Juno News - ＂Vigil for Palestinian Martyrs＂ hosted in Toronto on October 7th anniversary

00:00:01.000 Seeing literally like pretty much every single international criminal law get broken within the span of a year,

00:00:07.340 this day is like a really haunting reminder of sort of when that stuff started.

00:00:12.660 They can't give us a day. I mean, today's a very hard day for the Jewish community.

00:00:16.540 We're mourning right now, and despite the war, despite everything that's happening, like it's a hard day, right?

00:00:21.100 It's not right for any kids to lose their lives, but why is it okay for them to take hours?

00:00:26.500 There's still 120 in Gaza. Innocent Israelis woke up in the morning. 1.00

00:00:30.360 Being killed by Israeli government, by the way. They're bombing their own hostages.

00:00:34.560 Great Palestine!

00:00:35.660 Sure. Anyways.

00:00:42.640 All right, well, it is October 7th, 2024, exactly one year since the deadly terror attack that took place in Israel

00:00:50.240 that resulted in 1,200 dead Israeli civilians and 200 hostages taken.

00:00:56.000 Since then, a full year of war has raged in that region, resulting in tens of thousands of civilian lives lost.

00:01:06.020 Certainly a very solemn day and a very sad day for many people.

00:01:11.000 Today, behind me, however, on this first anniversary, the student group Students for Justice in Palestine

00:01:17.780 at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ryerson University, for people who have not been attacked by the Woke Mind virus just yet,

00:01:26.060 well, today is a vigil for Palestinian martyrs taking place.

00:01:31.660 It's part of a week-long campaign by the students at TMU and students at the University of Toronto

00:01:38.080 over what they call the Week of Rage.

00:01:40.840 But it doesn't appear to be a week of rage on behalf of all civilian lives lost.

00:01:44.900 It happens to be a week of rage specifically for the Palestinian lives lost.

00:01:49.300 As they say on Instagram,

00:01:50.620 So they are blaming TMU for playing a role in alleged Israeli war crimes.

00:02:10.940 We're here to ask students at this university what they make of a vigil for Palestinian martyrs

00:02:16.600 on October 7th, the day which is very solemn indeed.

00:02:19.800 We want to see if they think this is in good faith.

00:02:21.740 We want to ask them what October 7th means to them.

00:02:24.560 And we also want to see if we can speak to some of these organizers here

00:02:27.460 to better understand why they chose this day to honor Palestinian martyrs.

00:02:31.980 Let's hear what students have to say.

00:02:33.060 Israel has completely destroyed the education in Gaza.

00:02:38.240 Children are unable to go to school or have an education because they are Palestinian. 1.00

00:02:45.080 Shame!

00:02:45.860 Shame!

00:02:46.740 I don't think there's any Palestinian victim of October 7th.

00:02:49.820 I think the real victims are the Israelis. 1.00

00:02:52.400 1,200 Israelis who were killed on the morning at 6.30 in the morning.

00:02:56.500 I was in Israel last year.

00:02:57.920 I saw it firsthand.

00:02:58.640 I had to wake up at 6.40 because there was a rocket that landed a kilometer away from me.

00:03:04.360 Put my life in danger.

00:03:06.340 Innocent Israelis were kidnapped.

00:03:07.760 There's still 120 hostages out there.

00:03:10.200 I hope they're all freed.

00:03:11.760 This is blatantly disrespectful to put on a day like this.

00:03:14.940 Cannot believe it.

00:03:15.980 Absolutely disgusting.

00:03:18.580 Yeah.

00:03:19.620 What do you make of some of the scenes we've seen over the weekend at Yogan Dundas?

00:03:24.060 A very large protest for the Palestinian cause.

00:03:28.640 And people, they've obviously picked this day to advance their message.

00:03:33.260 What do you make of that?

00:03:34.220 I think today is a day to condemn what's been going on.

00:03:37.960 Not with any of this, but to see the true hate that's been brought to a day like this

00:03:42.600 where we're supposed to remember our victims that have been killed, that have been taken hostage,

00:03:47.160 that are still 120 in Gaza.

00:03:49.460 Innocent Israelis woke up in the morning. 1.00

00:03:50.600 Being killed by Israeli government, by the way.

00:03:52.720 They're bombing their own hostages.

00:03:54.760 Great Palestine!

00:03:55.480 Sure.

