40 Years of Israeli Occupation - Break the Siege Demonstration

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About the demonstration

For 40 years Israel has constructed illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land. For 40 years Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, demolished 12,000 Palestinian homes, arrested 650,000 Palestinians, and uprooted more than a million Palestinian olive trees.

Since 2002 the Apartheid Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory has effectively encircled the Palestinian population, squeezing Palestinians into truncated Bantustans, cementing Israeli expansionism, and forcing thousands Palestinians off of their land. The Wall divides farmers from their land, students from their schools, workers from their jobs, and people from their communities. Despite the International Court of Justice ruling it illegal, the Wall now encircles Palestinian towns and cities in the most massive land-grab in 40 years. In its recent war against Lebanon, Israel's unilateralism and militarism have been exposed to the world. Israel continues to establish "facts on the ground" to maintain strategic control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to annex land and get rid of the non-Jewish indigenous population.

In Jerusalem and inside Israel, Palestinians face institutionalized discrimination and are denied equality and their full rights as citizens since 1948. And Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were forcibly exiled from their homeland in the 1947-48 war, their internationally guaranteed rights, including the right to return to one‚s homeland and the right to property restitution.

On 29 March 2006, Canada became the first country in the world to impose a siege on the Palestinian people living in the West Bank and Gaza, which meant total political and economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority ˆ the largest employer in these occupied Palestinian territories. The stated reason for the siege was the formation of a democratically elected government in uncontested democratic elections. Canada had been one of the states calling for democratic Palestinian elections, but was displeased with the result: the victory of Hamas.

The siege is the first time in human history that the "international community" has decided to punish a people under occupation, let alone punish them for democratically electing their leadership. The siege has had a devastating effect on the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza including:

eliminating the salaries, wages and livelihood of one-third of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza;
dragging two-thirds of the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza below the poverty line (they live on less than $2 a day). These working people and their families now live in fear of starvation;
the closure of Palestinians areas (i.e. Palestinians were prevented from getting to work, school or hospital outside of their canton [usually their village, town or city] for 86% of the year.

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