On Tuesday morning, December 3, a group of 100 Canadian Jews occupied the lobby of the Confederation Building on Parliament Hill, where many MPs have their offices.
They demanded Canada impose an immediate, total arms embargo on Israel, with a view to ending what they described as Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
The activist Jews, who came from a variety of Canadian cities and towns, prayed, sang, invoked Jewish holy texts such as the Torah and the Talmud, and chanted: “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes,” “We are the people; we won’t be silenced,” and “Not in Our Name.”
The demonstrators included representatives of a number of organizations, among them Independent Jewish Voices, If Not Now, and the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition. Once ensconced in the lobby of the Parliament Hill building, they donned t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Jews for a Free Palestine,” and “Stop Arming Israel”.
Speakers referred repeatedly to their own connections to Jewish values and traditions, and quoted scripture in support of their views.
Blowing the shofar as a warning
Hamilton-based Rabbi David Mivasair harkened back to another rabbi who marched with U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, many decades ago. That rabbi had said: “When I march, I pray with my feet.”
Mivasair said Jewish holy texts refer to the many good deeds – mitzvot – which one should undertake, the texts say, as opportunity presents itself.
When it comes to one category of mitzvot, however, the obligation to act is greater. Jewish tradition and laws enjoin Jews to actively pursue justice and peace, however difficult or inconvenient such pursuits might be.
Mivasair criticized mainstream Canadian Jewish organizations for their passive and uncritical loyalty to the current, far-right regime in Israel, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.
The rabbi said one should never arm people who are prone to violence.
“Everyone knows what Israel is doing,” he said, “Don’t give weapons to a country committing genocide.”
The rabbi blew a shofar, a ram’s horn, which is usually blown on the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Mivasair said he was blowing the shofar for its original purpose, as a warning against danger.
He quoted the revered medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides who wrote of the blowing of the shofar that it should: “Arise from your slumber, you who are asleep; wake up from your deep sleep, you who are fast asleep; search your deeds, repent, and remember your Creator.”
‘Never Again’ applies to everybody
Long-time activist, founder of rabble.ca, and current rabble columnist Judy Rebick also spoke.
She pushed back against those in Canada who question her Jewish credentials, because she is a self-styled secular Jew. She pointed out she was brought up in an Orthodox Jewish home, and said she retained valuable lessons from that upbringing.
Most notable among those is that “Jews believe in supporting oppressed people.”
Rebick has long been a lonely voice among Canadian Jews for a non-violent and just solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
At the Ottawa rally she expressed gratitude that there are now many more in the Jewish community who are willing to put themselves on the line to defend the rights of the Palestinian people.
“I feel more a part of the Jewish community than I ever have,” she said.
Despite all she has witnessed during her longstanding advocacy for Palestine, Judy Rebick added that she had never imagined she would be obliged to “condemn genocide committed by Jews!”
Rebick invoked the phrase “Never Again”, which was coined to express humanity’s commitment to never allow a repeat of the Holocaust inflicted on the Jews, the Roma, and others more than three quarters of a century ago.
“Never again,” she said, “applies to everybody.”
The entire Parliament Hill action was solemn, respectful, and peaceful. After about an hour, the police told demonstrators they would have to leave the building, which they agreed to do.
Nonetheless, as some demonstrators were preparing to move the police grabbed them and detained them.
Elle Flanders of Toronto was among those. She said the police officer who arrested her said she was “taking too long” to move. She, like fifteen others, was held briefly, then released. Her arresting officer told her she could be charged with “trespassing and resisting arrest”.
The same officer also said protesters who had moved outdoors to continue their rally on the wide sidewalk in front of the Confederation Building risked being charged with the serious criminal offense of “mischief”.
The legal definition of mischief includes “the wilful destruction of property, making it dangerous or useless to others. This charge can also be laid if you obstruct or interfere with other people’s lawful use and enjoyment of property.”
None of that definition would have applied to the demonstrators who occupied only a portion of a sidewalk on Ottawa’s Wellington St. on December 3. In 2022, when truckers and their allies entirely occupied the same area with giant, noisy and polluting vehicles the cops showed far more patience and tolerance.
The Ottawa police chief at the time even went so far as to interpret that highly disruptive and borderline violent action as an exercise of constitutionally-protected “mobility rights”.
What a difference two years makes.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
