“Please do not get used to the genocide happening in Palestine.”
An older Palestinian woman was repeating the phrase to passersby outside Union Station while she was leaving a rally in January. One of our editors overheard her, and it stuck. Her words are a reminder that we must not become numb.
As Palestinians continue being killed by Israel, we are reminded of a 2022 poem by Mosab Abu Toha, The Wounds. After describing how many people in Gaza had been killed and injured by an Israeli bombing, he writes: “(Don’t think of us as numbers.)”
Parents cry as they lose their children, crushed under buildings in Gaza destroyed by Israel’s bombs. An older woman holds her grandson’s hand as he waves a small white flag in the street to indicate they are unarmed and she is shot dead by an Israeli sniper. An injured child is held and cared for after losing both parents and all their siblings to the bombings. Israeli soldiers strip men, torture them and take them away from their families. These are people, not numbers.
Despite this, numerous organizations and individuals are working diligently to numb us to what’s happening and to distract us from the fact that the Canadian government supports Israel through it all.
If you regularly read the Toronto Sun, you might be under the impression that the protests have been full of hate and antisemitism. But as Palestinians and Jews who have been protesting for decades have said repeatedly, this is about opposing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes, which has been ongoing throughout the past century.
People are also losing their jobs for speaking out. After sharing Instagram posts critical of Israel and supportive of Palestinians, the Art Gallery of Ontario’s first curator of Indigenous art, Wanda Nanibush, left the gallery under mysterious circumstances seven years into her role. Several Palestinian journalists have lost their jobs. Many others have been censured or suspended from work or school.
Politicians including Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have demonized pro-Palestine protesters and encouraged police to go after them. And police have. There was a wave of arrests in November following Palestine solidarity actions.
In December and January, highway overpasses became a flashpoint, with people waving Palestinian flags and banners from around 20 overpasses. There were confrontations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protesters on the Avenue Road bridge over Highway 401 in late December, and one pro-Israel protester was arrested after a video showed her repeatedly making a throat-slitting motion towards the pro-Palestine crowd.
On Jan. 13, pro-Palestine residents in the area of the Avenue Road and Highway 401 overpass, including Jewish residents, were walking onto the bridge when three people in the group were arrested. Others in the group were injured by the police and hospitalized. On Jan. 21, one person was arrested in Scarborough at the McCowan and 401 overpass during a pro-Palestine demonstration.
While people are desperately trying to bring attention to the loss of life in Palestine and to Canada’s complicity, the story continues to be shifted away, deliberately.
Through the fall, we were appalled — but not particularly surprised — that Western nations like Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Germany did and said nothing to stop the slaughter. These were governments that we remember talking endlessly about the “rules-based international order,” now doing nothing while seeming war crimes were broadcast live.
And then, on Dec. 29, South Africa accused Israel of committing acts of genocide in Gaza. They presented a mountain of evidence in a readable submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), including statements appearing to show genocidal intent on the part of Israeli government leadership.
Finally, someone said something. And not just anyone, but South Africa, the nation where a domestic and international mass movement ended apartheid there in the 1990s.
The focus was, momentarily, returned to Gaza and Israel.
We don’t expect the ICJ ruling will change all that much. An interim order had not been released by our print date, but it might have by the time you read this. A final ruling may take two or three years. And even when orders are released, countries can choose not to follow them, as has happened before. But the case is already having an effect on the reputation of Israel and on nations which reject South Africa’s arguments, like Canada.
At a Tamil Heritage Month event in Scarborough on Jan. 21, Tamils in solidarity with Palestine interrupted Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree. “As Tamil people, we understand a genocide. We know the pain of losing our loved ones, of losing generations of our families, of experiencing war crimes,” the attendee said. “And the same thing that happened in [the 2009 massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils in the village of] Mullivaikkal is repeating itself right now. If Canadian politicians are silent, then what is the point of any of this remembrance?”
They went on to say they had emailed and tried to meet with the MP to get him to act, to no avail.
It will be community interventions and efforts like this, not leadership from politicians in power, that will centre humanity.
If we allow our governments to support genocide in Palestine, it devalues all life everywhere. And there is a frightening trend in that direction. As so many of us struggle to get by, some loud voices, instead of pointing out how the rich keep getting richer, instead encourage us to blame and look down on a growing list of marginalized groups, including Palestinians, migrants, the unhoused, queer and trans people, and others.
But we can resist, and collectively bring ourselves that much closer to lives of dignity and freedom.
Please do not get used to the genocide happening in Palestine.
This article appeared in the 2024 Feb/Mar issue.
