Montrealers hold protests, memorials after a year of war in the Middle East
Oct. 7 marked anniversary of attack on Israel and subsequent destruction in Gaza
On the anniversary of the night Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel, leading to a retaliatory military campaign that has devastated the Gaza Strip, Montrealers are taking part in several events to mark a year of violence in the region.
At around noon on Monday, a large crowd gathered at a vigil in front of McGill University's Roddick Gates under a heavy police presence to honour those who were killed and taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
Supporters of Israel, many waving Israeli flags, gathered on Sherbrooke Street, which was closed to traffic for the event. Across the street, a few pro-Palestinian counter-protesters could be seen behind police lines waving Palestinian flags.
Leon Novodvorets, a McGill student, helped organize the vigil alongside advocacy group Federation CJA and other students.
"The Montreal Jewish community has been through a lot," he said. "We're here to mourn together, to grieve, to kind of know we're not alone."
Posters of Israeli hostages were plastered on the fence surrounding McGill's campus, which is closed to the public today. Individual posters on wooden sticks were also placed into buckets of dirt to symbolize what happened at a music festival and communities in southern Israel a year ago.
Monday marks a year since Hamas's attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and led to about 250 others being taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel has killed at least 41,500 people in an ongoing air and ground military offensive, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
About 90 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes and at least 680 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank — most by the Israeli army and some by Israeli settlers.
On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said 728 of its soldiers have died in Gaza in the last year.
Reuben Polansky-Shapiro, a Concordia University student who took part in the vigil in support of Israel, said he wants people on both sides of the conflict, all of whom are grieving, to be able to have respectful conversations with each other as the war wages on.
"A lot of my friends, they don't agree with me. But I can grab a coffee with them, we can have lunch and we can talk about it and we can say, 'Yeah, I understand your point, and I may not agree with everything, but I understand it.' And that's what I hope to see," he said.
Mourners also came together at Hampstead Park Monday evening in a memorial organized by Federation CJA.
Among the 4,000 attendees was Raquel Look. Her son Alexandre Look, 33, was killed in the Oct. 7 attacks.
"It's unimaginable that it's already a year," she said. "It's so sad realizing that you're going to miss him for the rest of your life."
There are still 100 hostages in Gaza, and the Israeli government has said it believes about one-third of those hostages are now dead.
'We know divestment is possible,' says pro-Palestinian group
A crowd of students gathered at Concordia's downtown campus at the intersection of De Maisonneuve Boulevard and Mackay Street at 2 p.m. in a joint protest organized by the McGill and Concordia chapters of Students for Palestine's Honour and Resistance (SPHR) — which has also gone by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights.
Palestinian flags waved over the crowd peppered with keffiyehs as demonstrators chanted to the beat of drum.
Local and provincial police stood a few metres away, separating the demonstrators from a handful of pro-Israeli counter-protesters who for the most part stood quietly wrapped by or waving Israeli flags.
"We're here to commemorate one year since the Zionist entity began a genocidal campaign against our people in Gaza," said Rama Al Malah, a spokesperson for SPHR McGill who took part in a two-month-long encampment at McGill's downtown campus to protest the school's financial and academic ties with Israel.
She said students continue to call for divestment.
Another student, Laurent Cardinal from Concordia, said he showed up to protest in solidarity with some of his peers who have been affected by the crisis in the Middle East.
"A lot of the students here are from these regions and have family living or, you know, dying in these situations. I've spoken to some, I know some, and the pain that they feel really resonates with me," he says.
Protesters break windows, throw paint
Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher told reporters at 4 p.m. that multiple protests had taken place peacefully Monday, but noted some protesters are "playing cat and mouse with police officers" on McGill's campus.
At 4:20 p.m., police said a group of pro-Palestinian protesters headed up to Des Pins Avenue and Aylmer Street, where they began throwing paint and breaking windows of a building under construction.
A spokesperson said police "pushed back" the protesters and they dispersed.
In the last year, the city has seen countless protests, many of them calling for a ceasefire, denouncing the military response to Hamas's attack and accusing Israel of committing genocide.
Other gatherings have called for the return of the remaining hostages in Gaza, denounced a rise in antisemitic incidents and called out different levels of government for not doing enough to curb them.
Dagher said his officers will continue to have an increased presence in the coming days.
"We are making sure that we are visible to discourage … anyone [who] has bad intentions, but also to be proactive. To anticipate any action," he said.
He said because of this visibility, his officers were able to arrest five people last week who were in the possession of incendiary devices. He said he was not aware of any arrests Monday.
Another Pro-Palestinian protest took place at 6 p.m. at Place des Arts, this one organized by the Montreal4Palestine group.
As people gather in Montreal and elsewhere, the violence in the Middle East continues.
In recent weeks, Israel's conflict with Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah has escalated sharply, with Israeli airstrikes and a ground offensive into Lebanon as well as Hezbollah and Iran launching rockets into Israel.
The Lebanese Health Ministry says more than 1,400 people in the country have been killed as the Israeli military campaign has intensified.
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With files from Cassandra Yanez-Leyton, Rowan Kennedy and The Canadian Press