Education Night about Palestine

Jemma Dooreleyers | Dec 20, 2023

All students from Grade 7 to post-secondary were welcome at the Kingston Islamic Centre on Sydenham Road on Friday, December 15th, 2023, for an evening of education, reflection and refreshments, discussing the history of Palestine and context surrounding the current conflict in Gaza.

The discussion was kicked off by Imam, Abu Bakr Mulla with an explanation of why the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian land is so sacred and important to Muslims, Jews and Christians and why it has been a spot of contention for centuries.

He was followed by a Palestinian Canadian member of the community (who will remain anonymous for her safety due to the nature of the situation) who discussed her knowledge of the Palestinian history as well as provided personal anecdotes of her experience travelling to visit family members who remain in Palestine and her experiences with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Infographics on what I learned can be seen later in the article.

She explained that travelling to visit her family is “always brutal,” even before the current conflict was happening. What is supposed to be a 45-minute drive from where she stays to her family’s village can take anywhere from six to 12 hours by car due to the countless check points enforced by the IDF. She said, growing up in Canada, the contrast between her day-to-day life and the day-to-day life of her cousins is jarring. They are not able to leave their homes after dark due to safety concerns, nets cover the streets to avoid the garbage thrown at them by the IDF and other Israelis, farms that were owned for generations before the Israeli occupation are divided randomly by wire fences put up by the IDF, any Palestinian may be arrested without due cause, proper detainment and court practices. Even though she has a Canadian passport, when she visits her family, she must also be questioned by the IDF checkpoints because she also has a Palestinian passport. After October 7th, 2023 (when the current conflict began) 72 people on the original list of names of the dead in Gaza shared her last name. She explained that she witnessed many more atrocities and has heard many more stories from family members but if she listed them all, time for the event would run out. After her discussion, there was a moment of silence from the audience while the information was processed, until she opened the floor for questions.

The audience, which was made up entirely of Muslim youth (apart from myself), asked many poignant questions that often did not lend to clear answers. One boy asked what to do when people refuse to believe what he is telling them about the IDF and Palestine.

“Remember it is not your job to talk to people who will not listen, they are set in their ways,” she said. “But remain hopeful because our voices are being heard in a way that they have not been before.”

“When I used to attend protests in Kingston the crowd was small and made up of Palestinians like myself, “she said. “Now when I attend protests, the crowd is much larger, made of people from many different backgrounds.”