Victoria Holds Silent March for Palestine

145 Palestine supporters rallied at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, for the forty-third weekend in a row, this time holding a silent march across town after having long run out of words to convey the horrors of Gaza.

There were no guests speakers today, that in part because there was little more to say. This is just as well. The debate has long swerved into utter bigotry anyway, with the topic of the week at the Knesset being whether it is ever legitimate to rape Palestinian detainees with fire extinguishers, in a shocking cross mix of Todd Akin buffoonery and gratuitous Abu Ghraib torture; even this comparison fails actually, as the former at least apologised for his egregious wording while the US government had the decency to express perfunctory shame over the latter. But in today’s Israel, packs of rabid pack animals instead riot in an attempt to rescue the suspects from custody and celebrate them as heroes, with the full backing of many among their elected representatives.

So what gives. This week the marchers instead paced the city’s streets in mourning silence, holding pictures of children who have become statistics in a graphic fashion under the Israel Defence Forces’ merciless onslaught.

Actually, the emcee stopped the procession at strategic locations in town and played clips of Gaza witnesses to bystanders, such as the testimony of Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina who briefly volunteered in Gaza, and describes a killing field in which countless children were sniped—and those were the lucky ones. “I’ve seen more incinerated children than I’ve ever seen in my entire life, combined. I’ve seen more shredded children in just the first week… missing body parts, being crushed by buildings, the greatest majority, or bomb explosions, the next greatest majority. We’ve taken shrapnel as big as my thumb out of eight-year-olds. And then there’s sniper bullets. I have children that were shot twice.”

The protesters were so satisfied by the change in formula that the organisers are planning to bring back the concept next weekend. So come early everyone.

By the way, I had the emcee issue a call to join the residents of Irving Park for the remainder of a festivity this afternoon to boost their morale, as these stand their ground after the City of Victoria ordered them to vacate the premises, essentially displacing them to nowhere just like the children of Gaza. Over a dozen brave souls answered the call.