Editorial

Shuja Rasheed

In a world increasingly mixed and complicated how a country like Canada consisting of immigrants from almost every corner of the planet should deal with dissatisfaction and anger among residents with different origins owing to events happening outside the border of our country often far away? Over the years we have seen many examples of how protests have gone out of hand shutting down highways, disturbing peace, and even ending in skirmishes. While such reactions seem over the board the truth is people immigrate with their excess baggage, not leaving them behind. When events happen back home it is natural for them to react and pressure the Canadian government into exerting some influence in their support.

Now, let’s consider the current Israel-Palestine conflict. No matter how we look at it the fact that Hamas, an organization declared a terrorist entity by Canada, started this war by committing senseless murders and kidnapping of Israeli citizens, mostly from a musical festival. As a result, what we are seeing happening in Gaza now is a bone-crushing response from the Israeli government–destruction of the city and the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians mostly children as they try to find and eliminate Hamas operatives in a densely populated enclave.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is about the impact of that at home, right here in Canada. We are seeing an increasing number of hateful incidents committed by some of the ardent supporters from both sides. It is sheer luck that not more than a handful of mortality or injuries have been reported because of such actions. While it would be unreasonable to ask people not to protest what looks like nothing less than a genocide being committed by a revengeful Israeli government, it should be noted that in multicultural countries like Canada if we allow such protest to turn into hate-motivated violence then we may soon get caught into an endless cycle of chaos.

Having said that, we must also as a nation stand behind a population that is being punished with deadly outcomes for the actions of a group that they have generally no control over. Nevertheless, we must not allow ourselves to get involved in hateful activities that violate the Canadian Charter of Rights. Let’s not forget a considerable number of Jewish people, many Israelis among them, also support the right of Palestinians to coexist peacefully with Israel.

Let’s hope this ongoing Israeli onslaught stops soon and finally the Palestinians from Gaza can go back to their ruined homes and start rebuilding their lives from scratch.

Happy Ramadan.