Saturday, 8 July 2006, at 1 pm
corner of Jean-Talon and Parc avenue (metro Parc)

A message from the
Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (official translation)
Transmitted by Raymond Legault

Just as the State of Israel is conducting another devastating assault against the Gaza Strip and on the occasion of the second anniversary of the historical opinion given by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine calls a rally of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

On July 9th 2004, the International Court of Justice reiterated that the Israeli occupation regime is illegal and established that the Wall built by Israel in Palestine is also illegal and must be demolished. Two year later, the construction of the Wall and the other illegal actions of Israel continue with total impunity: the military occupation, the expansion of settlements, the denial of the right of return of refugees, the bombardments against the civilian population, the "selective" assassinations, the confiscations of land, the detentions without trial, and torture. Closures and checkpoints cut cities from one another and create multiple delays and harassment for the most ordinary daily activities (going to school, going to work, getting some food and supplies, visiting family or friends, etc.). An entire people, humiliated daily.

Recently, the situation got even worse with the refusal of Western powers to recognize the results of democratic parliamentary elections that saw the victory of Hamas, and the cutting off of funding to the Palestinian Authority. The resulting situation is catastrophic for the Palestinian people : its very right to education, its right to work, and even its right to food are being targeted and Canada was the first country to attack in this way the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people by suddenly cutting off its aid! Moreover, this antidemocratic and inhumane policy of strangulation, considerably heightens tensions within the Palestinian population to the point of increasing the risks of civil war...

At this very moment, under the pretext that some Palestinian resistance forces are detaining one Israeli soldier -- when Israel arbitrarily and routinely detains thousands of Palestinians, resistance fighters and ordinary civilians -- Israel is engaged in yet another devastating assault on the Gaza Strip, in a new wave of collective punishments against the Palestinian people: destruction of bridges and of the only electrical distribution station, kidnapping and detention of numerous Palestinian Members of Parliament, death threats against the Palestinian Prime Ministrer and bombing of his office, which are all crimes under international law...

On Saturday, 8 July, we will reaffirm :

=> that Israel must comply with international law; that the Wall must be demolished, and that the occupation and the colonization must cease immediately;

=> that the impunity and support which the Israeli State benefits from must cease;

=> that Canada must immediately restore its aid to the Palestinian Authority, and that it must denounce the crimes committed by the State of Israel under international law, and actively support the implementation of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.
--

Just after the rally, several teams of volunteers will immediately follow up on these demands with some concrete action by going to various SAQ stores to protest against the fact that the SAQ sells some wines produced in the illegal Israeli colonies of the occupied Golan and to gather signatures on a petition demanding that the SAQ immediately stop that.

On July 8th 2006, in a particularly difficult and tragic period of its history, let us openly demonstrate, once again, our active solidarity with the Palestinian people!

The Wall must fall.
The occupation and the colonization must stop.

Canada must demand this.
We must see to it that it does !