VANCOUVER—Members of a national grassroots Jewish organization held a memorial on Monday outside the Vancouver offices of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), praying for an end to Israel’s killings of Palestinians in Gaza in recent weeks.

The gathering of roughly a dozen people marked the Shavu’ot holiday with prayers they said were from the Jewish memorial tradition of Yizkor, and criticized CIJA’s support for Israel’s use of military force against Palestinians.

Rabbi David Mivasair, a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, lit a candle and described his “grief and sadness” at the mounting death toll — but also his concern that pro-Israeli government organizations don’t speak for all Canadian Jews.

“The organizations that purport to speak for the Jewish community are getting it wrong,” he said at the vigil. “They’re not speaking for us, and they’re not speaking for many, many other Canadian Jews.”

He said CIJA’s stance is inconsistent with religious tenets at the heart of Jewish tradition.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian demonstrators have gathered periodically along the Gaza-Israel boundary since March 30.

Their reasons for protesting include a decision by the U.S. to move its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, long-standing Israeli and Egyptian blockades of goods into Gaza, and what they describe as the 70-year displacement of Palestinians from their homes during the creation of Israel.

CIJA was not available for an interview by the time of publication Monday, but CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel issued a statement last Wednesday saying Hamas — the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza — bore “direct responsibility for (the) recent violence on the Israel-Gaza border.”

“For Hamas, Palestinian casualties are sickening public relations achievements,” he said. “Shifting the blame to Israel risks encouraging Hamas to further fuel violence.”

As of Friday, more than 100 Palestinians — including 14 children — had been killed and more than 12,000 wounded since demonstrations began, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

But Israeli government officials pounced on a statement by a Hamas spokesperson Wednesday that 50 of those killed were members of the militant Palestinian party — fuelling accusations that Hamas is driving its own citizens to the fence as human shields to cover for the delivery of terrorists onto Israeli soil.

Outside CIJA’s offices in Vancouver, Mivasair argued that Independent Jewish Voices is up against a well-funded, politically powerful publicity campaign in support of the Israeli government’s use of violence against Palestinians along the Gaza border.

His hope is that growing international attention will unite peace advocates to pressure world leaders to intervene on behalf of Palestinians, he told StarMetro.

“I think this is a moment where some change can come,” Mivasair said. “I think there’s more awareness, and from the awareness, there’s more willingness to engage among people everywhere, including our elected MPs.”

Also attending the vigil was celebrated Vancouver physician and drug reform advocate Dr. Gabor Maté, who joined in reading aloud 131 names of Gazans killed recently, as well as Stephen Aberle, also a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada.

After years of political wavering over what Aberle called Israel’s human rights abuses, he told StarMetro, a “sea change” is now on the horizon.

“The more you give people facts, the more their awareness blossoms, and the more they start to get pissed off and take some action,” he said. “I do see change coming, but it’s slow.”

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Mivasair also led the group in a Kaddish prayer — a hymn of praise that he said points to the responsibility each individual has to make God’s love manifest in the world around them.

Mivasair told StarMetro he understood the fatigue many Canadians must feel being asked to care about so many hardships worldwide.

“There are so many crises and so much suffering in the world,” he said. “You can’t do something about everything. But hopefully we, writ very large, can use ... the increased awareness just to move the needle a little bit.”

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