“We do not make peace with colonizers”: Palestine rally, vigil on UN International Day of Peace
(“We do not make peace with colonizers”; a liberation dove filled with keffiyeh designs and keys is perched on an olive tree and turns away from a colonizer’s peace defined by bloodshed. Artwork by Incé Husain.)
On September 21st, the UN International Day of Peace, Londoners gathered at Victoria Park for a Palestine rally and vigil. The crowd was filled with human rights posters, Palestine flags, and keffiyehs that reeled honks of solidarity from passing cars.
End genocide, end apartheid, free Palestine, read the posters. In Gaza, a bag of flour costs a life. Against killing kids?: Palestine is your cause. Invest in justice, stop arming Israel. You can’t say I didn’t know, you can only say I didn’t care.
Speeches from community members redefined “peace” with imagery of resistance and a rage that grieves.
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“Our peace is angry protests like this. Our peace is disturbance. Our peace is military arms embargos. Our peace is a sumud flotilla,” said Rawan, a member of the Canadian Palestinian Social Association (CPSA). “We do not make peace with colonizers who terrorize our ancestors out of our motherlands. We do not make peace with the colonizers who sell promises and carry their promises to kill our babies in their wombs - and we've witnessed that with our bare eyes. Resisting this fascist regime becomes our duty and we do not stop until every Palestinian is free, until every inch of Palestine is free. If peace does not recognize Palestinians, Indigenous peoples, Sudanese, and the list goes on, as humans who deserve peace, we can show them how we can take our peace back.”
The UN established the International Day of Peace in 1981 as a day for “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.” In 2001, it decreed that the day be one of “global ceasefire and non-violence”, inviting a cessation of all hostilities in the world for 24 hours. In 2014, UN officials agreed that “peace means dignity, well-being for all, not just absence of war.”
Since October 2023, the UN Security Council - comprising fifteen nations - has drafted six resolutions demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. All six times, the United States - which has provided Israel over $21 billion in military alliance since October 2023 - vetoed the ceasefire resolution. The most recent vote in September 2025 saw all other fourteen Security Council members vote in favour.
“The UN has successfully proven that their “peace” is double standard,” says Rawan of the failed UN structure. “When peace is stripped away by ceasefire vetoes and unconditional weapons and military support for Israel, it is lost in the starved stomachs of babies and Palestinians.”
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s March 2024 report “Anatomy of a Genocide” declared that Israeli forces are committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Since then, she released two other reports - “Genocide as colonial erasure” in October 2024 and “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” in July 2025 - describing Israel’s systematic genocide in Gaza and how the world order, including corporations and universities, enables it.
Despite these analyses, the UN only declared that Israel is committing genocide in September 2025. It urges the international community to take action, including to cease arms transfers to Israel. The Canadian government has not stated that it will impose an arms embargo on Israel following this announcement, and, according to the Maple, most likely continues to ship millions of dollars worth of arms to Israel. In 2024, Canada spent 18.9 million dollars in arms to Israel; in February 2025, it approved a 37.2 million dollar arms export. Over 680,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the genocide began. Today, Israeli forces continue to kill Palestinians in violation of the recent U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.
“We’re here today without an ounce of peace for the Gazans, for the Palestinians,” said Rawan. “The Palestinians don’t even deserve 24 hours of peace.”
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A former CBC journalist, who resigned due to CBC’s dishonest coverage of the genocide, addressed the crowd.
“In the West, journalism is seen as nothing more than a job where the status quo remains unchallenged,” they said. “But in occupied Palestine, journalism is a shield that protects the voice of the oppressed from the oppressors. Anas Al-Sharif, Hossam Shabat, Mohammad Salama - these are just a drop of names in the ocean of Palestinian journalists who knowingly risked their lives so they can tell their stories with their own words.”
They share that many media workers in the West stand in solidarity with Palestinians, but upper management “white-washes” reporting to exclude terms like “apartheid”, “settler-colonialism”, and “genocide.” Their friends at CBC, BBC, CTV News, Global News, and the Toronto star - many from marginalized communities - have been silenced in newsrooms for confronting this sanitized language, while Zionist lobby groups harass journalists who center Palestinian voices.
The former CBC journalist urges Palestine movements to protest outside mainstream media offices.
“It is a dishonor to call yourself a journalist when you can't even uphold the basic standard of the truth.”
In July 2025, independent media outlet The Breach released the anthology “When Genocide Wasn’t News” that chronicles anti-Palestinian bias in mainstream media. One contribution, “Palestinian deaths count for less in Canada’s newspapers. Data proves it” analyzed thousands of sentences from The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and National Post: dozens of Palestinian killings received only one mention in news, while every two Israeli deaths were reported. The article reads: Members of colonized nations like Palestine, whose interests are not supported by the Canadian government, are considered “unworthy” and their deaths are covered in a more low-key way, designed to keep a lid on sympathy and anger.
