We Shut Down a Parliamentary Building
To Demand an Embargo on Arms to Israel
Rachel Small / World BEYOND War

OTTAWA, Ontario (December 7, 2024) — This week, I was so proud to join fellow members of the Jews Say No to Genocide coalition in taking over a Parliament Hill building to demand the Canadian government implement an immediate arms embargo on Israel.

We came together — over a hundred Jews and allies — inside the Confederation Building (which houses over a hundred MP offices) on Tuesday morning, sitting shoulder to shoulder, and filling the space with Jewish songs, prayers, and chants demanding Canada stop arming Israel.

After a little over an hour, police and security rushed in to our group and shoved us out of the building, arresting 14 people in the process. We continued singing and joined the supportive crowd that had gathered outside. We rallied there until everyone was released without charges, ultimately receiving trespass notices and a ban from Parliament Hill.

The response was immediate — messages of support poured in from all over the world, and the protest was covered on dozens of local, national, and international outlets, including  CBC, Jerusalem Post, Middle East Monitor, Al Jazeera, City News, CTV, Le Devoir, Canadian Press, Globe and Mail, andOttawa Citizen, while our livestreams and updates from inside the building were viewed hundreds of thousands of times in just the first few hours.

Big moments like Tuesday don’t just happen. They take months of research, relationship building, movement trainings, and building up the legal, material, and people power needed to pull it off.

And these big moments don’t stand alone — Tuesday was a powerful moment specifically because it took place in a context of many months of action and tireless organizing by many thousands of people across the country to end Canada’s complicity with Israel’s genocide.

The power of actions like this to effect lasting change will come from what we can keep building from here on out.

We are deeply committed to continuing to ramp up our Palestine solidarity organizing and the campaign for an arms embargo but are very under-resourced. Are you able to donate to support this work? 

World BEYOND War runs on a truly shoestring budget and has just a handful of staff globally. I feel wildly fortunate to be the Canadian staffer on this team and to work alongside incredible chapters, members, and allies across the country, every day, including as a proud founding member of the Jews Say No to Genocide coalition and the Arms Embargo Now campaign. Thank you for being part of this struggle with us.

In solidarity and with gratitude,
Rachel
Canada Organizer, World BEYOND War
rachel@worldbeyondwar.org

PS: Watch my interview on Democracy Now, live from our sit-in inside Parliament here.