Below are key calendar dates in July related to Canada and the Middle East, especially Palestinian activism and resistance. Please email [email protected] if you would like to suggest other anniversaries or dates for our "On this day" commemorations.

July 8, 2014: Israel launches 50-day assault on Gaza

On this day in, 2014, Israel launched a 50-day war on the occupied Gaza Strip. This was Israel’s third military offensive on Gaza within seven years, and it lasted for 50 days straight, from July 8 to August 26. Within the first 48 hours of the offensive, Israel dropped 400 tonnes of bombs on Gaza, and over the next two months, Israel launched over 6,000 airstrikes. Over 2,251 Palestinians were killed (including 551 children and 299 women), and 11,231 were injured (3540 women, 3,436 children). (Read more...) 

July 9, 2004: ICJ rules that Israel's Apartheid Wall is illegal

On this day in 2004, the International Court of Justice (The Hague Court) ruled that Israel's Apartheid Wall is illegal and must be torn down. In 2002, Israel had begun construction of a wall inside occupied Palestinian territory, and in some cases deep inside the Green Line, which divided Palestinian communities, severely restricted freedom of movement, and effectively annexed large sections of occupied territory. (Read more...)

July 12, 2006: Israel launches invasion and destruction of Lebanon

On this day in 2006, Israel launched a devastating 33-day invasion of Lebanon. This was triggered when Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed three others, in an attempt to secure the release of prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel used this incident as a pre-text to launch a pre-planned, aggressive invasion of Lebanon, deploying over 7,000 bombs in airstrikes over a period of 33 days. This assault killed an estimated 1,200 Lebanese civilians (one third of them children), injuring over 4,399, and displacing 1 million civilians from their homes. Israel also implemented a naval blockade of the entire Lebanese coast, creating a hostile living environment for many Lebanese civilians. Israel damaged tens of thousands of homes within the cities of Srifa, Siddiquine, Yatar, Zebqine, Aita Al-Sha’ab, Bint Jbeil and Taibe. (Read more...) 

July 15, 2006: Israeli airstrike kills Canadian-Lebanese family

On this day in 2006, an Israeli airstrike on a residential home in Southern Lebanon killed a dozen members of the same family, including 8 Canadian citizens, among them four young children. Ali Al-Akhrass, a Montreal pharmacist, had wanted to take his wife Amira and four children (Salam, 1, Ahmad, 3, Zeinab, 5, and Saja, 7) to visit Lebanon as a summer vacation, to connect with their family and culture. Instead of enjoying a relaxing summer, they were caught in the crossfire of Israel’s devastating invasion of Lebanon. (Read more...) 

July 25, 2006: Canadian peacekeeper killed by Israeli airstrike in Lebanon

On this day in 2006, Canadian peacekeeper Major Hess-Von Kruedener was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. Hess-Von Kruedener was stationed at a UN patrol base in Southern Lebanon to observe the armed conflict during Israel’s invasion of the country. For six hours on July 25, Israel launched three successive waves of attacks on the UN patrol base with bombs and artillery fire, and continued this assault despite repeated pleas from the UN commander that “you [Israelis] are killing my people.” As UN personnel were preparing plans to evacuate, an Israeli airstrike dropped a 500-kg satellite-guided ‘bunker-buster’ bomb on top of the patrol base, killing Hess-Von Kruedener and three other UN peacekeepers.(Read more...) 

More coming soon...