Pro-Palestinian Montrealers gather to mark anniversary of start of current war in Gaza

Emma El Ghadban, a Palestinian-Lebanese Montrealer, has attended many protests since the start of the current war in Gaza.

She says she doesn't remember her last full night's sleep. With family in Lebanon and the West Bank, and friends in Gaza, she attends demonstrations because she hopes those in power will stop the war.

"If I was alive during the Holocaust, if I was alive during the Vietnam war, if I was alive during the civil rights movement, I would be doing exactly what I'm doing right now," she said. 

"It doesn't matter your religion, it doesn't matter your politics. We don't care about any of this stuff. We've been saying that if it was anybody's children, we would be in the streets for them," said El Ghadban in her speech to the crowd gathered at Place-des-Arts. 

Pro-Palestinian Montrealers took part in an "International Day of Action" on Saturday afternoon to commemorate the start of the current war in Gaza.

Monday will mark one year since Hamas carried out an attack in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 Israelis. Some 250 hostages were taken to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. 

As of last month, Israel had killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, displaced 90 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory, leaving more than a million Gazans starving with a collapsed health-care system.

More than 680 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank — most by the Israeli army and some by Israeli settlers.

Montreal police have recorded 345 Montreal-area demonstrations in connection with the current war. 

On Friday, they said they had increased their presence near Jewish and Muslim places of worship and deployed additional staff to reinforce the sense of security in the city for the next few days.

'We will continue organizing and mobilizing until liberation'

Sarah Shamy has organized many protests with the Palestine Youth Movement (PYM) and is also "extremely worried" about her loved ones' safety.

"It's been one year of us seeing live televised genocide," she said. "This has never happened in history where we are seeing on our phones every single day pictures of mutilated children and babies, refugee camps are getting bombed." 

But she also reflects on how her people "remain steadfast in their ability to continue to live under this occupation." 

On Saturday afternoon, protesters played Arabic music, waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags, and chanted slogans like "students united will never be defeated." 

Rama Al Malah, another protester with the PYM, says labour unions representatives, health-care workers, lawyers, students and other segments of society were present at the event on Saturday.

She says pro-Palestinian demonstrators continue to ask for an end to the war and the siege on Gaza. 

"We're calling again for an immediate arms embargo and an end to our government's complicity," said Al Malah. "We will continue organizing and mobilizing until liberation." 

In March, UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said there were "reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide" has been met in Gaza.

The violence in the Middle East continues to rise with Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon claiming the lives of more than 1,000 people and injuring 6,000, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by Israel.

In the last few months, the exchange of rockets between the Lebanese militant group and Israel has increased. Iran also launched a series of ballistic missiles at Israel less than a week after the assassination of Nasrallah.