Juno News - October 08, 2024


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


Episode Stats

Length

11 minutes

Words per Minute

166.77051

Word Count

1,963

Sentence Count

127

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary


Transcript

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.