On Mar. 18, 2025, Israel recommenced their attacks on Gaza after a tenuous two-month ceasefire. This comes after Jan. 15, 2025, when Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal with Israel, Qatar and the United States. Since Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of protests across the world have called out Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide.
On Mar. 19, 2025, nearly 200 Waterloo Region residents joined a rally in Waterloo Public Square coordinated by Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto. According to organizers, the rally called for a system without the oppressive systems of Zionism, settler colonialism and imperialism.
“Canada and the U.S. and every other Western government backing Israel’s genocide have lost any shred of credibility. They talk about human rights while finding ethnic cleansing,” an anonymous speaker said.
“We know the truth…and we are here to say, ‘we will not let you rest, we will not let you profit and we will not let you forget,” they said.
The rally followed a route from Waterloo Public Square to Waterloo City Hall, then moved up William St. and Caroline St. S., before returning to the Square. They paused outside Waterloo City Hall for speeches from members of Neighbours for Palestine Waterloo Region.
Neighbours for Palestine Waterloo Region is a community action group created to pressure local MPs to advocate for Palestine. Laura, a representative of Neighbours for Palestine Waterloo Region said they had five goals: a two-way arms embargo on Israel, the end of Canadian involvement in Israeli settlements in Palestine, addressing Palestinian racism, recognizing Palestine and properly funding relief efforts.
“Right now, we have power. Soon, MPs and candidates will be knocking on your door, looking for your support and asking for your vote. Together, we can show them that if they want the support of this community, they must back the Palestine platform,” she said.
“We are going to make Palestine an election issue in Waterloo Region,” she said.
Despite the conflict taking place on a different continent, it is important to continue protesting and raising awareness. Nick, spokesperson for the rally and member of University of Waterloo (UW) Voices for Palestine, said Canada and UW are complicit.
“Well, we understand that elections are not going to liberate our people, but we hope to apply pressure to politicians and make Palestine a voting issue, because we will take any and every avenue possible to liberate our people,” Nick said.
On Mar. 28, 2025, the UW Voices for Palestine held a rally to further urge UW to divest from its ties to Israel. Along with weapons manufacturing in the region, UW continues its relations with companies such as Technion and Raytheon, for which the university has recieved criticism since the genocide began over a year ago.
On Apr. 3, Stay Woke NPO, a creative social justice youth non-proft group alongside UW Voices for Palestine, Wilfrid Laurier University Palestine Justice Club, and Coffee4Palestine is hosting a concert and open mic benefiting Palestine and critizing UW’’s complicity.
Nick said that joining an organization and getting involved with activism is key.
“Now is the best time…one day, we’re gonna look back and say, ‘What did I do?’. And so join an organization, get involved,” he said.
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