I was already speechless at twenty-two weeks, and so have since been those speaking for the movement. But weekend rallies currently ride a wave of action, not words.
315 protesters rallied at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Victoria in support of Palestine, for the twenty-ninth weekend in a row, demanding action toward ending the genocide in Gaza and dismantling the Israeli apartheid.
The turnout has rebounded from last time, to healthier levels, and so had the crowd’s morale. This contrasted with the torrent of bad news coming from Gaza, such as repeated discoveries of mass graves at hospitals, filled with corpses of patients that have manifestly been executed by the occupying Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The reckoning that follows mirrors that of the discoveries of unmarked grave sites at residential schools closer to home, which constituted a turning point in the court of public opinion.
On the other hand, it also rides on a tidal wave of protest encampments on university campuses, in the US and beyond, starting with the University of Columbia in New York. Even arrests by the hundreds have not dissuaded protesters, but instead galvanised them to the point of escalating confrontation with law enforcement, sometimes even succeeding at repelling assaults. The wave has hit Canada as well, first with an encampment at the University of Alberta, then another by McGill and Concordia students in Montreal. Many among local activists wonder when local universities will follow suit.
Meantime, a keffiyeh ban at the Ontario Legislature, opposed by the NDP and surprisingly Doug Ford, causes so much outrage that the opposition threatens to massively defy it. It was invoked on the spurious grounds that the keffiyeh constitutes a political symbol, as opposed to a cultural one. MPP Sarah Jama openly defied the ban already, only to be subjected to censure, which emboldened activists countrywide.
There isn’t much left to say at this point. Speeches have been scarce as of late, as anyone would tire of repeating the same facts and debunking the same obvious lies. Today’s rally was at the centre of a polemic among local activists who likewise tire of sanctioned protests, many instead calling for escalation all over social media. And while I still support the weekend parades, I too wonder when I’ll wake up to a call to the barricades at UVic.
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