Around 100 police officers were deployed to disperse a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters who surrounded a restaurant where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was dining in Vancouver on Tuesday night.
The protesters, numbering about 250, chanted for a ceasefire in the ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip. Two people were reportedly arrested.
Videos showed protesters waving Palestinian flags, shouting slogans and jeering Trudeau outside the restaurant.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trudeau was heckled by protesters inside another restaurant in a different part of the city. A video posted to social media shows activists confronting the Prime Minister while he was seated at a corner table.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reprimanded at a restaurant in Vancouver because of his government's position in support of the genocide in #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/JKpfTP3N5x
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 15, 2023
They too called for a ceasefire, chanting “Shame on you!” and “Justin Trudeau, you fund genocide!” The prime minister quickly left the restaurant escorted by security.
Charlotte Kates, an organizer with the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network who attended both protests, reportedly said that activists demanded that Canada “take a real position” on Israel’s military assault in Gaza.
Protests in the city, as in other cities across Canada, have been ongoing since Israel’s latest operation began.
Also on Tuesday, Trudeau called on Israel to stop “this killing of women, of children, of babies” in the Gaza Strip. “This has to stop,” he told a news conference.
“I urge the government of Israel to exercise maximum restraint. The world is watching, on TV, on social media – we’re hearing the testimonies of doctors, family members, survivors, kids who have lost their parents,” he said.
Following public pressure, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau says that Israel should "exercise maximum restraint" in Gaza because "the world is watching". pic.twitter.com/VVkfrqKFAS
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) November 16, 2023
In a response on social media that tagged Trudeau, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “while Israel is doing everything to keep civilians out of harm’s way, Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way.”
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israel has, thus far, killed over 11,500 Palestinians, including 4,710 children and 3,160 women. The number of wounded has reached 29,800.
The Israeli army continues to pound civilian homes throughout the Gaza Strip with new massacres reported everywhere in the besieged enclave.
Gaza has been under a tight Israeli military siege since 2007, following a democratic election in occupied Palestine, the results of which were rejected by Tel Aviv and Washington.
(PC, RT)
