Every Passover, we tell the story of liberation from Mitzrayim, the “narrow place” — a place of confinement, enslavement, and oppression.
This year, we confront a brutal truth: Zionism is Mitzrayim.
It is domination, occupation, checkpoints, surveillance.
It is empire, apartheid, genocide.
1.5 Years of Genocide
While we gather for Passover, we cannot look away from Gaza. Over the past year and a half, over 51,000 Palestinians have been killed. No aid has entered Gaza in 6 weeks, and hundreds of thousands face extreme starvation and famine. Israel has destroyed all universities in Gaza, targeted journalists and medical workers for assassination, and bombed every working hospital.
Now, Israel is planning for an indefinite military presence in Gaza. On April 12, it fully established the Morag Corridor, a new security zone that effectively partitions the southern city of Rafah from central Gaza. This, along with the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, divides Gaza into isolated sections, restricting movement and access to essential services.Defense Minister Israel Katz has called this a “security buffer zone,” but we know that it is the latest stage of Israel occupation, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Passover reminds us that in every generation, we must work towards collective liberation. Every year at seder, we eat matzah and read, “This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in Mitzrayim. Let all who are hungry come and eat.”
Meanwhile, Palestinians throughout Gaza – men, women and children alike – are being starved by Israel. The World Central Kitchen’s mobile bakery, which is now the only functioning bakery in Gaza, isn’t able to operate at even half its capacity, since Israel has been blocking flour imports.
Canada is complicit
Prime Minister Carney refuses to call it a genocide, saying the “question is in front of the International Court of Justice”. But inaction in the face of atrocity is complicity.
Under international law, our government has a responsibility to act to prevent genocide. When nearly every notable human rights organization has named it a genocide, when countless experts have called it genocide, and when overwhelming evidence demonstrates that this is a genocide, we cannot wait for an international court ruling.
