Sackville Farmers Market vendor Kendra Wilson
Kendra Wilson, who sells jewellery and crafts at the Sackville Farmers Market, was just about to head home on Saturday when she noticed the Palestinian flag attached to the gazebo in Bill Johnstone Park.
“I was in my car and I saw the flag and then I remembered that I could come over and put my name down and at least do that for today,” she says.
So, Wilson joined the small group holding its weekly vigil calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an embargo on supplying the weapons that Israel has used so far to slaughter about 43,000 Palestinians there.
She says the images she’s seeing on Instagram are deeply upsetting.
“There was one of a man screaming at the camera and crying that his neighbours were burning in the building and he couldn’t go in and save them,” she says.
“They were bombed and in the images you can see, there’s a man hooked up to an IV still in a hospital bed and they’re burning alive.”
Wilson’s eyes filled with tears and her voice shook with emotion as she recalled a second troubling image.
“Another one was of children playing ball in a playground and the children were bombed. Ten children had passed and they showed them in body bags with their little faces out,” she says.
“I feel like it is a genocide,” she adds, noting that the scale of the killing is grossly disproportionate to the October 7 Hamas-led attack that resulted in the killing of 1,139 people in Israel and the capture of about 250 hostages.
‘Ethnic cleansing’
Wilson says the Hamas attack was just an excuse for Israel to continue its campaign to force Palestinians off their land.
“It’s ethnic cleansing, it’s always been about ethnic cleansing and it’s not just this war,” she said referring to Israel’s repeated attacks over many decades on Palestinians in occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“This war we’re getting to see,” Wilson says. “We’re watching it as it happens.”
She adds that Canada’s mainstream media aren’t showing what’s really happening in Gaza.
“The real news isn’t being shown on TV. It’s the people on the ground in Gaza who are in the war right now sharing what’s going on on Instagram.”
Cellphone photojournalism
Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza captured this Instagram image of five-year-old Kenzie al Madhoun on October 21, 2023. She had been playing with her grandfather in their garden in central Gaza just before an Israeli airstrike. Her grandfather died and she was placed in a temporary morgue before a paramedic noticed she was still breathing. She was rushed to hospital and eventually evacuated to Egypt and then Turkey where she underwent multiple surgeries. Doctors could not save her right arm. For more on her story, click here and here.
‘World has turned away’
Peace activist and poet Marilyn Lerch, who was also at Saturday’s vigil, says wealthy western countries, including Canada, are willing to supply weapons to Israel, but aren’t willing to apply meaningful pressure on Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“The U.S., U.K., France, nobody pushing for a ceasefire,” she says.
“It would just be a phone call and nothing like that is happening,” she adds.
“Just like the Jewish people felt the world had turned away from them,” she said referring to the Holocaust, “my God, certainly the people of Palestine for many, many, decades have felt the world has turned away,” she said.
“It’s heartbreaking and we feel that we still have to somehow stand here in Sackville and say, ‘We support Palestine.'”
Sign posted at the vigil lists statistics on the war in Gaza
It’s a war, not a genocide or an ethnic cleansing.
Wars are ugly, granted, but there’s a gross overuse of the term “genocide”, which means a lot more than “A war that we don’t agree with.”
One wonders, where are these people to protest the ACTUAL ethnic cleansings being engaged in by the Chinese Communist Party, such as against Tibetans and Uighurs? Maybe some words in favour of the Kurds in Turkey (and elsewhere) would also be in order?
Sorry Marika – by definition and international opinion, it’s genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. And it’s a war. They can be all of that, as we historically know.
Why can’t people protest the genocide of ALL those people – Kurds, Uighurs, Palestinians and others (like the Sikh Independence movement)?
There’s a reason why the Palestinian genocide is more in the forefront to everywhere, that doesn’t mean the other situations are ‘less’.
And it’s overall a valid point. Slot out the Palestinians and sub in any other minority group, there’d be people demanding a ceasefire. Yet because it’s Palestine there’s this insane divide going on.
And before anyone throws it out there – no, wanting a ceasefire does NOT deny that what happened October 7th last year was horrible, despicable and inhuman. Terrorism of any kind is NEVER a solution, especially for peace.
