What makes our neighbours march?

Lina Dib

Since October 2023, our Ottawa streets are regularly the sites of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. In the crowd that chants, yells, cries, you can always find some of our neighbours. A question comes to mind: What moves someone who lives in Sandy Hill, far away from Gaza, to get so deeply involved in this cause?

“Once I learned about Palestine…. You can’t unlearn it and you can’t turn away from it, you actually have to do something,” says Yipeng Ge, the most recognizable of the demonstrators. Dr. Ge, who practices medicine at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, made the news when the University of Ottawa sanctioned him for speaking out in favour of the Palestinians. Since that moment, he hasn’t stopped speaking out, in social and traditional media, and in the street. In June, he travelled to Egypt with 4000 others from all over the world to march to Rafah. They tried but failed to force the opening of the border and the delivery of food and aid into Gaza. He also joined part of the journey of the Handala, the ship that tried to break the siege, but was intercepted by Israel in July.

Yipeng is convinced that only collective action can change “the conditions of what our neighbours are going through, whether it be next door or in our community or around the world.”

Neighbour Céline Bak has Abraham on her mind when she protests. “Abraham Berham is an Algonquin College electrician, a proud Canadian citizen, who builds homes in Ottawa,” she tells me. “He has 23 nieces and nephews in Gaza …. He asks me about Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and why officials do not call to ask how they can help.”

Back in June, in an Ottawa home, Céline and Yipeng are sitting at a kitchen table with other neighbours who all believe in collective action and want the Canadian government to help the Palestinians. There is talk of how to get the federal MP, Mona Fortier, to work in favor of an arms embargo on Israel.

MP Fortier’s riding goes beyond Sandy Hill, so at the same table sits Lori Clarke, who lives in Gloucester. She, too, demands concrete action from MP Fortier. In demonstrations, she carries her homemade sign: “Starving children can’t eat statements.”

Next to her, Mehdi Javanfar, who lives in Lowertown, quotes Tolstoy: “If you feel your own pain, you’re alive; if you feel other people’s pain, you are human.” That is how he explains his involvement with the group of humans forming Palestine Solidarity Ottawa-Vanier (PSOV), described on their Instagram account as “Community members coming together for a Free Palestine.” “We do these things not to change the world but because we want not to be changed by the world,” concludes Mehdi.

Palestine Solidarity Ottawa-Vanier (PSOV) is part of the Palestine Solidarity Network, a coast-to-coast network of federal riding-based groups who aim to build local solidarity towards Palestinians through education and action. PSOV calls on elected officials in Ottawa-Vanier-Gloucester to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel, demand justice and accountability for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and respect our commitments to humanitarian, Canadian and international law. If you join the emailing list, you will be informed via email, twice a month, of the actions you can take locally and globally.

PSOV sign up link: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-neighbours-for-palestine-inscrivez-vous-voisines-pour-la-palestine