“We're here today so the people of Gaza know that they do not stand alone. And we will not stop until we see justice and peace,” Sandra Ruch told the crowd that assembled Sunday across the street from the Israeli Consulate in Toronto.

On Sunday, 1,360 people from 43 countries around the world gathered in Cairo, where they'll travel to the Gaza strip and plan to march arm-in-arm Thursday with 50,000 supporters in the Gaza Freedom March, Rabbel.ca reported.
“End the siege,” shouted the crowd. “Justice and peace for Palestine.”
But the Egyptian government, said Ruch, “is doing everything they can to stop the March, stopping people from gathering in groups over six.”
Some members of the International Gaza Freedom March have already been detained for arrest. “But they are not going to stop,” she said. “Like us they will continue to march for an end to the siege.”
A year ago, Israel began its numerous attacks on Gaza, eventually killing over 1,400 innocent men, women and children.
As a Jewish woman, Ruch reminded the crowd that this is not her Judaism. “My Judaism is healing the world,” she said. “I taught that never again meant never again for anybody.”
This is also the Judaism for other Jews who stood at the corner of Avenue Road and Bloor on Sunday, as well as those who are gathering in Cairo to march to Gaza.
“It's time for us to heal the memory of the Holocaust, to stop being held hostage to the memory of the Holocaust, to move ahead and be good citizens of the world, to say never again for anybody,” said Ruch, Canadian Coordinator for the Gaza Freedom March. “Speaking out against the Israeli government that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.”
She said, “It's our right to speak out against the Israeli government just as it is our right to speak out against the Canadian government, the U.S. government and the European Union because every country has blood on its hands.”
Ruch has visited the Gaza twice this year. She's seen the destruction and the families forced to live in tents. Standing outside on Sunday as the cold winds whipped her face, Ruch couldn't help but think about the cold and the rain that Palestinians are forced to endure in Gaza because the blockade has seriously hampered rebuilding efforts.
“We will end the siege and rebuild Gaza,” she said. “The sewage system is failing, fresh water is becoming harder to obtain and many foods are banned from Gaza.”
But the people in Gaza want more than humanitarian aid. They want their freedom too.
“Free, free Palestine,” chanted the crowd.
An organizer with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), Mary-Jo Nadeau said that “key Palestinian activists are being arrested” and “Israeli state repression of Palestinian activists is on the rise.”
She said, “We need to make the connection between the war on Gaza and these ongoing imprisonments.”
Born in Gaza, Hammam Farah is a member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University. His family struggles through the Israeli siege yet managed to survive last year’s attacks on his homeland.
“It seems as though the world has forgotten,” he said, as inaudible chants from pro-Israeli supporters across the street echoed in the background. “The powerful remain silent as $4.5 billion dollars in aid to repair the infrastructure of Gaza are frozen in place and that Israel continues to deny the entry of even the most basic supplies.”
Although today's marchers remember what happened in the Gaza a year ago, Farah said, “There are times when remembering simply isn't enough.
We can boycott, we can divest and we can pressure sanctions.”
An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor was among a group of grandmothers who began a hunger strike in Cairo on Monday to protest against Egypt's refusal to allow a Gaza solidarity march to proceed.
American activist Hedy Epstein and other grandmothers participating in the Gaza Freedom March began a hunger strike at 1000 GMT, AFP reported.
“I've never done this before, I don't know how my body will react, but I'll do whatever it takes,” Epstein told AFP, sitting on a chair surrounded by hundreds of protesters outside the United Nations building in Cairo.
Egyptian authorities had said they would not allow any of the 1,300 protesters who have come to Egypt from 42 countries to take part in the march to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, the only entry that bypasses Israel.
The activists are hoping to join Palestinians for march on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of Israel's devastating war on Gaza that killed 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis also died.
High-ranking Egyptian officers and riot police were deployed on the Nile bank Monday where the UN building is located and where hundreds of Gaza Freedom March participants asked the United Nations to mediate with Cairo to let their convoy into Gaza.
“We met with the UN resident coordinator in Cairo James Rawley and we are waiting for a response,” Philippine Senator Walden Bello told protesters.
“We will wait as long as it takes,” he said.
Protesters who wore T-shirts with “The Audacity of War Crimes” and “We will not be silent” held a giant Palestinian flag, as others sang, danced and shouted “Freedom for Gaza” in various languages.
Egypt has beefed up security measures along the 380-kilometre (236-mile) road to the Rafah border crossing, setting up dozens of checkpoints along the way, a security official told AFP.
“Measures have been tightened along the road from Cairo to Rafah to prevent activists from the Gaza Freedom March from staging the march,” the official said.
Police turned back fives buses carrying 200 French activists on their way to El-Arish, the activists told AFP.
Separately, organizers of another aid convoy trying to reach the blockaded enclave -- Viva Palestina led by British MP George Galloway -- said it would head to Syria on Monday en route for Egypt after being stranded in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba for five days.
Turkey dispatched an official on Saturday to try to convince the Egyptians to allow Viva Palestina to go through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba -- the most direct route -- but Egypt insisted the convoy can only enter through El-Arish, on its Mediterranean coast.
At least 300 French participants of the Gaza Freedom spent the night Sunday-Monday camped out in front of their embassy in Cairo, bringing a major road in the capital to a halt, as riot police wielding plexiglass shields surrounded them.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki accused the French protesters of lying
On Sunday, Egyptian police also stopped some 200 protesters from renting boats on the Nile to hold a procession to commemorate those who died in the Gaza war.
As protesters massed in front of the UN in Cairo, Egyptian authorities blocked the press from covering the protest or speaking to the protesters.
At noon in New York, Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “does the UN have any comment on Egyptian authorities barred the press from filming or speaking with people in front of the UN facilities in Cairo engaged in a protest regarding the Gaza Freedom March?”
Four hours later, having heard nothing back, Inner City Press went to the Spokesperson's Office for an answer to this and other questions. The deputy spokesperson asked, which UN building, and indicated that there would be no UN response, Inner City Press reported.
Back on December 17, Inner City Press asked an organizer of the Gaza Freedom March about Egyptian policies, and whether the UN is going enough.
The December 28 request for comment, for the record, was not about the Gaza Freedom March in general -- the UN has already no commented on that -- but about a host government interfering with freedom of the press to cover a protest in front of the UN. The silence, then, is all the more striking.