In November 2023, former UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk accused mainstream press of diluting the reality of Israel’s subjugation of Palestinians.
“The reporting in Canada tends to see Israel and Palestine as two separate teams on a soccer field. This is not a football match,” says Lynk. “It’s one nation ruling over and subjugating another nation. This is an occupation that has metastasized into annexation and apartheid, and we don’t see that kind of reporting in most mainstream media.”
The former CBC journalist says the voices of Palestinians must be amplified. They quote Gazan journalist Hossam Shabat, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in March 2025:
“The biggest problem is not Western journalists being unable to enter Gaza but the fact that Western media does not respect and value Palestinian voices. My colleagues and I risk our lives every day to report on this genocide. No one knows Gaza like we do and no one understands the complexity of the situation like we do. If you care about what’s happening in Gaza, you should amplify Palestinian voices.”
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Samah Al-Sabbagh, president of CPSA, conveyed deep gratitude for the Indigenous people of Turtle Island who are the stewards of the lands we live on. She honours the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton nations and the treaties that connect and urge care for these lands.
“I honor this land and its people and I humbly acknowledge that no matter how much I contribute, it will never be enough to thank the Indigenous people for allowing me to belong here to Turtle Island,” says Al-Sabbagh. “This land has become my home because my homeland, Falasteen, has been under occupation and dispossession since 1948, when more than 50,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in what is known as Nakba, the catastrophe. That history of forced exile continues to shape the lives of millions of Palestinians around the world including myself. As a proud Palestinian, I carry with me the lived experience of colonization, and I recognize the deep, painful parallels between the struggles of Indigenous peoples here and my own people in their ongoing fight for land, dignity, and self-determination.”
Al-Sabbagh attests that our tax dollars are being funnelled into “the imperial war machine fuelling the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” She believes that the Canadian government can be pressured by citizens into abolishing all ties with Israel that sustain its genocide in Gaza.
In October 2025, the Canadian government posted a description of its policies on “key issues” in the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” It states that it recognizes a Palestinian state, the Palestinian Authority as the governmental entity in Palestine, the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the representative for Palestinians, and supported general elections in 2026 where “Hamas can play no part.” It states that it does not recognize Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem nor the Israeli settlements within - acknowledging that they violate the Geneva Convention. On the same grounds, it opposes the illegal electric fence and barbed wire “separation barrier” Israel constructed within the occupied Palestinian Territories to isolate and sever Palestinian communities. It also opposes Israel’s expropriations against Palestinians, Israel's demolitions of Palestinian homes, and Israel’s economic infrastructure maintaining them.
It states that Canada will support UN resolutions about the Middle East rooted in international law, yet does not acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza nor convey how Canadian policy will steer an end to the genocide. This is inconsistent with the UN’s call for member states to “use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza”, including ending military shipments, corporate and individual aid to Israel, and using legal means to punish corporations and individuals complicit in the genocide.
Canada’s acknowledgment of Israel’s international law violations coexists with a “country profile” on Israel that describes the thriving partnership Canada maintains with it. The government post, last updated in 2023, begins with the heading “Why Israel matters” and showcases Israel’s flourishing economy and the millions of dollars exchanged in the Canada-Israel partnership. It characterizes Israel as providing Canada with opportunities in aerospace and defense, agriculture, technology, education, and health and life science companies. The Canadian government did not extend ties to Russia when it violated international law in Ukraine in 2022, with which it swiftly restricted trade partnerships.
“You ask ‘what can I do?’” says Al-Sabbagh. “Believe me when I tell you - you are able to do a lot. If our government chooses to sit and watch then it's on us because it means we are not loud enough. We are not loud enough! The government works for who? For us! Who put them in power? We did. And just as we put them in power we have the agency to replace them with a government that rightfully represents us and our values of peace and social justice.”
An October 2025 petition by Liberal MP Salma Zahid calls on the Canadian government to acknowledge that Israel is committing a genocide, condemn its actions and impose sanctions, protect human rights speech on Palestine, and cease all complicity in international law violations. It is open to all Canadian citizens or residents for signing.
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Heenal Rajani, co-owner of grocery store and community event space Reimagine Co, shared that their business was the first in Canada to become an “apartheid-free zone”. Since 2021, Reimagine Co has not carried a single product with ties to Israeli settlements in alignment with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement led by Palestinians. BDS urges all to withdraw support from companies - Israeli and international - that sustain Israel’s apartheid regime, inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement.
Reimagine Co stocks Palestinian goods to popularize Palestinian culture, wields its social media to raise awareness for human rights in Palestine, and hosts events that raise Palestinian voices. Earlier this month, they hosted a Market for Gaza where community members sold food, keffiyehs, artisanal items, and more to raise funds for Gaza.
