Grade 10 student Max Silverman says classmates call him “a self-hating Jew” and his teachers are fighting to get him to stop wearing an “End the Occupation” button.
But despite the opposition, Silverman was part of a line of men and women pressed against a fence across from the Israeli Consulate, demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The International Women’s Day event, organized by Bat Shalom, an Israeli women’s peace organization, was mirrored by similar vigils in Tokyo, Madrid, Stockholm and New York.
“We are saying that the only way that Israel can survive, the only way that Israelis will not continue to be hurt, is if there is an end to the occupation,” said Amy Gotleib. “That is the basis upon which there will be security and peace within the region.”
Gotleib has been working with the Jewish Women’s Committee Against the Occupation since 1988, in part because they had found that many Jewish supporters of Israel were claiming all Jews supported the occupation.
In her opinion, charging critics of Israel with being anti-Semitic “is a way of silencing opposition to Israeli policies which are basically just inhumane.”
She noted that the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all recognized Israel as engaging in human rights abuses in the occupied territories.
“It’s really a shame, because nothing is going to change until countries start to pressure Israel, and that’s really not going to happen until the Jewish community can really see the faults in Israel,” agreed Silverman.
Gotleib says international organization must protect Palestinian civilians, and until there is a separate Palestinian state there will be no resolution to the situation.
“This occupation has been going on for 35 years, and there is still no resolution. When the Israeli army attacks, when they roll into refugee camps, when they roll into towns, they are attacking Palestinian civilians,” said Gotleib.
Tanya Collins, a student from McMaster University, attended because she wanted to counter what she calls a slant in the media. “I’m here because I have a lot of hope in a peaceful resolution in Palestine and Israel, and I think there is a lot of disinformation through the media about the occupation.”
When asked why the media might be slanted, Collins said “I think it might have to do with American/ Canadian relations with Israel—especially American economic relations and security relations with Israel.”
She gets her information from authors like renowned academic Noam Chomsky, and from magazines. Participants in the vigil handed out leaflets to passers by with lists of alternative media sources dealing with the conflict in the Middle East. The U of T Jewish Student’s Union was not available for comment.
