Canadian Jews Endorse Global March to Jerusalem

IJV Canada will be represented at the Global March by Vancouver Chapter member Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta, author of Refusing to be Enemies: Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent Resistance to the Israeli Occupation. Maxine will travel to Jerusalem to join the event in person. Maxine will be reporting her experiences on her blog and will write an article for the IJV Canada website on her return to Canada. Palestine Land Day commemorates the events of March 1976 when Israeli authorities confiscated thousands of dunums of private and public land in areas where the majority of the population was Palestinian, and especially in the Galilee. Responding to Israeli actions, Palestinian residents declared a general strike. The Israeli response was violent. Israeli troops backed by tanks entered and occupied Palestinian villages, killing and wounding many and detaining large numbers of civilians. This year, Palestine Land Day is being marked by a Global March to Jerusalem, an International non-violent event to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians and to protect Jerusalem against the Netanyahu government's efforts to "Judaize" it. Participants will demand freedom for Jerusalem and an end to Israel's apartheid policies, regional ethnic cleansing, and attempts to Judaize the city by driving out Palestinian inhabitants. Jerusalem is widely seen as the key to war and peace in the region. The policies and practices of the state of Israel against Jerusalem and its Palestinian inhabitants are widely regarded as a crime not only against Palestinians, but against humanity. The Global March will unite Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, and Jews in an effort to end the Israeli government's disregard for International law in its continuing occupation of Jerusalem and other regions of Palestine. It is hoped that the event will be a turning point in the ongoing crisis by forcing the government of Israel to face the marchers' demand of freedom for Palestine and its capital Jerusalem.