A-Infos (en) Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman - Gaza is not alone! International solidarity! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Destruction following Israeli bombings on the Jabaliya refugee camp in 
the north of the Gaza Strip. ----For several months, Israel has 
intensified its genocidal acts against the Palestinian people of Gaza. 
To the bombings which take lives in addition to indiscriminately 
destroying homes, hospitals and all the living environments of Gazans, 
we must add to this a blockade which prevents the entry of food, water, 
medicine, fuel and electricity in the Gaza Strip. A blockade that goes 
against international humanitarian law. But Israel doesn't give a damn 
about that. When the blockade was put in place in early October 2023, 
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared: "No electricity, no 
food, no gas (...). We fight animals and we act accordingly.» (1) 
However, in the face of international pressure, a few humanitarian 
convoys were able to pass. But remember that on February 29, Israeli 
soldiers fired guns at a humanitarian convoy, killing 120 people. Since 
October 7, 2023, nearly 200 humanitarian workers have been killed in 
Gaza and more than 30,000 Gazans (2).

Demonstration blocking access to Seattle-Tacoma airport. Photo credit: 
Amy Grazer
Faced with the ongoing genocide, people are mobilizing all over the 
world to stop this massacre. In the United States, several 
pro-Palestinian protests have blocked major airports, highways and 
bridges in several major American cities as part of an international 
call to shut down the economy in response to the genocide in Gaza. In 
Seattle, demonstrators blocked the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport 
for more than three hours. In Chicago, Interstate (3) 190 leading to 
O'Hare International Airport was also blocked, as was the Golden Bridge 
Gate in San Francisco Bay, Interstate 880 in Oakland, the Brooklyn 
Bridge and the Interstate 5 in Eugene, Oregon's second largest city (4). 
That same day in Montreal, a sit-in took place in the offices of 
Scotiabank (5), the largest non-Israeli shareholder of the Israeli arms 
firm Elbit. A day earlier, a demonstration took place in the streets of 
Rimouski in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Occupation of Scotiabank offices in Montreal. Photo credit: PAJU-VJI 
Montreal

Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Rimouski. In this same city, several 
actions took place in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Photo 
credit: Collectif Églantine.

Wave of occupations, pressure mounts

Camp on the campus of Columbia University. Photo credit: Peoples Dispatch.
For more than two weeks, a wave of occupations has raged on several 
American and Canadian campuses. It all started at Columbia University in 
New York before spreading across the United States and Canada. On the 
campus of the prestigious New York university, occupiers set up an 
encampment and certain people, including members of the Columbia 
University Apartheid Divest, occupied Hamilton Hall, renamed "Hind's 
Hall" in homage to a young six-year-old girl killed in ongoing massacre. 
This occupation aimed to demand that university leaders stop 
collaborating and cut ties with patrons and companies that profit from 
and/or participate in the genocide. This obviously involves stopping the 
financing of various funds whose sums raised go to the massacre in Gaza. 
University leaders refused these requests and preferred to call on the 
police who ended up forcibly dismantling the encampment on the night of 
April 30 to May 1. Too little, too late for the allies of Zionism and 
their armed wing. The embers of Columbia have already spread and this 
type of occupation has multiplied rapidly. Here is a non-exhaustive list:
Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island): occupation and dismantling 
of the encampment shortly after following an agreement between students 
and university leaders on a university vote in October on possible 
"divestments from societies that enable and profit from the genocide in 
Gaza" (6).

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Students raised a 
Palestinian flag in the center of campus to replace the Star-Spangled 
Banner.

University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA): encampment attacked by 
pro-Israelis on the morning of May 1. They attempted to break through 
the barricades and clashes ensued. On May 2, police forcibly dismantled 
the encampment.

University of Southern California (USC, Los Angeles): An occupation took 
place from April 24 to May 5 where around 100 riot police raided at 4:00 
a.m. to dismantle the encampment.

University of Virginia (Charlottesville): several actions of solidarity 
with Palestine including an occupation on campus from May 1 to 4 when 
the police attacked the encampment.

