MTLNow

Today outside the Israeli Consulate : https://twitter.com/LaySkeet/status/1393653484499701761?s=19

https://www.tvanouvelles.ca//centre-ville-de-montreal-un-j

https://www.tvanouvelles.ca//un-homme-agresse-par-arme-bla

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6025276?__twitter_impression=true

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6025622?__twitter_impression=true

Statement on the Middle East - Today I am speaking out against Israeli apartheid and more specifically, the violent evictions of Palinistinans in the Sheikh ...Jarrah neighbourhood. In an ongoing violent colonization effort, the Israeli government has sent settlers into people’s homes to force them out. They are literally sitting on people’s couches when they return from work taking over their space. Those who speak up against those who are stealing their homes are brutalized or killed by the Israel military. Military service is mandatory in Israel and people in their late teens and twenties are being forced into a brutal military which is carrying out ethnic cleansing by displacing, intimidating, beating and killing innocent Palestinians, many of whom are children. Over the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded and hospitalized as Israeli soldiers raided mosques, deployed rubber-coated bullets, sound grenades and explosives. There have also been reports of medical personnel being barred from tending to the wounded. Israel’s courts have sided with the military’s actions and have legitimized the evictions, brutalization and killing off innocent Palestinians. The only way to end this violent settler colonialism is to apply as much international pressure as possible. Actions should include diplomatic sanctions, economic divestment and boycotts. We cannot allow this to continue. The international community has a responsibility to speak out. This includes Canada. Just last night 28 Palestinians, including 10 children were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Condemning both sides when one is being colonized and displaced by the other is not a productive approach. Israeli needs to be held accountable and for this to happen politicians need to acknowledge the facts on the ground; the Palestinians are overpowered and being forcibly removed from their homes while Israel continues to expand its borders through aggressive settlement and annexation of occupied territories. The death toll is many times higher on the Palestinian side of the conflict. We must consider Israeli and Palestinian lives as being equally important. We cannot tolerate notions of white or Jewish supremacy. Dialogue is important but has failed so far and an international intervention is long overdue. While many politicians in Canada hesitate to speak out against the actions of the state of Israel, it is important that we do so despite the backlash. The Green Party of Canada’s membership adopted a resolution calling on the Canadian government to employ sanctions to the state of Israel in order to help end this senseless violence. The Green Party of Quebec fully supports this position and will continue speaking out for human rights here and around the world. In solidarity, Alex Tyrrell Leader of the Green Party of Quebec