Texas-Based Real Estate Company Is Selling Palestinian Land From Canada?
Pro-Palestinian supporters are calling for a second real estate event planned north of Toronto to be called down over concerns it involves the selling of land in the occupied West Bank.
On Sunday, dozens of people gathered near the Aish Hatorah synagogue in Thornhill, Ont., to protest an event that organizers say was aimed at helping people in the Toronto area buy property in Israel. They were met with pro-Israeli counterprotesters and Jewish leaders took issue with the Sunday protest taking place outside a synagogue.
But pro-Palestinian protesters say companies associated with the event market property in the West Bank, where over two million Palestinians live under Israel's military occupation, according to the United Nations (UN).
A similar event is expected to take place Thursday at another synagogue in the area. It is unclear whether the two events are connected.
"We weren't there because it's a synagogue, we were there because we were protesting against a real estate show," said Ghada Sasa, who was at the protest over the weekend.
"[These events] shouldn't be allowed to happen when they're explicitly advertising land on occupied territory."
Sasa said the issue is personal to her as her grandfather's family was "expelled" from the land in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which was when the state of Israel was established. They've since not been allowed to return, she said.
She is calling for an immediate "injunction" against upcoming real estate events selling land on occupied Palestinian territory.
The UN, alongside Canada, consider Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be in violation of international convention, with the federal government saying they "constitute a serious obstacle to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace."
A Muslim man living in Canada tried to participate (i.e., purchase land), but he was rejected:
Comments