“Every purchase we make is a political choice. Do we prefer to support murderous tech companies and billionaire chains, do we support genocidal regimes, do we support systems that perpetuate inequalities and injustice? Or do we support local food systems, business, and movements for solidarity and peace?” says Rajani.
BDS identifies a list of companies to boycott immediately based on their popularity among consumers and level of complicity in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and settler-colonialism. Among others, the list includes Google, Amazon, Airbnb, Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Reebok, Disney+, SodaStream, and grocery items labelled “Product of Israel.”
“I think it's essential for businesses to engage in political issues, especially those that pertain to human rights and justice. What is the purpose of having a business if it's not to fight for a better world? Imagine the possibilities if every business used their platform to stand up for justice and peace. The genocide that Israel and its allies, including Canada, are perpetrating in Palestine are one of the most pressing issues of our time, and it’s crucial that if we have the ability to do so that we speak out. It’s a moral obligation and it's a necessary step to creating a more equitable and peaceful world.”
The official BDS website lists a series of victories in the past year due to boycotts from consumers. These victories include McDonald facing its biggest sales decline in four years that saw a 1.5% global decrease, Puma ceasing to sponsor the Israeli football association, Norway’s wealth fund - the largest in the world - selling all shares in Israel’s largest telecoms company Bezeq, and UK’s biggest private pension fund USS ceasing over 100 million dollars worth of investments in Israeli assets.
Rajani shares that online Canada-based initiative Watermelon Maps contains a directory of over 450 businesses that support Palestine. In London, these include restaurant Dos Tacos, jewelry business Sensalik Jewelry, bookstore Bread and Roses Books, and nail salon Blanca Beauty Bar, among others.
“Solidarity is the political expression of love,” says Rajani. “It’s love of all people, it's the recognition that we are all one, that struggles are interconnected, and no one is free until we are all free. Let everyday be a day of peace.”
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Simone, a member of anti-Zionist organization Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), declares that advocating for Palestinian human rights is not antisemitic.
“It is not antisemitic, and it should not be controversial, to say that Palestinians deserve freedom and safety and the same basic rights that all humans are equally deserving of. It’s not antisemitic to say that Palestinians should have self-determination. It’s not antisemitic to speak truly about the fact that the Israeli government and military are committing a genocide. Or to express outrage at the horrors we are witnessing,” says Simone. “As Canadians we need to hold our government accountable and protest against our government's complicity in these crimes.”
Polls show that Canadian citizens are in favour of governmental decisions that support Palestine. In February 2024, based on a representative sample of 1,610 people, an online survey by the Angus Reid Institute showed that 61% of Canadians agreed that peace must involve recognizing a Palestinian state, 63% believe that a full or temporary ceasefire must be called, and 53% believe that the Liberal government did a ”poor or terrible job” upholding international law and standing on the right side of history. Additionally, a June 2024 report by Angus Reid Institute showed that 55% of Canadians, based on a representative sample of 1,603 people, held a negative view of Israel.
In September 2025, NDP MP Jenny Kwan of Vancouver East introduced a bill to prevent Canadian arms from reaching Israel through other countries, including the U.S. Simone urges us to send emails to our MPs requesting that they support the bill.
“As Jews, the lessons we have learned from our histories compel us to speak out and compel us to say not in our name.“
An IJV statement from August 2025 argues that Canada’s emphasis on recognizing a “demilitarized” Palestinian state “place(s) the burden of demilitarization not on Israel, the nuclear power committing genocide, but rather on the population being subjected to unending bombardment, forced starvation, and occupation.”
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“I went to Ukraine. They handed me a gun on the first day. I said ’no, I'm a doctor’. They said ‘all the other doctors have guns’,” said Palestinian-Canadian doctor Tarek Loubani. “Who tells them to put down their guns? Nobody. Because the solution to occupation is armed resistance.”
The right to armed resistance against colonial powers has been affirmed in at least five UN General Assembly resolutions. A 1978 resolution reads:
The General Assembly... reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, particularly armed struggle.
In July 2023, Palestinian-American legal scholar Noura Erakat elaborated on armed resistance in Palestine:
“To the extent that young Palestinian men have picked up arms in order to defend themselves, that is not tantamount to a “terrorist infrastructure”... Palestinians have the right to use force against Israel and all military installations and targets to end their unjust rule. That force, of course, is not unlimited and is regulated by the principles of distinction (between civilians and combatants) and proportionality, as well as the other laws that regulate irregular combat.”
In the Electronic Intifada, journalist John Sigler writes that Israel' s propaganda campaign "intentionally and maliciously” equates legal Palestinian resistance with terrorism.
“It is a rebellion,” Loubani describes the resistance that will bring liberation. “It is the underclass, the slave, the coloured person revolting, rebelling against the current order that says ‘you are nothing and you have nothing.’”
