Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada

by Leila Marshy (Editor)

For two years, the world watched in horror as 2 million people on 140 square miles of land bore an unprecedented and unfathomable pummelling by the Israeli Army. More bombs were dropped on Gaza than in World War II; more children killed, wounded and orphaned than in any other conflict of this century; more journalists and healthcare workers killed than in any other conflict ever; and entire towns and districts were reduced to dust.

Those who spoke about the carnage were punished by censure, sanction, smearing and worse. Across the country, journalists were muzzled, academics were stifled, doctors were fired, activists were arrested, and artists were banned. Words such as genocide, ceasefire and ethnic cleansing were excised from the discourse, and criticism of the conflict invited accusations of antisemitism.

Razing Palestine brings together the testimonies and stories of a wide range of individuals across a variety of domains who have suffered the cost and consequences of speaking up for Palestine.

240 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2025

About the author

Author of The Philistine (LLP, 2018), My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books, 2025), and Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada (Baraka Books, 2025), Leila Marshy's Palestinian father was exiled from his home in 1948, never to return. During the First Intifada, Marshy lived in Cairo and worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Mental Health Association. She has been a journalist, a baker, a chicken farmer, a graphic designer, and a community & political organizer. In 2011 she founded a groundbreaking group in Montreal that brought the Hasidic community together in dialogue with their neighbours. Her stories and journalism has been published in Canadian and American media. She lives in Montreal.

Reviews

[J.J. Dupuis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the world nervously watches the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas (one where the killing of Palestinians is still happening, albeit at a much slower rate), we have to begin examining how “never again” became hollowed out and meaningless. Although no one expects Nuremberg-style trials to hold the genocidaires to account, we require a deep probe into our institutions to examine how it is for all our laws and principles, we allowed another genocide to happen on our watch. How did our trusted, supposedly venerable institutions not only fail to act, but provide cover and support for a genocide?

Razing Palestine, a collection of essays edited by Leila Marshy and released by Baraka Books, is a first step in the direction of understanding and accountability. These essays, written by prominent journalists, doctors, lawyers, activists and more, demonstrate the infrastructure and techniques not specifically designed to deny genocide, but to reinforce the status quo. The tactics employed by the media, the police and higher-ups in academia, unions and even parliament, are exposed within the pages of Razing Palestine. Once exposed, how can we ignore the fingers on the scale of human rights and international law, tilting us all away from justice?

Once exposed, how can we ignore the fingers on the scale of human rights and international law, tilting us all away from justice?

Razing Palestine organizes its essays by sector, from law enforcement to media, academia to healthcare to arts and culture. These compelling accounts expose the gatekeepers, the systems in place to silence dissent and uphold the colonial hierarchy. The book does not purport to uncover a grand conspiracy, but sheds a light on the numerous instances of censorship, Palestinian erasure and dirty tricks necessary to enable a genocide.

From the preface, written by Gabor Mate, the famed physician and author who lost family in the Holocaust, the book emphasizes the importance of speaking out against atrocities and the right to do so. The first essay, by former NDP MP Libby Davies, sets the tone of censorship faced by those in power who do speak out. Two years into the genocide in Gaza, most observers are now familiar with the tactics; bad-faith accusations of antisemitism used to silence any legitimate criticism of the Netanyahu government. Davies explores, as several of the contributors do, the use of the problematic International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism to stifle critiques of Israeli state violence.

The essay that follows, by activist Yara Coussa, relates her experience of violence at the hands of police during a pro-Palestine protest. The brutality, designed to instill fear and humiliate, is just one tool of state power used to silence dissent that the book explores. Lawyer Thoby King, in his essay about the case against the Indigo 11, lays bare the rhetorical tactics the police used to smear the protesters involved when the actual charges wouldn’t do the trick. The police, using terms like “hate” and “antisemitism” in their press releases, perpetuated a narrative that an act of protest against a wealthy businessperson who personally funds charities that support the illegal occupation of Palestine was nothing more than bigotry. The charges against the Indigo 11 were eventually dropped for the most part. But that hasn’t slowed law enforcement, certain media outlets and advocacy groups from continuing to spread the narrative that those speaking out against a genocide do so only because they hate Jewish people.

