LAC LA BICHE - Bringing awareness to the war taking place between Hamas and Israel and the plight of the Palestinian people was the focus of a peaceful rally and march that took place Friday afternoon in Lac La Biche.
Braving cold temperatures and biting winds coming off the lake, a crowd gathered in the parking lot of the Lac La Biche Museum and Heritage Centre for the event. Dr. Farhan Chak, an Edmonton resident and political science professor at Georgetown University in the U.S., was the guest speaker at the rally.
Chak said the rally is not one-sided and is meant to bring to the forefront not only the human rights violations being committed against the Palestinian people-including ethnic cleansing- but to condemn the killing of innocent victims on all sides of the conflict.
“It’s for peace… it’s for the upholding of international law… it is for respect for the Geneva Convention… and it’s for Canada to demand a ceasefire,” Chak told Lakeland This Week.
According to Chak, several organizations, including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, have condemned the state of Israel for its actions against the Palestinian people.
“So, frankly speaking, this is a completely one-sided conflict at the moment,” he stated.
Chak continued by saying that humanitarian aid has been blocked to the Gaza Strip, which is under siege by Israeli forces. He stated that 65 per cent of the population in the Palestinian enclave is food dependent, and that water and electricity have also been cut off.
It’s crucial, he said, for people to understand the origins of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, whose roots date to the Nakba, which was the forced expulsion and genocide of the Palestinian people in 1948.
Instead of focusing on one part of the conflict-or any particular group-Chak says it’s imperative for people to put the conflict into the context of the occupation of Palestine as well as international law.
“To single out only one group as the ‘terrorist’ and the other group as ‘can do no wrong’ … I think we’re actually much more intelligent than that,” he said.
Chak also spoke of crimes committed against civilian populations. These atrocities include the use of white phosphorous, the bombing of churches, mosques, schools, hospitals, as well as the killing of journalists.
More crucially, groups targeting civilians-regardless of which side of the conflict they are on-must be condemned.
“Whoever targets innocent civilians is guilty and should be held accountable,” he said. “That’s what we stand by.”
Following Chak’s speech, the rally group made its way from the museum west along Main Street to 101 Street before doubling back to the parking lot where the event concluded. Holding placards and waving Canadian and Palestinian flags, the marchers shouted slogans such as ‘Long Live Palestine’ and ‘Free Palestine.’
Awareness
Sam Abougoush was one of several local residents who participated in Friday’s rally. He said the event is important as it brings awareness to those who are not aware of what is happening in this conflict. He added that there was a strong message of solidarity from the diverse group of people who attended the rally.
“This main focus is to bring fairness to all people, not just the Palestinians,” he said, adding that while the focus of the rally is to show support for the Palestinian people, many groups are affected by the ongoing fighting. “So, this is so that we safeguard all civilians so that they don’t suffer like the Palestinians are suffering today.”
Chak says the Lac La Biche rally and others happening around the world are hoped to bring more awareness to the current crisis and the historic tensions of that region. He would like to see the eventual creation of individual states for Palestine and Israel, but the immediate goal is to cease the attacks on civilians and let the humanitarian aid get to those in need.
“Let’s together, the entire world, come together, and say this is enough…stop this massacre…this is ethnic cleansing in front of our eyes.”