‘This is not humanitarian relief’: Montrealers gather to protest starvation in Gaza
Hundreds of demonstrators marched to demand an end to Israel’s militarized aid distribution system
Over 200 Montrealers took to the streets on the evening of July 22 to protest starvation in Gaza and demand an immediate lift of the siege on the strip.
The emergency demonstration organized by the Montreal chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) began at 5:30 p.m. with protestors gathering in front of the city’s United States Consulate General on Ste. Catherine St. W.
“We are seeing the population of Gaza being deliberately starved to death as a form of slow genocide,” said Rama, a PYM spokesperson who was granted last name anonymity for safety reasons. “We're here today to demand that humanitarian aid is let in.”
The World Health Organization has called the situation in Gaza “one of the world’s worst hunger crises unfolding in real time,” with the region’s entire 2.1 million population facing prolonged food shortages and almost half a million people in a “catastrophic situation of hunger.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that, as of June 15, 18,741 children have been hospitalized for acute malnutrition in Gaza since the start of the year. This represents only 31 per cent of the estimated 60,000 children in need of treatment.
“This is not humanitarian relief. It is collective punishment, engineered starvation and extreme dehumanization,” a PYM spokesperson said in a speech to the gathered crowd.
Protestors began marching at 6:30 p.m. down Stanley St. up to René-Lévesque Blvd., while chanting for an end to the siege on Gaza and a free Palestine.
Amnesty International has gathered evidence demonstrating that Israel is continuing to use starvation as a weapon of war to inflict genocide against civilians in Gaza through its militarized aid distribution system.
According to Al Jazeera, since May, almost 900 Palestinians have been killed near aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an aid agency backed by Israel and the United States.
“We want to send a clear message to these governments that the blessing they give in the ongoing mass slaughtering of the people of Gaza is something that will not go ignored,“ said a spokesperson for Students for Palestine's Honour and Resistance (SPHR) Concordia, who was granted anonymity for safety reasons.
Over 200 non-governmental organizations—counting Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children—have called for immediate action to end the “deadly Israeli distribution scheme.”
Protestors continued marching in the streets of downtown Montreal down to the Consulate General of Israel, where the protest ended at around 8 p.m.
“The weapons of war used in this genocide are becoming various, and this intense starvation phase is threatening every living person in Gaza,” said the SPHR Concordia spokesperson. “It’s urgent for us to mobilize to stop this in any way possible.”
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