Dismantle Injustice, Not Encampment

[Following is a press statement sent by Dolores Chew on behalf of Women of Diverse Origins, Canada]

At dawnon July 5, 2024, riot police from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) forcibly evicted campers from the Palestine solidarity Al-Soumoud encampment, destroying part of its facilities. Later the same day, the homeless camp in Parc des Faubourgs was also dismantled.

Other Palestinian solidarity encampments have also been dismantled in Quebec and Canada in recent weeks. And today [July 9] McGill University has deployed private security to take down the Palestine solidarity encampment at the university that has been in place since April 29th.

Those opposed to the solidarity encampments spuriously but deliberately resort to issues of law and order, use of public space and fabricated allegations of fear and intimidation to distract from what needs to be the focus–the genocide that is continuing to unfold in Palestine and the way in which we as Montrealers, Quebecers, students, workers by default are being made complicit in that genocide by taking our savings, etc. investing in businesses and financial institutions that are directly linked to the mass murder and on-going physical elimination of Palestinians.

The recently dismantled Al-Soumoud camp and the Désinvestir pour la Palestine collective pointed the finger at the 14.2 billion invested by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) in 87 companies linked to violations of international law and the rights of the Palestinian people. The Quebec government, for its part, is still holding out for the opening of a Quebec office in Israel.

This is part of a repressive logic of control and policing of public space and social struggles, particularly the struggle for Palestine and decolonial struggles on the unceded lands of Turtle Island by governments and institutions that carry out the bidding of corporations and financial elites, while ignoring the public will and the thousands who are opposed to them.

Rather than cease their complicity with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and listen to the sounds and voices of the street, occupied by hundreds of thousands of protesters over the past 9 months, the regal institutions of Quebec and Canada refuse to accept their responsibilities and stubbornly endorse the crimes committed by the Zionist Entity against the Palestinian people. This is not democracy. This is not justice.

To date, in Gaza more than 186,000 have been killed (The Lancet) and over 80,000 wounded since the genocide in Gaza began. Many of the dead are women and children. There is also deliberate mass starvation. Children are dying of starvation in staggering numbers. (UNICEF) Gaza, home to close to two million Palestinians has been turned to rubble by continuous attacks and bombardment. The massive destruction of infrastructure– homes, sewage treatment plants and destruction of hospitals have made life impossible, even as mothers try to provide some food in the most unimaginably difficult situations. The impact will be felt for generations as survivors live with amputations and trauma. At the same time attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli army and Jewish settlers with fatalities, arrests and destruction of homes and sources of livelihood continue apace.

No other mass killing, destruction, consistent and deliberate attacks on hospitals and schools would be tolerated elsewhere. The dehumanisation of Palestinians and the prevalence of Islamophobia and Arabophobia contribute to the current situation. Palestinians are seen as expendable. And encampments are seen as the problem. Instead of addressing the reasons for the presence of encampments.

Women of Diverse Origins (WDO) denounces this complicity and calls for an immediate end to the financing of genocide and the various links with Israel. It also denounces the dismantling of various camps and the repression and violence that characterise the state's treatment of defenders of social causes, particularly Palestinian ones. WDO extends deepest solidarity to Palestinians and salutes the courage and steadfastness of those who have taken action via encampments to draw attention to the mass murder that is happening. ‘Never Again’ means ‘never again’ for all people. As a poster at the Parc des Faubourgs encampment put it, "Let's dismantle injustice, not encampments"!

Long live Palestine and all just causes!

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 5, Jul 28 - Aug 3, 2024