Victoria Marches for Palestine, Take Forty-Two

125 protesters rallied at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Victoria, for the forty-second weekend in a row, to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and freedom for Palestine.

Today’s peak turnout, while lower than that of previous iterations, could have been higher had the event not started less late than usual. Indeed I’ve observed long ago that many show up only for the march, skipping the speeches altogether, as if everything had already been said. And while I sort of share that feeling, this afternoon’s speeches were worth listening to.

Of course Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress this week made the most significant impression upon the attendance. Even the Associated Press took the unusual initiative of debunking a portion of the Israeli Prime Minister’s egregious claims, which have nevertheless elicited over fifty standing ovations by those in the joint session of Congress in attendance, although roughly half of Democrats skipped it. In the meantime, hundreds of Jewish Voice For Peace protesters occupied the Capitol’s rotunda to denounce it, and were arrested after refusing to leave.

A welcome development in contrast was the Canada Revenue Agency revoking the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund, on the grounds that the latter supports a foreign military. Independent Jewish Voices Canada had long been campaigning to achieve this goal; its recent success could be attributed in part to the combined campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and recent breakthroughs in prosecuting Israel for international law violations, such as last week’s judgement by the International Court of Justice calling the occupation unlawful, or the UK’s new government dropping its objection to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

Another announcement went under the demonstrators’ radar, however. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have just released another joint statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Perhaps it failed to make an impression because of its blatant bothsidesism, going as far as endorsing a ceasefire plan by US President Joe Biden which, to the best of my knowledge, exists only in politicians’ imagination.

Organisers invited the protesters to attend a screening of Where Olive Trees Weep at the Victoria Theatre tonight at 7:30PM. The movie documents the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.