On Sunday, dozens of people gathered near the Aish Hatorah synagogue in Thornhill, Ont., to protest an event that organizers say was aimed at helping people in the Toronto area buy property in Israel. They were met with pro-Israeli counterprotestors and Jewish leaders took issue with the Sunday protest taking place outside a synagogue.
But Pro-Palestinian protestors say companies associated with the event market property in the West Bank, where over two million Palestinians live under Israel’s military occupation, according to the United Nations (UN).
The UN, alongside Canada, consider Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be in violation of international convention, with the federal government saying they “constitute a serious obstacle to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”
“There was no sales for anything in the West Bank, anything on disputed territory,” she said, noting the projects on offer were being built on “existing” and “established” areas.
You wouldn’t be surprised because this is exactly what Israel has been doing for 50 years. The West Bank used to be a large continuous territory, now it’s a Swiss cheese of infrastructure deprived pockets of discriminated people.