Hundreds protest outside Trudeau event in Vancouver to call for end to military support for Israel

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the downtown Vancouver hotel where Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau was speaking Thursday night to pressure him to cut off Canadian military support for Israel.

Dozens of demonstrators lay under white sheets outside the Westin Bayshore hotel in Coal Harbour, where Trudeau was speaking at a private Liberal Party fundraiser.

Surrounding those on the ground, several hundred more were seen waving Palestinian flags and signs saying"Free Palestine" amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Organizers with the grassroots group Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) said the event wasto show solidarity with Palestinians and call on Canada to do more to end the conflict.

WATCH | Demonstration over Israel-Hamas war grows outside Trudeau speech:

Large pro-Palestinian protest forms outside Vancouver hotel as Trudeau gives speech

10 months ago

Duration 0:40

Several hundreds of protesters gathered outside Vancouver's Westin Bayshore Thursday night, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was speaking at a private fundraiser. The demonstration, organized by grassroots group Independent Jewish Voices, called on Canada to end military support to Israel.

Jewish community members litmenorahs outside the hotel to mark the eighth and final night of Hanukkah.

"We're lighting candles for the liberation of Palestinians," said Tamara Herman, an organizer with IJV, which advocates for justice "across all Israel-Palestine," according to its website.

On social media, demonstrators said the so-called "die-in" wasmeant to represent the thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war. More than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to theHamas-run Health Ministry, since Israel launched a siege on the enclave on Oct. 7in response to attacks by Hamas that killed close to 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.

On Tuesday, Canada called for a ceasefire in Gaza and supported a non-binding resolution at the United Nations General Assembly advocatingfor the same.

Trudeau did not take questions from media on Thursday. In his prepared remarks, hedid not directly refer to the Israel-Hamas war but mentioned "conflicts in the Middle East" among the "huge challenges" he said people are facing in Canada and around the world.

"We're facing a context where climate change, the after-effects of a pandemic, the impacts of global inflation, the stresses of a war in Ukraine, of conflicts in the Middle East, these are things that are buffeting people around," Trudeausaid.

According to his official itinerary, Trudeau met privately with Jewish and Muslim leaders in Vancouver earlier on Thursday.

A CBC News reporter on scene in Vancouver said it appeared there were close to 1,000 people at Thursday's protest. CBC News has reached out to Vancouver police for more information.

As protesters poured through the streets and gathered in front of the building, chants criticizing Trudeau's response to the conflict echoed through the night.

"Trudeau, Trudeau, you can't hide, you signed off on genocide," people shouted.

Herman saidCanada's support of a non-binding ceasefire is a first step in ending the conflict, "but this is not where it ends.

"We expect our governmentto vote for a permanent and immediate ceasefire and a systemic solution to the current crisis and the current genocide in Gaza," she said.

That includes ending military support to Israel and calling for the release of political prisoners in Israel, said Mia Amir, a volunteer with IJV.

Amir and Herman said they hope the event shows not all Jewish people support Israel's actions in Gaza.