Toronto, 3rd January Demo at Dundas Square

DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE ISRAELI ASSAULT ON GAZA!

*WHEN: 2pm on Saturday January 3rd, 2009

*WHERE: Yonge-Dundas Square (buses leave Palestine House 1:15pm sharp)
Meet under the OCAP banner.

Join in demonstrating against the latest Israeli assault on the people of
Gaza.
At least 400 Palestinians have been killed and at least 1600 have been
injured in the on-going assault on the Gaza Strip that began on Saturday.

This is the single largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally
occupied the area in 1967. The numbers of dead are mounting, especially
as the already limited medical supplies are running out due to the brutal
siege of Gaza since 2005.

While the Western media reports that the raids targeted Hamas 'operatives,'
the dead include women, children and men in all areas of life in Gaza.
"Operation Cast Lead" has echoes of previous Israeli raids into Gaza
that have been characterized by indiscriminate attacks on civilian
population centers, mass detentions, violent house demolitions and other
forms of collective punishment.

Such actions need to be strongly and unconditionally condemned.

This attack comes just days after the so-called 'ceasefire' between Hamas
and Israel expired. During this alleged ceasefire, Israel continued to
impose its brutal siege on Gaza, restricting the flow of aid, medical
supplies, fuel and other necessities of life into the territory. For the
past two years Gaza has been undergoing the daily violence of a
wide-ranging humanitarian catastrophe triggered by severely reduced
access to energy, food, and medicines. In effect, Gaza is the world's
largest open air prison. The UN and others in the international community
condemned the humanitarian disaster created by Israel's siege during the
time of this 'ceasefire'. Israel now claims that this operation is in
response to
Hamas refusing to renew this sham of a ceasefire. Once again, Israel is
imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza for electing a Hamas
government.

Organizers are particularly angered by the Canadian government's on-going
support for the Israeli apartheid regime - including the intensification of
bilateral military, political and economic links between Canada and Israel.
These latest war crimes occur in the context of official Canadian complicity
with and support for Israel's illegal siege and starvation of the civilian
population in Gaza.

At this moment, we can only reaffirm our commitment in the strongest
possible terms to continue mobilizing to respond to the call by over 170
Palestinian civil society organizations for a comprehensive campaign of
boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to end Israeli Apartheid. As H.E.
Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, President of the United Nations General
Assembly state in a recent speech: "More than twenty years ago we in the
United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that
sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South
Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations
should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society,
who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment
and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations."

CONTACT:
Palestine House
info@palestinehouse.com

Demonstration Organized By:

Palestine House
Canadian Arab Federation
Women in Solidarity with Palestine (WSP)
Not In Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
Muslim Association of Hamilton
International Jewish anti-Zionist Network – Toronto
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Muslim Unity
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Canadian Druze Society
Canadian Syrian Social Club
Al Huda
Islamic Relief
Steel Workers Union
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Ontario)
Educators for Peace and Justice

Please send further organizational endorsements to: info@palestinehouse.com