Toronto protest: “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free”

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Protester in Toronto waves the Palestinian flag (archive)

On Saturday March 30, 2019 a Land Day Commemoration event was held at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto.

The event was organized by Actions4Palestine and Independent Jewish Voices-Toronto and endorsed by

  • Faculty for Palestine
  • Women in Solidarity with Palestine-Toronto
  • International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Canada
  • Canadian Friends of Sabeel
  • UofT Students Against Israeli Apartheid
  • UofT Graduate Student Union BDS Committee
  • CUPE 3902 BDS Committee
  • Toronto BDS Action
  • United for Palestine-Toronto/GTA
  • Just Peace Advocates
  • Canadian BDS Coalition
  • Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid-Victoria

Here are excerpts from the statement published by the organizers before the event:

“Forty-three years ago, on March 30, 1976 Israeli Occupation Forces shot and killed six Palestinians and injured more than a hundred during protests against Israel’s expropriation of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land. Demonstrations took place throughout Palestine against land theft and Israel’s policies of erasure. Land Day is a commemoration of this resistance to settler colonialism.

“This March 30th also marks the first anniversary of the Great Return March in Gaza. In the last year, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 255 Palestinians and injured more than 7500. We pay tribute to the ongoing struggle of Palestinians and support the demands of the Great Return March: Lift the siege of Gaza and implement the Right of Return.

“And as we commemorate Land Day and the Great Return March and pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in the struggle to hold onto their lands, we call out and expose the role of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in the colonization of Historic Palestine. Eighty-nine destroyed Palestinian villages and towns lay underneath JNF parks and recreation areas (https://zochrot.org/en/article/55963). The JNF, an organization that actively practices discrimination in land policies, has charitable status in Canada… Join us on Land Day to honour Palestinian resistance and call for the JNF Canada’s charitable status to be revoked.”

Here are excerpts from the statement published by Actions4Palestine on April 4, 2019:

“Thank you to everyone who came out last Saturday March 30th, on Land Day, to join the international call and stand in solidarity with the Palestinians. Despite the heavy rain and the bad weather we were there at Dundas Square in Toronto. Neither rain nor the brutality of the occupation stopped the people of Gaza and Palestine from protesting last Saturday, where 4 Palestinians were shot and killed and more than 300 wounded in the besieged Gaza. Rain did not stop us here from coming out to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian people as they commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Land Day and the 1st anniversary of the Great Return March in Gaza. This is the least we could do!

Along with the Palestinian flag, we held trees marked with the names of the villages and towns that were demolished and ethnically cleansed by the Israeli occupiers and transformed into parks and settlements funded by the Jewish National fund. Our voices were loud and clear … freedom for Palestine!”

The participants in the Land Day Commemoration chanted the following slogans:

From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea Palestine will be free

Fight the power, turn the tide, end Israeli apartheid X2

Occupation is a crime

Free free Palestine

Occupation is a crime

Free free Palestine

From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea Palestine will be free X2

Brick by brick wall by wall apartheid has got to go X2

From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea Palestine will be free X2

Gaza Gaza don’t you cry Palestine will never die X2

Free free Palestine X2

Occupation is a crime

Free free Palestine

Occupation is a crime

Free free Palestine

Our only course of action – Boycott, Divestment Sanctions [BDS] X2

Free free Palestine

No justice no peace X13

The people united will never be defeated X4

The people united will never be defeated

The people united will never be defeated

The people united will never be defeated

Free free Palestine X2

Free free Gaza X2

Freedom for Palestine, justice for Palestine X2

Free free Palestine X2

Gaza Gaza don’t you cry Palestine will never die X2

Free free Palestine X2

Free free Gaza X2

Netanyahu you will see Palestine will be free X2

Free free Palestine X15

Freedom for Palestine, justice for Palestine

Free free Palestine X3

Zionists are terrorists X2

Occupation has got to go X7

End the occupation

Revoke the JNF’s charitable status

Land Day 1976

Great March of Return 2018…

Free Palestine

Canada must condemn Israeli war crimes

Affirm the right of return

Israel is a racist endeavour

Call it by name. Israel is… an apartheid state, settler colonial state, a white supremacist ideology bankrolled by the U.S.

Occupation is a crime. Resistance is a right.

Some of the participants held signs that read:

End the occupation

Revoke the JNF’s charitable status

Land Day 1976

Great March of Return 2018…

Free Palestine

Canada must condemn Israeli war crimes

Affirm the right of return

Israel is a racist endeavour

Call it by name. Israel is an apartheid state, settler colonial state, a white supremacist ideology bankrolled by the U.S.

Occupation is a crime. Resistance is a right.