To: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Global Affairs Minister Melanie Joly
Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development Mary Ng
Nathaniel Erskine Smith, MP for Beaches-East York
Dear Prime Minister, Ministers and my MP:
Today I am on my third Hunger Strike fast in as many weeks to demand that my government carry out whatever is necessary to invoke a permanent humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, followed by negotiations to release hostages held by both Hamas and the Israeli government and negotiations to end the brutal decades long Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank that is the cause of so much strife. I am also calling on the Canadian government to pass legislation for an immediate embargo on the sale of Canadian manufactured weapons and their delivery to Israel or to the United States to be resent to Israel. Rachel Small of World Beyond War Canada told us today that Canada has already banned the sale of weapons in the past to Israel, Russia and several other countries, so this is not an unusual move for a Canadian government.
I had opportunity today to attend a Gaza Starving Press Conference in downtown Toronto, attended by a few who are fasting today as well as organizers for Gaza Starving and some media.
We heard from several speakers including a Canadian doctor who is a UN Rapporteur on Food and Medicines in Gaza, from Rachel Small of World Beyond War Canada, and two MP’s – Alexandre Boulerice, MP for Rosement -La Petite-Patrie and Niki Ashton, MP for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, both of whom are fasting today on the Hunger Strike. We also heard from Dr. Tarek Loubani a Palestinian Canadian physician living in London, ON who has worked with his medical colleagues in Gaza over several years. In fact Dr. Loubani was shot in the lower legs while giving medical assistance to peaceful protestors of the ‘Great March of Return’ in 2018/2019. More than 200 young unarmed Palestinian men were shot to death as they approached ‘the Fence’ and several thousand sustained permanent injuries.
MC Nadine Nasir pointed out that there are other MP’s fasting but could not yet release their names. She also mentioned that there are now well over one thousand Canadians who are fasting every week with a few fasting more than one day, even up to one month. Some of the things we learned from the speakers are that the medical system has been deliberately destroyed by the bombing of hospitals; the food system has been destroyed by having olive groves and gardens razed – flattened. Dr. Loubani said that 70 % of the Gaza fishing boats have been deliberately destroyed by IDF actions. Innocent women, children and non-combatant men are killed daily by bombing of homes where there is no place to shelter, resulting in 24 thousand deaths with 60 thousand wounded 10 thousand or more being children. Many uncounted lie beneath rubble. Amputations are done with no anaesthetic. More than 400 medical personnel including 100 doctors have been killed. We know already that at least 83 journalists working inside Gaza have been killed, many deliberately targeted by the IDF to prevent news from getting out. All of these actions represent ‘collective punishment’ which is a war crime. The deliberate starving of a population and the public verbal threats of doing so by Israeli government officials and IDF generals constitutes genocide. The pushing of people to the southern end of Gaza, near the Rafah Gate, looks more and more like Ethnic Cleansing.
Isn’t this enough information for my government to demand an end to the slaughter and slow death of Palestinian residents of Gaza by starvation?
Today I am hungry but this is temporary for me. I have the choice to stay alive. Palestinians in Gaza do not.
Murray Lumley's Blog 