00:03:56.360 Anyways, we have so much rockets being sent today to Israel.

00:04:00.340 There's people who just wanted to go visit their friends' graves today because they ended

00:04:05.100 up dying on October 7th.

00:04:06.480 And they had to be sheltered from rockets all over their head.

00:04:10.000 And it hurts me.

00:04:11.860 It hurts me to see this.

00:04:12.820 It hurts me to see this.

00:04:13.640 Yeah.

00:04:13.740 This is not about October 7th only.

00:04:18.320 Every casualty is a casualty.

00:04:20.380 Every life lost is a life lost.

00:04:22.700 And I am against life loss.

00:04:26.280 Any lives that are being lost.

00:04:28.340 But the idea that one side gets to get away with thousands of lives lost, and the other

00:04:38.600 side is still fighting to survive.

00:04:42.900 Like, this is, right now, it's not about, like, comparing.

00:04:46.200 This is about, like, how the past year we have lost kids, 50,000.

00:04:52.980 I'm sorry if I get emotional, but just in the past year, it is not right for anyone on

00:05:00.040 Israel's side to die as well. 0.92

00:05:02.820 It's not right for any kids to lose their lives.

00:05:05.540 But why is it okay for them to take hours?

00:05:08.220 What does October 7th mean to you?

00:05:11.960 October 7th means to me when the world finally started seeing the injustice and the genocide

00:05:24.140 on Palestinians.

00:05:26.220 That's what happened.

00:05:27.520 That's what October 7th means.

00:05:28.940 When the world opened their eyes.

00:05:31.540 And we fight together for it.

00:05:33.480 Do you think the attacks in Israel last year were justified if it was to open the world's 0.99

00:05:38.560 eyes on the genocide, as you say?

00:05:42.600 So, you're basically asking me if a sovereign country has the right to attack another.

00:05:50.720 Well, yeah, I'm asking you specifically about that instance.

00:05:53.480 Do you think that it was justified?

00:05:54.420 So, I'm completely against a sovereign country like Israel attacking Lebanon and doing that

00:06:01.220 and justly, because that's a sovereign country.

00:06:04.420 I'm completely against that.

00:06:05.800 And by the same token, Gaza, Hamas attacking Israel?

00:06:11.820 I don't know if it's supported by that same idea.

00:06:15.400 What do you make of a vigil here on October 7th for Palestinian martyrs, as they say?

00:06:20.220 It's kind of nasty.

00:06:21.800 Do you think it's in bad faith?

00:06:22.880 Yeah, it's a little bad faith.

00:06:24.260 It's not the day.

00:06:25.960 Take any other day, I don't really care, but today's not the day.

00:06:28.720 And why do you think they've decided to pick today to have a vigil for Palestinian martyrs?

00:06:35.220 I think we all know why.

00:06:37.360 It's pretty obvious.

00:06:39.260 I think we all know why.

00:06:40.800 Like, it's, they don't like, they can't give us a day.

00:06:44.700 I mean, today's a very hard day for the Jewish community.

00:06:47.180 We're mourning right now, and despite the war, despite everything that's happening,

00:06:50.460 like, it's a hard day, right?

00:06:51.740 A lot of us have family, friends in Israel with bad things that have happened,

00:06:54.920 and I think, for whatever reason, they don't want to give us an opportunity to just mourn.

00:07:00.240 And they, yeah, so they come here and they do things like this.

00:07:03.720 They like to flip the switch.

00:07:04.900 They like to tell little half-truths.

00:07:07.720 There's a lot of hate built up, and until they start living for peace and living for their kids,

00:07:13.980 it's not going to change.

00:07:14.840 I think this is possibly one of the most interesting displays of activism I've seen on campus,

00:07:22.040 like, during my tenure at TMU, I'm not going to lie.

00:07:24.440 There's a lot of really personal ways you connect to this, to the entire issue going on right now,

00:07:29.920 through this vigil, for example, like, because it's just, like, writing down the names of the victims,

00:07:34.240 but they're organized based on, like, the names and then also, like, their ages and stuff.

00:07:38.660 It's also just a lot of, like, families, whole families that have been killed in this atrocity

00:07:44.940 that I think you, like, get a different, like, sort of understanding of through this.

00:07:50.160 You know, a lot of the names that I was writing down, they had a lot of, like, similar last names,

00:07:54.020 and it just really shows just, like, the real, like, scale of this issue, you know?

