Our Advocacy

Palestine Banner Drop off the Ontario 401

Photo credit: @visualsbyei

BuycottPalestine’s offshoot Palestine Advocacy GTA committee created six massive banners that continue to be legally hung on bridges off of the Ontario 401. Our goal is to continue to raise awareness of Israel’s forced ethnic displacement, apartheid policies, occupation, and blockade on Palestinians.

Click here and here for drone footage. 

 

Free Ice Cream for a Free Palestine

We work alongside the Palestinian Community Association (PCA) to offer free ice cream to Toronto residents as we provide educational resources on Palestine.

 

 

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”

― Richard Shaull, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

 

Mock Eviction Notices

A collective of Canadians led by Buycott Palestine is posting mock eviction notices on residential homes across Canada. This publicity campaign aims to raise awareness of the imminent and forced ethnic displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, Palestine. We demand that the provincial and federal governments hold Israel accountable under international law and condemn the forced displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Jaffa, and other Palestinian neighborhoods. If the international community doesn’t act now, six Palestinian families—numbering 27 people—will be thrown out of their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and into the street—only to be replaced with Israeli settlers.

Background: Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah face the imminent threat of being forcefully displaced from their homes. Forced ethnic displacement is a routine reality for Palestinian families living under illegal Israeli occupation. It is an indispensable part of Israel’s settler colonial project to ethnically cleanse indigenous Palestinians from their homes. The aim is to displace and replace native Palestinians with settlers from other countries in order to annex more Palestinian land. This is illegal under international law. The forced ethnic displacement of Palestinians is arbitrary, racist, humiliating, and in violation of Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel’s apartheid policies mean that only Palestinians are subject to forced ethnic displacement. For roughly 30 years, Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah have faced the risk of being kicked out of their homes by right-wing Zionist settler organizations colluding with the Israeli government to displace them from their homes.

Demand: We demand that our provincial and federal governments hold Israel accountable under international law and condemn the forced displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and other Palestinian neighborhoods. We call on Canadians to do their part by:

  • Educating themselves on the forced ethnic displacement of Palestinians using credible sources such as:

    • @CJPME - Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East

    •  @IndJewishVoices- Independent Jewish Voices

    • @theIMEU - Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU)

  • Emailing your local politicians. Use CJPME’s link to automatically contact your local MP: www.cjpme.org/hrw_apartheid. For the French version, please use: www.cjpme.org/hrw_apartheid_fr.

  • Joining the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality.

  • Contacting media outlets to demand that they use principled journalism to cover the attempted and forced ethnic displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah.

  • Using the hashtags: #SaveSheikhJarrah #SheikhJarrah #Palestine #BDS #SaveSilwan

  • Signing this petition to tell the federal government to denounce the attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque: www.nccm.ca/alaqsa/

 

B’nai Brith attempted a smear campaign against this publicity campaign and we thank them for doing nothing but increase its publicity. Thank you. B’nai Brith—an organization known for its fearmongering—tried to instill fear in businesses and organizations to avoid publicly supporting the Buycott Palestine and the BDS movement. Ironically, their tactics only lead to an increased number of organizations and businesses that publicly affirm these movements. Click here for more details. Thank you again, B’nai Brith!

 

News Links:

Canadian Jewish News

Global News

Toronto Sun

CP24

The Hill Times