University of Oregon (Eugene): the encampment erected on campus on April 
29 is still in place

Portland State University (Oregon): students have occupied the Branford 
Price Millar Library since April 25. A pro-Palestinian group claimed to 
have set fire to several police vehicles in order to deter any attempt 
by police to end the occupation.

Occupation at Portland State University. Photo credit: Jordan Gale/The 
New York Times
Across the United States, from Alabama to Colorado, Florida, Georgia, 
Illinois, the District of Columbia and even Connecticut, actions and 
demonstrations have taken place and others are planned to denounce the 
ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, to demand an end to US 
funding and cooperation with Israel and the divestment of American 
universities from companies that profit from and participate in the 
genocide (7).

In Canada, occupations are also increasing

Camp in front of the Vancouver Island University library in Nanaimo. 
Photo credit: CHEK NEWS.
University of British Columbia: Camp was set up on MacInnes Field on 
April 29. The demonstrators demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, a 
disengagement of the university from companies that support Israel and a 
boycott of Israeli universities.

Camp at the University of British Columbia. Photo credit: CBC/BEN NELMS
University of Victoria: A camp was set up on May 1. Organizers of the 
Free Palestine BC movement are demanding that the university renounce 
all investments related to companies with Israeli business interests.

Camp at Victoria University. Photo credit: Michael Starr
Vancouver Island University: An encampment was set up on campus on May 1.

University of Ottawa: Tents were set up on the university campus on 
April 30 when a sit-in action turned into an encampment. Participants 
are calling on the university to end its investments in companies and 
organizations with ties to Israel, including Scotiabank.

Occupation at the University of Ottawa. Photo credit: Radio-Canada/Matéo 
Garcia-Tremblay
McGill University: encampment began on April 28. The occupiers denounce 
an investment by the university in the arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin 
and reiterate the complicity of the educational institution in the 
maintenance of Israel's apartheid regime. On May 1, the Superior Court 
rejected the request for an injunction filed by two students aimed at 
forcing the dismantling of the encampment.

Western University (London, Ontario): On May 1, protesters set up an 
encampment outside the university's community center.

Occupation at Western University. Photo credit: Desmond Mahood/Western 
Gazette
University of Toronto: Protesters set up camp on the night of May 2 on 
the lawn of King's College Circle, even though the area had been fenced 
off in preparation for the convocation ceremony. The protesters demand 
that the university "end any investment that supports Israeli apartheid 
and the occupation, as well as illegal settlements, in Palestine" (8).

May 2: pro-Palestinian rally in front of the University of Toronto 
encampment. Photo credit:
Mike Crawley/CBC

Camp at the University of Toronto. Photo credit: Chris Young/The 
Canadian Press.
This Palestine solidarity movement must continue to put pressure on 
leaders and businesses that finance, collaborate and ally with Israel, 
this genocidal colonial state fueled by Zionism. We must multiply the 
types of action and create the crack that will make the status quo 
impossible. The struggle, by all means, until the liberation of Palestine!

1. Luc Vinogradoff, Le Monde: From the blockade to the "complete siege" 
of the Gaza Strip by Israel, fears of a humanitarian catastrophe

2. United Nations: Middle East conflict: Gaza has become "the most 
dangerous place in the world for children" and a nightmare for pregnant 
women

3. In the United States, Interstates are highways that connect American 
states together.

4. SophiaTareen. The Associated Press - The Seattle Times: 
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and key bridges 
in major US cities

5. Occupations also took place at Scotiabank offices in Toronto and 
Halifax. For more information on the occupation that occurred in 
Montreal, read the press release from PAJU-VJI Montreal. Link, here.

6. Ana Fernández and Nicolas Revise. Agence France-Presse - La Presse: 
New York police dislodged pro-Palestinian demonstrators from Columbia 
University

7. By doing business with multinationals like BlackRock and Lockheed 
Martin, both involved in the arms sector and suppliers to Israel.

8. Radio-Canada: University campus: 2 new pro-Palestinian encampments in 
British Columbia

University of Arizona (Tucson) and University of Wisconsin-Madison: 
camps dismantled by the police on the morning of May 1.

https://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2024/05/gaza-nest-pas-seule-solidarite.html
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