OTTAWA: Thousands of protest demonstrators on Saturday carried placards, waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in front of Canada’s Parliament in Ottawa, demanding a permanent truce in Gaza. The protestors included Arab, Palestinian, Muslim, anti-war, labor and social justice entities.
The march followed an online petition presented to legislators on Friday with more than 286,719 signatures — said to be the most of any parliamentary e-petition — asking the country’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to press for a long-term truce in Gaza.
“A pause is not sufficient,” stated Yara Shoufani, a march organizer, saying that “thousands of Palestinian people have been killed and Gaza’s entire infrastructure has been damaged.”
Thousands Protest in Canada for Truce in Gaza
Protester Omar Yousif said that he was attending the protest to “awaken the world” to the plight of people in Gaza. He said that efforts should be made for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister had said that the killing of children, babies and women” in the Gaza war must be stopped. Government officials in Gaza said that Israeli brutal attack has killed more than 15,000 people mostly women and children in the Gaza Strip.
Similarly, Gaza sympathizers and supporters gathered in the crowded Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan on Saturday to honor the lost lives of around 15000 Palestinians – many of them children and babies, killed by the Israeli military occupation.
READ ALSO: “Tears for Gaza” Attracts Crowds in Japan
Arab News citied one of the gathering organizers as saying, “Our tears continue as we honor them all,”.
Participants painted red tear drops on a box carpet on the ground, others chanted slogans against the “Israeli apartheid government and genocide war to exterminate the people of Palestine.”
Chants of “Palestine will be free from the River to the sea”, “Free Palestine”, “Boycott Israel” and “Israeli terrorists” echoed around the square in Tokyo.
Speakers included non-Japanese and Japanese who applauded the determination of the people of Gaza to resist the occupation and “Israeli genocide”.
