Thousands are expected to attend a pro-Israel rally in downtown Montreal on Tuesday morning at Place du Canada.
The rally is an annual one, held every year since 2022 on Israel’s Independence Day – this year marking 76 years (May 14, 1948).
Montreal police were already on hand early Tuesday, at least three patrol cars surrounding the area and organizers, Jewish Unity Partnership, say they have over 100 security guards as well.
The event is set to begin at 11 a.m. as the Israel-Hamas war continues in Gaza, and Pro-Palestinian supporters occupy encampments at McGill University, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and the most recent at Université de Sherbrooke.
About 60 buses are set to arrive from nine points in Montreal and Laval.
“We invite you to come and cover the Rally which annually bas been the largest solidarity event in the world outside of Israel on Israel’s Independence Day,” said organizers in an email to CityNews. “There will be a special tribute to the hostages as well.”
The two-hour rally will feature speeches, music, a concert, and dancing. The Consul General of Israel is expected to speak.
In previous years, the event started at Phillips Square, with participants marching. This year, it will be limited to Place du Canada.
Similar pro-Israel events are planned in cities around the world Tuesday.
A group called Montreal4Palestine has called on followers to “disrupt” the Israel event and shut it down. “Join us…as we continue to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to all complicity,” they wrote on Instagram.
It’s been seven months since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack at the Nova music festival where at least 260 people were killed. And some 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack in southern Israel. Militants took around 250 hostage. Israel says Hamas is holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others in Gaza, after many were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Since the Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s bombardment and offensive in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.
-With files from the Associated Press