Candian Socialist and Holocaust survivor Suzanne Weiss has addressed several large rallies in Toronto protesting Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The following is a slightly edited transcript of her speech to the November 4 demonstration.
We are gathered here today in unity and solidarity to demand that the Canadian government act immediately for ceasefire — to unconditionally stop the genocide.
Canada should send food and medical aid to the besieged Palestinians in Gaza!
What is the Palestinian struggle about? The Palestinian people have a right to return to their homes with dignity, equality and peace. That is what the Palestinian resistance is about.
The Palestinian struggle is against Israel’s Zionist political program, which was established in 1947 when Israel took full control and occupied the land and subjugated the Palestinians.
It is called settler colonialism and carries as the basis of its program, racism — hatred of the other. Palestinians are called "animals". We Jews were called "sub-humans" by the racist Nazis.
I am a survivor of Adolph Hitler’s Holocaust. As a Jew I was marked down for death. I was saved by the unity, the solidarity of many individuals, and of a whole community who hid me and thousands of others from Hitler’s mass murders.
Hitler’s war against the Jews aimed to irradicate their history and the Jewish people themselves. Nazism is hatred of the other. It is racism. Colonialism was Hitler’s program to conquer land for Germany.
Gas chambers and the hundreds of concentration camps which starved, tortured and eliminated Jews by disease, is repeated today in the Gaza concentration camp — the largest concentration camp in the world! Death chambers and ovens have been replaced in Gaza with tons of bombs that destroy all in their path. Gaza has become a death camp.
The government of Israel does not speak for the Jewish people. Zionism is a racist ideology. Judaism does not stand for racism. Conflating Zionism and Judaism is an unforgiveable crime to the Jewish people, to the Palestinians and to humanity.
There is a witch-hunt in Canada today against the defenders of Palestinian freedom. Courageous people are losing their jobs and reputations because they speak for the freedom of Palestine. We must stand with them and their right to speak freely for freedom and against the hate and racism of Israel’s government.
The Palestinian leaders of the world movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions platform state: “Full equality for Palestinians and respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.â€
The Palestinians have a right to live on the land with others in equality, dignity and peace. That is what their struggle is about.
We here today insist that Canada’s so-called leaders, including Justin Trudeau, take immediate action for a cease fire — and to unconditionally stop the genocide.
End the Occupation!
Palestinian freedom is our freedom and the freedom of Humanity!
End the Occupation, the root of this evil!