Edmonton’s Palestinian and Jewish communities, and their allies, are grappling with the one year anniversary since Hamas militants attacked Israel, prompting a deadly response that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
The Canada Palestine Cultural Association, along with other solidarity groups, hosted a rally over the weekend and will host a range of events during the week of Oct.7.
“It’s hard for people to sit and watch… for a year straight, watch their people be genocided and killed,” Mousa Qasqas, a media spokesperson for the association, told CBC News last week.
The Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and more than 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas has particularly devastated the Gaza Strip — a Palestinian territory controlled by the militant group — and the people there.
Most of the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip are displaced, nearly 41,800 people there were killed and almost 97,000 are injured, according to Palestinian authorities. Also, in occupied West Bank, more than 700 people have died and more than 5,700 have been injured.
Israel has asserted it is not deliberately targeting civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, but South Africa has brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians there.
The case is ongoing.
In Edmonton, Qasqas said, the Canada Palestine Cultural Association has held rallies across the city every weekend since Oct. 7, 2023.
The conflict in the Middle East has affected many people in our city, particularly those who have family or strong ties in Israel and Gaza. Host Mark Connolly spoke with two individuals to learn more about their experience, and how they are taking action.
“Our community almost needs that — that once a week cathartic vent,” he said.
“I feel like protesting has done that for our community, and it has united us with a lot of other communities.”
Meanwhile, the local Jewish community will be holding some remembrance ceremonies to commemorating the events of Oct. 7, 2023, as well as discussions about the ongoing conflict and “ways for people to come together and just breathe in their own way,” according to Adam Zapp, community relations co-chair with the Jewish Federation of Edmonton.
For Zapp, the past year has been one of the worst of his life as a Jewish person.
“We obviously hope for people to understand that anti-Semitism is real,” he said.
“All people should have the ability to live in peace and security, and that’s something, I think, everyone living on this planet should be able to have.”
Police in Alberta reported 390 hate crime incidents in 2023, including 98 that were motivated by religion, Statistics Canada data shows. Both figures are records since at least 2014, when Alberta data became available to the agency.
The dataset did not disclose incidents in Alberta related to specific religions, including Judaism and Islam, to protect confidentiality.
Throughout Canada, however, police reported 900 antisemitic incidents and 211 Islamophobic incidents last year, data shows.