Palestinian supporters gather in downtown Red Deer for rally

“I am here to support every child in the world, no killer. We don’t want to kill anybody; we want peace for everyone.”

Palestine rally in downtown Red Deer on Tuesday. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

Abraham Silverman, Manager of Public Relations for B’nai B’rith Canada, Alberta Region, a Jewish service organization, said the rallies are not about free speech but are hate speech against Jews. He adds the Jewish community in Red Deer is very small, with less than 100 people.

On October 7, Palestinian militants, known as Hamas, launched dozens of rockets from the Gaza Strip toward Israel in a surprise attack on a major Jewish holiday. They also gunned down civilians in their homes, on streets and at a mass outdoor music festival, and took men, women, and children into hostage.

“Anyone who supports a terrorist organization like Hamas, that cuts off the heads of little children and babies, in my mind, is not fit to be part of the human condition. It’s unforgivable that anyone could support a terrorist organization that commits such atrocities, regardless of the reason. There is no reason that any human being could possibly think how they can justify such barbaric actions,” said Silverman.

Israel thus declared war, responding with air strikes. The combined death total has risen to over 2,000, as of Wednesday.

PARTIAL HISTORY

Palestine and Israel are located to the east of the Mediterranean Sea, surrounded by the countries of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

A map made by BBC news of Israel (in white) and Palestine (in beige) after the Israel-Egypt peace treaty in 1982. (BBC news)

According to the History Channel, some say the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back a few thousand years ago, with most information coming from the religious texts of Abraham, the father of both Judaism and Islam, and when King David and King Solomon ruled the region in 1,000 B.C. As a result, both religious groups deem the area as sacred.

Over the next several centuries, the territory would be occupied by various ethnic groups and religions.

From 1517 – 1917, most of the Middle East, including present-day Israel, Palestine, and various other parts of the world were ruled by the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire and predominantly Islamic in religion.

During this time as well, a Jewish nationalist movement named Zionism began, with its goal of creating and supporting a Jewish national state in Palestine, what they claim is the ancient homeland of the Jews.

GREAT BRITAIN AND WWI

According to the United Nations, following World War I (1914-1918), British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour wrote a mandate supporting the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, some say as a tactic to gain support from Jews, particularly in the United States, to join the Allies, made up of France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, and Japan.

However, Palestinian Arabs claim they were also given a promise by the Allied Powers, that they would be given independence following the war.

While most of the territories eventually became fully independent states, the Palestinian territory was placed under British rule in 1922 by the League of Nations, created as the first worldwide intergovernmental organization for world peace. A large Jewish immigration took place in Palestine following this time and during World War II, resulting in revolts by the Arab people wanting independence.

WWII

In 1947 after the Second World War, the United Nations decided to turn the territory of Palestine into two independent States; one Palestinian Arab, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and one Jewish, leaving the holy land of Jerusalem as a separate international entity. Arab leaders, including Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, rejected the plan.

Partition Plan approved by the United Nations General Assembly 1947 (Britannica)

Once Israel became an independent state in 1948, they were invaded by surrounding Arabic countries. Israel and Palestine refused to recognize the other as a country with designated borders, and other countries followed. Numerous wars took place over the years, resulting in Israel’s annexation of more territory.

The Hamas, an Islamist militant group, assumed Palestinian power in 2006 and have continued various conflicts with Israel since.

Some Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan have recognized Israel as a state and over 135 United Nations countries have also recognized Palestine as a state.

PRESENT

“We went out to support our brothers and sisters in Palestine and everything that’s happening to them; they’re getting attacked under the Israeli occupation. The Israeli occupation is fighting innocent kids and innocent people who are in Palestine right now. They [Palestinians] are under bombing, no power, no electricity, no water, nothing in there and they’re living on bombing and shooting every single day and every single night. They have no life; it’s like hell for them,” said Zein Alabdin.

Rally for Palestine in downtown Red Deer on Tuesday. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

Israel has created and controlled various borders along the Gaza Strip and West Bank. However, Silverman says there have been no Jews living in the Gaza Strip since 2005, when he says they were forcibly removed from their homes.

“Does Israel control the borders to try and ensure they [Palestinians] don’t smuggle in weapons and other things that they can use to kill Jews? Yes, they do, but 100 trucks a day roll into Gaza every day carrying humanitarian goods for the people of Gaza. Israel supplies almost all of Gaza’s electricity and water so, to say that Israel occupies Gaza is an outright lie and Israel does not occupy much of the West Bank; much of the West Bank is controlled by the Palestinian authority. Israel does maintain the right to deal with terrorism in the West Bank, and it does, and to ensure security in the West Bank, but Israel does not control Palestinians in the West Bank,” he said.

Zein Alabdin claims that Palestine has been under attack for the past 74 years

“They’re [Israel] taking their land from them, they’re kicking them out of their countries, this is the reaction to every action. Every action has a reaction to it, and this is what Hamas did, I think,” she said.

“They’re [Hamas] protecting themselves, they’re protecting their children, they’re protecting their land. They don’t want their kids to be killed, they don’t want this anymore. We want peace and this is what we’re arguing.”

Palestinian supporter at Red Deer City Hall Park. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

Silverman says that both groups have legitimate claims to the land but the issue is a question of sharing; to which Jews have always agreed, he claims.

He says Hamas is not just harming Jews, but their own people.

“Terrorists are responsible for the death of innocent Palestinians who they use as human shields. That’s going to be another tragedy perpetrated by Hamas,” he said.

On Wednesday, Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian charity headquartered in Switzerland, posted a quote on Facebook by Ayman Al-Djaroucha, Deputy Project Coordinator in Gaza, stating, “Today, 100 per cent of the patients we received at our clinic in Gaza city were children between 10 and 14. This is because the majority of the injured in Gaza are women and children, since they are the ones who are most often in the houses that get destroyed in the airstrikes.”

by Alessia Proietti and Sheldon Spackman

Palestinian supporters gather in downtown Red Deer for rally

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