But how many lives have to pay for the stupidity? Not just Palestinian lives, but the lives of the hostages left, too? Because they are not even a FACTOR in anything going on right now. They are the excuse, a ‘convenience’ of circumstance. What about the lives of those who are being told to expand this insanity into other countries? The innocent civilians all over the region who are being targeted because of the insanity of human racism, bigotry and terrorism?
What does “international opinion” mean exactly? Yours? Mine?
You see, we agree that Oct 7th was horrible.
Here’s where we apparently differ: I don’t see any way to prevent that from happening again without removing Hamas from power. I don’t see any way to remove Hamas from power peacefully. It just won’t work. There is no alternative but to remove them violently–or have Oct 7th happen again, and again… bigger and bigger.
Just because Palestinians aren’t in the best of circumstances and Israelis have a better situation doesn’t mean that Hamas isn’t fundamentally evil. That’s the realization that’s missing.
Marika – It means exactly that, international opinion. The opinion of the ICC, of human rights groups, of places that suffered things like apartheid (South Africa) who recognizes what apartheid is… people who know this type of stuff and work against it.
You’re making a broad assumption though after our October 7th agreement.
If Hamas is removed from power, something like Oct 7th happening again may or may not happen, it depends who and what fills the vacuum. It’s likely that Hamas canNOT be removed from power peacefully. So yes, we can also agree that removing Hamas from power violently is likely the only option.
And if that was what Israel was doing, this’d be a different conversation. That’s NOT what it’s doing though and not admitting that is to turn a blind eye to the reality of things going on there.
That GROSS assumption that people don’t “realize” Hamas is fundamentally evil is… it’s insane. MOST people DO realize Hamas is evil, vile, and a lot of other things. What the REAL realization that is missing is that Israel BEHAVING like Hamas doesn’t help matters and in fact only makes things worse. Most people, when it comes to this situation, have blinders on and are only willing to see this narrow view that “Israel is defending itself”, and not seeing that when it’s doing that, it has become as evil as Hamas.
When you have a Government who says they just want hostages back, but are doing NOTHING to reach that goal,
When you have a Government that its OWN PEOPLE are rising up against because even they recognize what they are doing is wrong,
When you have a Country that claims to be “better” than the other countries around it, yet does not behave that way and in fact breaks International Laws repeatedly,
When you have a Country that is willing to spark a wider, regional war and not give a damn about consequences anywhere else,
When you have a Country that claims a right to defend itself, but it needs Foreign weapons to do so,
When you have a Government who approves the slaughter of innocents and ALWAYS uses the excuse “They’re hiding in the Civilian places” when it’s so easy to use that excuse after destruction is levied against those same civilian places,
When you’ve a military that is bombing refugee camps and tents outside of hospitals because there is no longer a building to shelter patients, and those patients are burned alive,
When a military and Country is known for killing Journalists on the excuse of “they were mistaken/terrorists/supporters of the enemy” or whatever excuse, without proof,
When a military and Country kills Peacekeepers and International Workers who are delivering aid to innocents,
And when a military and Country DENIES aid like food and medicine to civilians, breaking International law…
That country has LOST any and all credibility to claim that they are somehow innocent in “Their war”.
And the reality is, if this were any other country, there would be more of an outcry and condemnation, but because it’s Israel and World Guilt continues when it comes to Israel, people just don’t give a damn.
Would you suggest “getting the hostages back” at the cost of leaving Hamas in power to do it again in the future? That’s basically what was on the table. I wouldn’t agree to that.
Pounding them until they cry uncle is a much better approach. Hopefully that also leads to the recovery of hostages, but honestly, that’s secondary to making sure that Oct 7th never happens again.
Yes, pounding until they cry uncle is working so well…
That’s *secondary*?! Are you…
Have you ever heard of the Mossad? They were created for exactly the situations that these hostages were taken in.
Perhaps you need to educate yourself on the region, history, and just what exactly Israel could have done instead of mass genocide of a people.
Elaine… maybe YOU need to educate yourself about what a genocide is. This is a war. There’s a difference between the two. Sometimes they coincide. This time they don’t.
