The decision by some major Canadian cities to fly Israeli flags to mark the country's Independence Day has sparked outrage, with Palestinian rights advocates saying Israel should not be honored as it wages a deadly military attack on the Strip. Loop.
The Israeli flag will be raised in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, as well as in Toronto, the country's largest city, on Tuesday to mark Israel's Independence Day, also known as Yom Ha'atzmaut.
Ottawa's flag-raising will be a private event after a planned public ceremony at city hall drew widespread condemnation.
“This decision is based on recent intelligence suggesting that hosting a public ceremony poses a substantial risk to public safety,” the city said last week.
In Toronto, city staff approved a request from the Israeli Consulate General to raise the Israeli flag, The Toronto Star reported.
Both events sparked small protests Tuesday morning by pro-Palestinian protesters.
“As Jews, we shout it loudly: Israel does not make us proud,” protesters chanted outside Toronto's city hall building. “As Jews, we say no in our name, it is not our flag, we are not the same.”
View of the Israeli flag raised at Toronto City Hall from Nathan Phillips, where a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters did their best, from a forced distance, to disrupt it. pic.twitter.com/zNWVKCV9Lq
– David Rider (@dmrider) May 14, 2024
The flag-raisings come as Israel continues to bomb the Gaza Strip, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians since the war began in early October.
Israel's siege of the Palestinian coastal enclave has also led to a worsening humanitarian crisis, with Palestinians facing shortages of water, food, fuel and medical supplies.
Amid global protests demanding a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, Palestinian rights advocates in Canada also noted that the Yom Ha'atzmaut flag-raising events come a day before what is known as the Nakba Day.
Nakba Day, celebrated annually on May 15, commemorates the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians who were expelled from their homes and communities when the State of Israel was created in 1948.
Jamila Ewais, a researcher with the anti-racism program at the advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), said that in that context, the flag-raising ignores “the pain and injustice experienced by countless Palestinian families.”
“Celebrating the violent founding of Israel, especially this year, is tantamount to celebrating injustice against Palestinians,” Ewais said in a statement last week.
The city of Ottawa justified its decision to raise the Israeli flag by saying that it “celebrates national holidays and independence days and conducts flag-raising events and activities, in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada, for more than 190 federally recognized countries.” .
Dear Mayor Sutcliffe and Councilor Leiper:
I am an international human rights lawyer, former United Nations Special Rapporteur, and have worked in the occupied Palestinian territories and continue to do so. I am Arab-Canadian and I live in Mr. Leiper's neighborhood. My father is…
— Leilani Farha 🍉 (@leilanifarha) May 8, 2024
But human rights advocates noted that the city has refused to hold flag-raising events in the past.
In 2022, for example, Ottawa rejected a request from the Russian embassy to fly the Russian flag over City Hall.
“I indicated that until the Russian military leaves Ukraine we will have nothing to do with the Russian government and its illegal invasion,” said then-Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson. he said on social media at the time.
Leilani Farha, an Ottawa-based human rights lawyer and former United Nations special rapporteur on the right to housing, said raising the Israeli flag at this time “is completely inappropriate and deeply hurtful.”
Farha noted that Israel has been accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a case before the UN's highest court, the International Court of Justice.
“Ottawa has a sizable Palestinian, Arab and Muslim population,” she wrote in a letter to Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe's chief of staff about the city's plans to fly the Israeli flag, which she shared on social networks.
“This action by the City is being viewed by this community – of which I am a member – as well as many others who support Palestinians in Gaza and Palestinian liberation, as a provocation and a direct attack.”
