A group of approximately 130 Jewish Canadians “took over” Parliament Hill’s Confederation Building Tuesday morning in support of Palestine, demanding an arms embargo against Israel. Three New Democrat MPs, Heather McPherson, Matthew Green and Leah Gazan joined the 100 protestors occupying the lobby of the building, where many members of parliament have offices, while about 30 others stayed outside. .The protest lasted from approximately 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. local time, when between 15 and 20 people were arrested. They were released without charges soon after, and issued tickets for trespassing, two separate organizers told the Western Standard. .Protest spokeswoman Rachel Small said the group “filled up the lobby of (the Confederation) building that has over 130 MP offices in it.” “Three MPs came down,” said Small, naming the three NDP MPs. "Gazan said that she was so proud to be there as a Jewish person and to come together and community with all of us.”“I'm not trying to speak on her behalf, but I was very touched by that.”.Spokeswoman Marlee Wasser, of Jewish organization against “occupation and genocide” IfNotNow Toronto, said those on the inside were “chanting and praying,” and “a bunch of us outside chanting in solidarity.”While it was a Jewish-led protest, there were “non-Jewish allies with us as well,” said Wasser. .When asked what the group was trying to accomplish, Wasser replied, “a two-way arms embargo between Canada and Israel.” “The Israeli government is being accused of war crimes now by the ICC (International Criminal Court) and ICJ (International Commission of Jurists), and Canada is complicit,” she said. “We should not be continuing to allow Canadian companies to manufacture arms going to Israel, and we should not be purchasing arms being manufactured by Israeli companies, because that is continuing to support the ongoing war crimes and escalating genocide that the Israeli military is committing against the Palestinians, and so that should stop immediately.”Wasser explained though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “Liberal government has already made it seem like the arms have stopped going from Canada to Israel, it's only been 30 permits that were suspended.”“There's still at least 200 that have not been suspended, so there needs to be a full and complete arms embargo,” she added. .Retired Rabbi David Mivasair, of Independent Jewish Voices, and advocacy group for “peace in Israel-Palestine,” told the Western Standard the issue is not a military issue, but a religious, spiritual, and most of all moral matter.Mivasair said he gave a talk and led a prayer among “the gathering of people who were blocking the entrance of the building.” Another spokesperson later said his prayer was accompanied by a shofar, or a ram’s horn, a traditional Jewish symbol used in prayer. The prayer was from a weekly Shabbat prayer service about the peace of the Torah, chosen because the group’s perspective is that “Israel is violating the Torah to say it's a Jewish state, and it's acting in such a not Jewish way.”“So it's a state of Jewish people. But it's not being a Jewish state,” he said. “And Canada is still shipping arms to Israel that are being used to kill innocent people and destroy their homes and hospitals. It's wrong, it needs to stop.”.When asked how the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) should handle Hamas terrorists, Mivasair said the question was way off. “Jews in Israel need to acknowledge that they're living on Palestinians’ land in Palestine,” he said. “They need to make room for the people who were there before the State of Israel.”He said he wasn’t talking about just Gaza either. “No, all. All is Palestine,” said Mivasair “From the river to the sea has been taken over by Jews. They took it away from the Palestinians who have lived there for centuries.”"It's the theft of an entire country.”From the rabbi’s perspective, God’s promise to the people of Israel in the Torah was “conditional” and “not absolute.” “It's completely dependent on the people living in a godly way. Walk in My ways, and you'll have this blessing. And if you don't, I will cast you out.”“That's what the prophets said, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and that's what happens. That's the entire theological outlook of the Bible.”.When asked how he interprets God’s promise that, even when the people rebel, He will not destroy them completely, but leave a stump and bring Israel back home again, Mivasair reiterated, “it’s conditional.” “The idea that God's going to bring the Jews back to the land of Israel is contingent, dependent on the Jews living in a godly way — and that's not what's going on here.”“We're in exile. And that's the era that we're living in, that's this in these times. That's what's happening.”“The land is not the Jews land. That is such a misunderstanding. The Bible itself says, God says ‘The land is mine. You are there as sojourners with me.’” .Based on the Rabbi’s premise that “the land belongs to God,” the Western Standard asked where the Palestinians come in, did God then give the land to the Palestinians who worship a different God? “There is no different God,” replied Mivasair, asserting because Allah in Arabic means “God,” “Muslims worship Allah and Jews who speak Arabic worship Allah.”“Speaking Arabic, we would just say Allah. That means God. There's no different God.”“Muslims have a different way of worshiping and talking about God than Jews in some regards, but it's almost all the same except for the details.”When pressed on the God of Israel sometimes being referred to in the Bible as Yahweh and Elohim, which is not the god Muslims say they worship, Mivasair said he “disagrees.” “If you said to me, the rain god of the people in the Amazon is a different god, I would agree with that. So what you said is not correct, period.” “The God the Muslims worship, is the same as the Jews.”“Would you say Christian worship the same God as the Jews? The same is true about the Muslims.”