Loubani was in Gaza in summer 2025 working at Nasser Hospital. His experiences providing, directing, and improving medical care during the genocide are documented live in Stethoscope Stories, nine videos under ten minutes each, created by filmmaker John Greyson through Zoom calls with Loubani. Each video ends with a link to Glia, an organization Loubani leads that innovatively builds medical devices within resource-scarce areas; in Gaza, Glia established 3D-printing facilities to manufacture stethoscopes, tourniquets, and other equipment restricted by the Israeli occupation.
The last segment of Stethoscope Stories, from August 25, begins with the words: This morning the Israelis bombed Nasser Hospital in a “double tap”, killing 21 medics, patients, and journalists. Loubani worried that he would see the faces of his colleagues appear on news reports documenting the martyred.
“Our enemy - the root enemy - is Israel. And we should never lose track of that,” says Loubani. “The U.S. has a role, Canada has a role. But the core, the thing we have to stay laser focused on, is Israel and its actions.”
Loubani was shocked that it was protests against genocide that triggered among the largest mass arrests in the UK, with police arresting 890 people at a Palestine Action demonstration in London.
“It was a genuine act of risk to say ‘we want human rights’, ‘we are against genocide’, ‘we want the international humanitarian system to function.’ Why are those things so subversive?”
He attests that people who rally for Palestine today will be the torch that leads the future.
“You are the flame that lights the fire. When people are ready in five days or five decades, you will be the flame that lights them on fire, that motivates them, that teaches them, that informs them, that leads them.”
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“Resistance is love,” says King’s College University sociology professor Jess Notwell. “Because we resist, because we love our people, because we love our territories, because we love our ancestors, because we love the soil. How many Palestinian families have soil from your home villages? How many Palestinian families here have the key to your house? That's love. That's why we stand up. That's why we resist.”
Notwell describes the interconnectedness of liberation struggles. They describe how the genocide of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island continues today, referencing a 2019 government-commissioned report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The commissioners of the report listened to Indigenous communities to identify how violence is systemically perpetrated against them. Indigenous women and girls, including 2SLGBTQQIA people, are 12 times more likely to be murdered or missing than their non-Indigenous counterparts, while they represent only about 5% of the national population. The report reads:
Today’s racist government laws, policies and actions have proven to be just as deadly for Indigenous peoples as the genocidal acts of the past. What used to be the theft of children into residential schools is now the theft of children into provincial foster care. What used to be scalping bounties are now Starlight tours (deaths in police custody).... Racism for Indigenous peoples in Canada is not just about enduring stereotypical insults and name-calling, being turned away for employment, or being vilified in the media by government officials – racism is killing our people.
The Indian Act, established in 1876 to forcibly assimilate Indigenous peoples, still controls Indigenous land and legal identity. The Minister of Indigenous Services, appointed by the government, authorizes how land on Indigenous reserves is subdivided, used for road construction, allocated to schools, burial grounds and other projects, and whether Indigenous people can be granted land ownership on reserves. The Act also defines the criteria for being a registered Indigenous person. The 2019 report describes the Act as an “ongoing tool of oppression and genocide” that drives violence against Indigenous peoples and refuses their self-determination.
“We deserve to be free, we deserve to have peace. Not colonial peace, but peace - peace that means our children grow up in freedom, peace that means our children can have dreams and can make them come true. Peace that means we don't have to be afraid when we leave the house, peace that means we can stand here and breathe,” says Notwell, “It is so important that we stand up together, that we resist together, because the colonizers work together. Our love will always be stronger than their hate, and we will be free within our lifetime.”
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For over an hour, protesters marched in the downtown streets. They circled Victoria Park to MP Peter Fragiskatos’ lawn and back again, loud with drums and chants that raged for liberation, resistance, and sacrifice.
Justice is our demand, no peace on stolen land. Resistance is justified when people are occupied. Break the chains of occupation, it’s the time for liberation.
Bil ruh, bil dam, nafdika ya Falasteen [With our souls, with our blood, we’ll sacrifice everything for Palestine]*
Min il-maya lal maya, Falasteen hurriya [From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free]*
Children placed flowers at the foot of a tree for beyond 680,000 martyrs. Protesters held a moment of silence and wrote promises to the people of Gaza on their phones. In an open mic, some shared their promises.
A child promised to always pray for Palestine. A woman raised in Gaza promised to return to Palestine with her kids and grandchildren. Some shared commitments to always speak about Palestine and dream for a better future, to donate to Palestinian families, bring friends to protests, and remember all liberation movements surging across the world.
“I’m not going to minimize our grief and our rage and our anger just so people can be comfortable with their apathy,” promised a young woman. “We will call out people’s silence. Your silence is complicity, your silence is racism, your silence is a form of violence itself. We will not be silent.” ♦
*Translations and transliterations of Arabic chants to English facilitated by Zeinab Zammar