On July 12, 2026, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Sporas (formerly known as Sporas Scattered) hosted their fifth annual KW Palestine Festival, Ounadikom, at Carl Zehr Square.
The KW Palestine Festival celebrates Palestinian culture, heritage and resilience in the Waterloo Region. This event aims to immerse the community in rich cultural traditions while fostering deep connections and solidarity within the local diaspora.
Malek Sameh, a co-founder and organizer of Sporas, said the inspiration behind the KW Palestine Festival sparked a few years ago while she and Palestinian Youth Movement Kitchener-Waterloo organizer Shatha Mahmoud were attending another Palestinian festival. Seeing the vibrant vendors and performances, they realized a similar celebration was exactly what the Waterloo Region needed.
“This is something that we are lacking in our region,” Sameh said. “We don’t have a festival that’s specific to Palestine, Palestinian culture, history, and political history as well.”
The festival started small with only 400 to 600 attendees, but, as the years passed, the numbers steadily increased. During their third year, they had 4,000 attendees and last year they had 7,000.
To match the growing crowd and the gravity of global events, organizers chose to lean heavily into educational and interactive spaces this year.
“This year, we decided to expand more on political exhibits and dedicate more of our time, shifting from the passport activity to political exhibits that will interact with a crowd even more and make a more immersive experience for them,” Sameh said.
Mahmoud explained that these exhibits are meticulously tailored each year to reflect on-the-ground realities.
This year’s additions included a prisoners’ exhibit featuring an isolation cell, which highlights the primary method of torture used against Palestinian prisoners, and a scholasticide exhibit designed by local students from the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Guelph and the GTA.
“Whether they’re going into the prisoners’ exhibit and walking around to isolation cells, seeing how Palestinian prisoners feel, going to the school exhibit where every martyr is a universe, and it was the schools in Palestine and the number of students that have been killed in the genocide,” Sameh said.
The scholasticide exhibit focused on the intentional erasure of academic institutions and knowledge in Gaza. It also highlighted the Palestinian Students and Scholar at Risk (PSSAR) campaign, which pressures the Canadian government to approve visas for Palestinian students who received scholarships but remain stranded in countries like Egypt.
Among the most sombre installations was a replica of the car in which five-year-old Hind Rajab was killed, complete with 335 simulated bullet holes and the recording of her final 911 distress calls playing.
“Hind Rajab is not an anomaly. Hind Rajab is every child in Gaza,” Mahmoud said. “And every person in Gaza has suffered a horrific fate as Hind Rajab has.”
The festival also drew local political friction over its tank installation. Mahmoud revealed that Conservative MP for Kitchener Centre, Kelly DeRidder, had launched a private email campaign decrying the installation and labelling organizers as terrorists.
“Which is very interesting because the tank is the weapon that’s used to kill Palestinians,” Mahmoud said.
She said that the local community quickly rallied to defend the organizers, sending over 5,800 supportive emails in a single day after the MP’s campaign was exposed.
“FOR US,
SHATHA MAHMOUD
THE TANK…
SYMBOLIZES
THAT OUR
PEOPLE
ARE STILL
RESISTING
CO-ORGANIZER
“For us, the tank this year is a symbol. It symbolizes that our people are still resisting, that our people have not given up.”
Despite the heavy subject matter, Mahmoud emphasized that bringing these conversations to the public square in person bridges a massive divide, especially in a digital age, that can often feel polarizing.
“Having those one-on-one conversations, especially in the age of social media today, is so priceless. In five years, we haven’t had one singular heckler. I think it’s because online, it’s not a representation of real human beings…Once they come and once they interact, they leave with a different idea.”
Mahmoud credited the City of Kitchener’s staff and the local community for ensuring the space felt safe, welcoming and protective. This community solidarity was on full display throughout the hot, 30-degree day, as thousands of visitors arrived early to thoughtfully engage with the exhibits and support local vendors, student clubs and solidarity groups such as Labour for Palestine and Mamas for Palestine.
Looking forward, organizers are committed to keeping this momentum alive.
“We will continue to educate our people in the diaspora and on what is happening in Palestine and Gaza,” Sameh said.
Ultimately, Mahmoud hopes attendees walk away with a deeper, more humanized understanding of the Palestinian people.
“People leave knowing that Palestinians are not just victims. Palestinians are not just people who die,” Mahmoud said. “Palestinians are people who resist. Palestinians are people who love…Palestinians are just human beings, and they are deserving of life just like everyone else.”
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