The second part of the book, titled “Radio Silence,” provides strong overview of how Canadian media manufactures consent for the genocide in Gaza through a number of techniques, similar to When Genocide Wasn’t News, released earlier this year by Breach Media. Reporters detail how their voices were silenced in pitch meetings, how a culture of ignorance about the Middle East pervades newsrooms and how the right to have one’s circumstances accurately described turns out to be a luxury afforded to some and not others. The book does not shy away from the ultimate censorship, Israel’s targeted assassinations of over 250 journalists in Gaza.

Razing Palestine pulls the curtain back on the violence and ugliness of the colonial machine, from its erasure of Palestinian culture and Palestinian voices from the mainstream, to the divisions sewed within the Jewish community itself. It turns those who are supposed to protect us into those who persecute us. The diverse selection of contributors shows the many ways and the many downstream effects of silencing dissent of Canada’s support of our genocidal ally has. We see the impacts of job loss and self-censorship, death threats and doxxing, even Jewish children being uninvited to Passover seder if their parents don’t tow the Likud Party line.

Solidarity, and the optimism that comes with it, is a throughline connecting these essays. From students to their professors, union workers and journalists, doctors and lawyers, Jews and Palestinians, the movements explored in Razing Palestine provide a shining light in dark times. As Dr. Yipeng Ge states, “resistance is love.” What other force could stand up to the smear campaigns, the police violence, the cancellations and censorship that come along with speaking truth to power? When we’re able to examine the genocide in Gaza through the detached lens of history, and our children ask us how this was allowed to happen, Razing Palestine will be Exhibit A. The testimony of scholars and journalists like Samira Moyeddin, Nora Loreto and Sean Tucker will be valuable evidence. But we needn’t wait. Razing Palestine is here now and should be read by everyone who believes in human rights and justice.

This review was originally published in The Miramichi Reader.

[David Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I shouldn’t have been surprised, Razin Palestine was an eye opener. I stumbled across this book by accident at the Quebec Reads festival in Montreal a few weeks ago. Edited by Leila marshy, a former colleague in another life and clear proof that we don’t know anybody unless we talk to them or read their work. I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t know that Leila was of Palestinian origin.
Razing Palestine is a collection of essays written by Canadians, including new Canadians, amongst them a South African woman. Together, they provide ample personal examples of how the Canadian state clamps down on freedom of expression, especially when the subject matter includes Palestine and Israel. With Israel, anything goes, with Palestine the risk of harassment, prison, and job loss is very real.
Canadians tend to be rather smug about their country, with many holding a longstanding attitude that they are somehow better than their US neighbours – a kinder, gentler nation. While this remains true to some extent, that position is slipping. The current government, liberal in name only, is increasing state security powers and placing restrictions on the rights of free speech and protest. Most Canadians won’t know this because the main stream media doesn’t’ carry it. Reading Razing Palestine is a good antidote. Well done Leila, contributors, and Robin Philpot of Baraka Books.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In a political climate where pro-Palestinian activism is increasingly criminalized, the decision to be physically present, filmed, or named was not taken lightly. Protesters knew they were being watched. They knew that their images might circulate beyond the crowd, that their words might be taken out of context, that their presence might be used against them. And still, they came. In this way, protest became both an act of expression and an act of defiance. It was a refusal to be silenced by fear and a refusal to allow the threat of surveillance to dictate the boundaries of political speech. Protesters made themselves visible not because it was safe, but because it was necessary.

In this way, the protests are not only acts of resistance but reclamation that expand our understanding of how people make truth together, particularly when traditional institutions render them illegible. This use of protest has broader implications for how we conceptualize political voice and agency: not as making policy claims intelligible to the state but as claiming space, time, and meaning within a broader public-whether or not the state listens.”

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely important book.