Demonstration Opposes Israeli Occupation and Netanyahu's Visit to Winnipeg

Over 250 people gathered in front of a downtown Winnipeg theatre on September 9 to protest the visit of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protest, organized by a number of groups including the Canada Palestine Solidarity Network, the Structured Movement Against Capitalism and Jews for a Just Peace, drew a broad cross section of Winnipeggers.

Protestors chanted slogans denouncing the continued Israeli occupation of over three million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. While the demonstration opposing Netanyahu was without incident, protesters made it clear that Netanyahu was not welcome in Winnipeg and that his visit represented an affront to peace and justice-loving people.

Earlier in the day, individuals and representatives from various groups opposed to his visit held a press conference to outline why they opposed his visit. They pointed out that Netanyahu, both as Prime Minister of Israel and as a major player in Israeli politics today, has continually supported violent and repressive measures against the Palestinian people, including the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories. Most recently, Netanyahu was instrumental in having a resolution passed at the congress of the Likud party which refutes the right of the Palestinians to their own state. Netanyahu is currently manoeuvering to regain his position as Israeli prime minister (he lost power in 1999 to Ehud Barak in the midst of rumours of financial improprieties).

Netanyahu was in Winnipeg as part of a Canadian tour organized by the Asper Foundation. He was forced to cancel a scheduled speaking engagement earlier on September 9 at Concordia University in Montreal, where a large demonstration made it impossible for him to speak.

Israel Asper, who introduced Netanyahu at the Winnipeg event, has equated the demonstrators in Montreal with the brown-shirted Nazis of Depression-era Germany. Netanyahu himself claimed the demonstrators were opposing free speech and represented the same impulses of those who commit
acts of terrorism around the world. However, it has consistently been those who oppose the continued Israeli occupation of Palestine who have been silenced while the Aspers and Netanyahus of the world applaud from the sidelines. In Winnipeg recently, members of the Jewish community who made public their opposition to Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza were attacked and threatened.

Despite this, voices against the occupation continue to be heard. On September 10, a panel discussion was organized at the University of Winnipeg at which three panelists, all of whom had lived and worked or studied in either the occupied territories or Israel, discussed the occupation. Each highlighted the devastation caused by different Israeli policies related to maintaining the occupation.