Look at it this way: if the Israelis genuinely wanted everyone in Gaza dead, do you think that that wouldn’t have happened already? Do you not think that they’d have the capacity for that? That very fact alone shows you that it’s not a genocide.
Now, ask yourself what would happen if Hamas had the capacity to do it to Israelis. They certainly have the WILLINGNESS. What they did was a massacre (instead of a genocide) for the simple reason that they lacked the resources to “upgrade” it.
Marika – I don’t need to educate myself on what genocide is, because I already have. AND I’ve listened to people in the Israeli government itself. When you have actual experts saying what is happening is genocide, I’ll take that over people who obviously don’t know any day. In fact, more people now say what Israel is doing is genocide, compared to when all this madness began. And genocide doesn’t mean ALL people are eradicated out of a population; as defined by the Geneva Convention, genocide is:
“any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”:
– Killing members of the group
– Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
– Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
– Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
– Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
So the big issue is, proving the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part”. But people in the Israeli Government and military have already stated this publicly.
He ( Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University) said public statements by people with command authority in Israel — including state leaders, Cabinet ministers, and senior army officers — have repeatedly demonstrated genocidal intent that has been realized in the scale of the violence and destruction in Gaza. Other scholars I spoke to pointed to statements from Israeli officials last October, cited in the ICJ’s January preliminary ruling:
– Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called for a “complete siege” on Gaza and stated “we are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,” apparently in reference to Hamas.
– Israeli President Isaac Herzog said it was “an entire nation out there that is responsible” for Hamas’s attack on Israel in reference to Palestinians.
– And Israel Katz, former Israeli minister of energy and infrastructure, vowed “no electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck” would enter Gaza until Hamas returned its Israeli hostages, suggesting Palestinians would face collective punishment.
Just because the Palestinians are not somehow completely wiped out doesn’t mean what is happening is NOT genocide; after all, not every Jewish person died in the Holocaust, nor did all the Cham Muslims and Ethic Vietnamese in Cambodia died to the Khmer Rouge, then there was the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi, and the Srebrenica Massacre against Bosniak Muslims (men and boys).
But they were ALL (Except the Holocaust since it was before the Geneva Convention, and was the source of the “Crime of all Crimes” being part of the Convention) not only fit the definition, but led to actual charges.
And it’s not just experts, remember. South Africa brought charges against Israel for this, and they aren’t the only supporters of it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa%27s_genocide_case_against_Israel#Other_international_responses
(sources: https://www.vox.com/politics/378913/israel-gaza-genocide-icj
https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa's_genocide_case_against_Israel )
I suggest that you actually research this. Actually enter genocide in Gaza, and you will get the information you need.
And for the record; none of this absolves what Hamas has done and I absolutely agree they DO need to be dealt with, but as I pointed out before, there were other ways than what Israel is doing now not only to secure the end of Hamas, but also secure the hostages who were taken, who should have been the priority; should have, but not once has been and to me that is TELLING of what the real objectives are behind all this. What Hamas did was terrorism, it was a massacre, it was evil in all the worst ways. But consider this – Hamas COULD have upgraded this considering their alliance with Iran and other groups who are anti-Israel. This was a “surprise” attack, planned obviously for a while. All it would have taken was a bit more time and yes, it would have been much worse than just a festival and local villages. That it was not has made me wonder just what the true capacity of Hamas is vs. what people want us to think.
I also fault the Israeli Government for it happening because they KNEW, and did NOTHING to stop it and now are using it to their benefit.
Secondly, no, I am not anti-Israel. I am anti-this BS, especially when Israel has the power and means to carry out sensible retaliation instead of this absolute, wanton destruction and genocide of a people. Especially when Hamas does not give one iota of a damn about their own people to use them as shields and as the excuse to be terrorists. And BOTH sides have proven they do not want peace what so ever so things like this will continue, BECAUSE they want not peace. All of this, is a blood war; it is no longer about wanting land to live on, wanting dignity and peace, it is killing because X person killed Y person and Y person’s people cannot let that killing go unanswered. It is a blood feud, it is as much an extreme example of “Hatfield and McCoy’s” as you’ll get and the brutal, sad irony of this all is, they are the SAME people historically.
(Long reply I know but this is an important conversation that needs to be had still)