Large crowds of protesters converged on Queen’s Park Saturday afternoon as both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian supporters faced off in competing demonstrations.
Holding placards and screaming chants, each camp expressed their outrage over a festering conflict in Gaza that is estimated to have so far killed around 1,000 Palestinians and 43 Israelis.
Police set up barricades and dozens of officers worked to keep the competing camps apart as passions became heated.
“We’re here for humanity. Killing children anywhere is wrong,” one protester with the Palestinian side told CP24.
On the Israeli side, one protester told CP24 she came to the rally to speak out against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
“I think the enemy here is common to both sides,” one protester on the Israeli side who identified herself as Danielle told CP24. “We should be fighting terrorism, not each other. It is Hamas who is holding Gaza hostage and is responsible for those pictures of dead kids.”
She added that most Israelis and Palestinians want to live in peace.
At the height of both protests, some skirmishes broke out between protesters as both camps yelled at one another. However police did not immediately report any arrests or injuries.
Just metres away from the pro-Israeli protest, one pro-Palestinian demonstrator said shouting at each other won’t help anything.
“I’ve been to protests since I was a teenager. This never works, it just fuels hatred,” she said. “But in two minutes I found the most super-charged person on the other side with the most opposite opinion as us. I found him and I wanted to talk to him and all I wanted to ask him was what his name was and that’s the only way this thing is going to work out – if we just sit down and talk to each other as human beings.”
Around 3:45 p.m. hundreds of Palestinian supporters marched to the U.S. consulate to demand that the U.S. take stronger action to halt the bloodshed.
At the same time, the Israeli protesters set up a simulation at Queen’s Park to demonstrate the rocket sirens some Israelis live with daily.
Both protests broke up by around 5 p.m. Police did not immediatly provide a crowd estimate for either gathering.
As the bloody conflict continues, passions have spilled over in cities across the globe, with protests held around the world in recent weeks.
The GTA has also seen some of the tensions spill over recently with anti-Muslim graffiti found scrawled outside a mosque in Thornhill and anti-Semitic graffiti found outside a bus shelter in the area several days later. York Regional Police have said they are investigating both incidents.
