Raise a flag for genocide!

Israelis in the West Bank blocking and destroying aid destined for Gaza. Toronto City Hall salutes these men!

I ran into my friend on the bike path. We hadn’t seen each other since his wife and kids managed to escape Rafah. Had anything gone wrong with the plan, had there been a delay at the bank, a robbery in Egypt — anything — they would still be in Rafah right now, trapped.

“Noura” he calls me, “Noura they destroyed the border crossing. It’s gone. They’re doing scortched earth in Rafah. It’s all gone! My kids were dancing at that border crossing just weeks ago! And now it’s gone.”

The rumours are flying about what’s next. The people who had sent money to the Egyptian travel agency that arranges for people to leave Gaza are afraid that their money is gone (between paying and evacuation can be several weeks). No one can leave any more. A US company is going to be installed to manage the border crossing for Israel, says the word on the street. Who knows if it’s true? It’s the fog of genocide.

Al Jazeera says that at least 35,173 people have been killed and another 10,000 people, at least, are missing. That number includes 14,500 children and are certainly low estimates. In the West Bank, nearly 500 people have been killed since October 7. And, as Israeli officials have vowed to wipe Gaza off the map, they have done a number on the civil infrastructure too. From Al Jazeera,

• 80% of commercial facilities

• 73% of school buildings

• 12 out of 35 hospitals are partially functioning

• 83% of groundwater wells not operational

• 267 places of worship

have been destroyed. And, half of all residential buildings too.

If we consider that a similar rate of death would have resulted in 47,000 Torontonians murdered in just six months, maybe we could humanize Gazans for enough time to give ourselves pause — who on earth supports this slaughter?

Well, for one, the City of Toronto, which has allowed Israel to raise its flag at City Hall to celebrate its Independence Day. Independence from what, you’re wondering? Well, from the people who lived there before they did, and who still live there. And who are being murdered as I write these words by Israeli forces. It feels like of all the years for the City of Toronto to say — we’ll pass on this one — it should have been 2024. And yet, they didn’t. The ceremony is going ahead this very moment.

The event was also used as a money laundering exercise for Toronto Police, as they were on hand to ensure that anyone who wanted to demonstrate their opposition to the murder of 14,500 children in six months would be denied access. Veteran city reporter David Rider posted on Twitter that he has never seen Nathan Phillips Square so fenced up. He posted a video of the police forcibly removing (assaulting) a woman.

Pretty much any group can ask for their flag to be raised. The City of Toronto has policies that say what is permitted. Somehow though, the policies don’t apply to Israel, as this, “Organizations requesting flag raisings that espouse discrimination, hatred, violence or racism” has been violated daily for six months. What is more violent than the stats listed above? Not even Russia has caused that level of damage to Ukraine …

It’s one thing for the City to give the Israeli Consulte unencombered access to promote their genocide but it’s another altogether to also criminalize, assault and harass anyone who tries to oppose it.

In Ottawa, the same thing is happening. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe wandered into that old anti-Semitic trap by conflating Israel with Judiasm, lamenting that this year’s Israeli flag raising would be a private affair, “‘Like all residents of our city, Ottawa's Jewish community deserves to gather whenever it chooses in an environment that is free from hate, violence, and racism,’ Sutcliffe said Friday.” No mention of what will happen to Jews who protest the event. I suspect they will experience violence at the hands of Ottawa Police just like folks in Toronto, but Sutcliffe doesn’t actually mean he wants an environment free of hate, violence and racism. If he did, they wouldn’t be marking the independence of a country currently engaging in genocide.

And in case you’re wondering, Russia’s request in 2022 to fly their flag for Russia Day was called “outrageous” by city officials.

Canada’s establishment still clings to the hope that Canadians will just abandon our support for Gazans. And yet, a recent Angus Reid poll shows that 81% of Canadians support protests for Gaza. They better stamp the protests out, else someone new decides to support Palestine.

And they have help, from corporate leadership to brownshirts online who ceaselessly harass people for supporting Gaza. Take even this last paragraph from the CTV Ottawa story about the flag raising. It’s nestled at the bottom and describes how many people Israel has murdered in six months, as if this is some kind of random, extra context that should be added and not, you know, the main thrust of the issue:

“There have been regular protests in Ottawa about the Israel-Hamas war since the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Around 250 people were also taken hostage and Israel says Hamas still holds around 100 people captive. The Israeli response since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.” 

You see that? This is just an Israeli response. It’s a response to Hamas killing … well, we don’t actually know how many people Hamas killed because Israel never allowed an investigation into that, for fear that Israel’s own casulaties might, you know, change the narrative of October 7. And there’s no mention of the thousands of people who Israel holds hostage, many of them who are children, and who were the thrust behind Hamas’ October 7 campaign. No mention of any of this …

Just headless, senesless verbal sludge that is intended to help launder Israel’s image in the eyes of the doting west. And for the hundreds of thousands who are on their seventh escape hoping to continue to evade Israel’s bombs — well officially, Canada salutes your executioners.