00:07:59.220 And what does this day in particular mean to you?

00:08:01.800 What does the anniversary of October 7th mean to you?

00:08:03.940 To me, it, I think it signals, like, the start to, like, some of the most, like, depraved acts

00:08:16.520 I've, like, honestly ever seen from, like, an ethno-state, like, trying to, like, just, like,

00:08:24.060 like, Gaza and the West Bank and Palestine were already an apartheid state prior to this,

00:08:29.700 and seeing literally, like, pretty much every single international criminal law

00:08:36.100 get broken within the span of a year, this day is, like, a really haunting reminder of

00:08:41.880 sort of when that stuff started.

00:08:44.040 Here's a very interesting thing taking place.

00:08:46.700 A woman is speaking on the microphone, but they are blocking her from being seen,

00:08:51.760 presumably by the public, but perhaps just from our cameras.

00:08:54.680 Because they're blocking her from being seen.

00:08:57.400 Why would you think that is?

00:08:58.700 If it's a public protest, if it's a public display,

00:09:01.480 why would they want to block the person speaking?

00:09:03.680 And they're going to try to block the camera as well.

00:09:07.240 You would think that if you're speaking in public, you would want to be seen in public.

00:09:10.860 But not these people.

00:09:12.040 They are covering their faces, blocking their identities.

00:09:15.620 They must be very confident in their cause,

00:09:17.820 but they want to be blocked with keffias and flags from being seen in public.

00:09:22.020 Why do you think that is?

00:09:22.820 Do you think that it's in good taste to do this on October 7th, the anniversary?

00:09:27.500 I think it's important that we recognize that asking inflammatory questions

00:09:33.960 to get a response that is clearly geared towards one agenda is not objective journalism, right?

00:09:40.280 And regarding this, I do think it's in good faith.

00:09:43.400 Human life is precious, whether it's Israeli or Palestinian.

00:09:46.740 But right now we're talking about over seven decades of oppression of Palestinian people

00:09:52.280 recognized by Oxfam, UNICEF, United Nations, other arms.

00:09:57.240 And if we do want a peaceful resolution, it is going to come from us asking and showing people

00:10:03.520 that Palestinian life is also valuable, just as Israeli life is, just as a Canadian life is.

00:10:10.300 That's all we're trying to do here.

00:10:12.580 Do you think it's in good taste on October 7th?

00:10:15.380 Yeah, I do.

00:10:16.380 You do? Why is that?

00:10:17.740 Because it was devastating what happened to them before.

00:10:20.900 On October 7th, for the Palestinians or the Israelis?

00:10:24.360 I don't know too much about it, but I'm pretty sure a lot of Palestinians are.

00:10:27.800 All right, well, you were able to hear some opinions from students, some opinions of people involved

00:10:33.040 in this vigil.

00:10:34.640 As you can hear, they are chanting shame to Israel on October 7th.

00:10:38.800 They say that October 7th marks one year of the genocide in Gaza.

00:10:43.360 I would say that we were able to get a cross-section of Ryerson's student opinion.

00:10:49.340 I believe about half the people we spoke to said that they do believe this is in poor taste,

00:10:53.900 that this is the wrong day to honor Palestinian martyrs and Palestinian victims.

00:10:59.560 Of course, there are a lot of Palestinian victims, and that's a real shame.

00:11:03.320 But October 7th is the day that 1,200 Israelis died.

00:11:07.400 And so to do this seems in poor taste to me, I have to say.

00:11:12.160 We also were able to speak to some people involved in the vigil.

00:11:15.220 You heard what they had to say.

00:11:16.400 There are protests planned across the city on this day.

00:11:19.560 There are pro-Israel protests happening.

00:11:21.880 There are more pro-Palestinian protests happening.

00:11:24.820 The students who support the Palestinian cause at U of T are holding their own vigil for victims

00:11:29.860 at 6 p.m. later today.

00:11:32.100 And Israelis and Jews in Toronto are holding their own vigil for Jewish victims of October 7th

00:11:37.920 as well later on in the day.

00:11:39.440 But signing off from Ryerson University and not TMU, Ryerson University, Harrison Faulkner for TrueNorth.

Juno News - October 08, 2024

＂Vigil for Palestinian Martyrs＂ hosted in Toronto on October 7th anniversary

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