week ago.

Speaking of which, the first-stop speech, at the intersection of Government and Wharf, was delivered by a Vancouver Island University student who held the encampment from the day it started to the day it fell, the space reclaimed by the so-called authorities as a “prime piece of real estate”, an expression which has been the object of satire since. The student may be wearied, but her spirit remained unbroken as she rallied the crowd for another round of hardball negotiation with politicians and institutions which refuse accountability to the public as they continue to enable genocide in Palestine.

Once again the organisers chose to play clips from interviews depicting the grim reality in Gaza in utmost graphic terms. One was from Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, just back from the front lines, as he gave an interview at a press conference from the Democratic National Committee in Chicago. He described the situation as “unfathomable” and enjoined the government to stop arming Israel. The event itself has been rocked by rowdy protests denouncing the Democratic Party’s callous stance in supporting those atrocities, in sharp conflict with the wishes of its emboldened base.

The demonstration unfolded with no worse incident than a little girl having been briefly separated from her family, and of course the mandatory but tiny Zionist counterprotest as the marchers left the Legislature precincts. But I left it looking forward to next month as we enter a more propitious phase for protests, as university students return from their summer recess and politicians brace themselves for the upcoming provincial election this fall.