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Pro-Palestine protesters disrupt business at Nanaimo bookstore

Protesters urge shoppers to choose other bookstores

Pro-Palestine protesters attempted to disrupt business at the Chapters at Nanaimo's Woodgrove Centre this week, rallying inside and outside the bookstore as part of a national protest campaign.

Protesters handed out flyers outside the store Wednesday, Sept. 25, then briefly entered the store with signs to chant condemnations of the company. 

"It's educational," said Chantey Dayal, who came out to protest the business. "The public needs to know what these large corporations are doing. We're also trying to encourage people to shop locally, small local-owned businesses, and we're also here to say, no more killing of children. There have been 20,000 children killed in Gaza up until today and one child is too many."

The boycott stems from a foundation established by the company's CEO Heather Reisman with her husband Gerald Schwartz. The HESEG Foundation, formed in 2005, provides scholarships for single discharged 'lone soldiers' from the Israeli Defence Force. 'Lone soldiers' include fighters with no family in Israel, such an immigrant, a foreign national or an orphan.

The protesters argue that the program effectively gives financial incentives for foreign nationals to fight for Israel.

"We are here to deliver a message to customers, trying to educate them about Indigo's complicity of the genocide in Gaza, and the links to that have to do with Heather Reisman, the owner of Indigo," Dayal said. 

Palestinian student Sara Kishawi was also present at the rally. 

"You have one person that shows up, one person that you let know, then that to us is enough," Kishawi said. "We don't need to count how many people we turned away or how many people stopped to listen to us, as long as you're planting that seed in people's heads that 'hey, there's something going on to this, maybe I'm going to research it more.' That's enough." 

The effort is a part of a larger campaign called Boycott Indigo Books, involving protests in more than 50 Canadian communities including Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary.

"This is a cause that should matter to everybody. It's something that speaks to our humanity and us living here and being complicit, without even being aware that we're complicit," Kishawi said. "That's just something that should go against everyone's humanity and ability to live on."

Indigo was contacted for a statement but did not respond by time of publication.

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Jessica Durling

About the Author: Jessica Durling

Nanaimo News Bulletin journalist covering health, wildlife and Lantzville council.
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