Crowd doubles in size for second Palestinian solidarity rally in a week

For the second time in five days, a crowd of people flocked to the base of the Great Canadian Flag at Windsor’s riverfront in a show of solidarity with Palestinian people as the Israel-Hamas war wages on.

The crowd at Tuesday’s rally was approximately twice as large as the crowd at the first rally last Thursday, growing to about 600 people.

“A lot of people don’t realize that a lot of people in this city have direct immediate family that live in Gaza,” said Siarah Malik, one of the hundreds in attendance Tuesday.

Malik’s husband is Palestinian, having fled the region years ago. His family is still in Gaza.

“We lose contact with our family for hours. Or days,” she said. “When we’re not able to contact them we don’t know if they’re under the rubble that we’re seeing in photos.”

While last Thursday’s rally was planned by the Palestinian Solidarity Group at the University of Windsor, Tuesday night’s was put together by a group called “Windsor4Palestine.”

Moe Al Latif, part of the organizing team, said there will be more such protests to come.

“I think it’s important that the people in my community know what’s going on,” he said.

Meantime, Windsor’s Jewish community continues to support the people of Israel.

Dan Brotman, the executive director of the Windsor Jewish Federation and Community Centre, told CTV News they’re conducting fundraisers and card-writing campaigns.

Additionally, he said they’ll be helping to host families coming to Canada from Israel to “get away from the rockets.”

On the topic of the Palestinian solidarity rallies, Brotman said he respects the right for such protests to be held, but that it is important they remain peaceful.

“We can not import this conflict,” he said.

Global Affairs Canada issued a statement late on Tuesday, sharing that Canada continues to “engage with governments in the region and around the world to address the impacts of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

The statement also stressed Canada supports Israel’s right to defend itself within the bounds of international law.

Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Melanie Joly, confirmed on Tuesday there are six Canadians who have died as a result of the conflict and two still unaccounted for.