K'JIPUKTUK, HALIFAX - As of this morning over 210 people have been killed by the Israeli Defense Force in Gaza. A significant portion of those murdered have been children according to Amer Hussein, a member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid at Dalhousie University.
In response to a lack of media coverage around events in Palestine the group has organized a rally and march for the evening of Friday, July 18th, beginning at 4 PM at Victoria Park and marching to the CBC building at Summer Street and Bell Road.
“Our goal is to make as much noise as possible because whenever [Gaza] is covered it’s always in a biased manner,” explained Hussein. “The purpose of heading to CBC headquarters is that it seems that Palestinian lives are pretty much of less value, because the stories of civilian casualties aren’t being covered.”
Elaborating on the situation, Hussein says that Israel initiated the conflict and that it is part of a pattern. “We’ve seen similar events happen to [prevent] any formation of a unity government [. . .] Israel knows fully well what it is doing, and knows it won’t be held accountable by the international community for carrying out its acts of aggression.”
Students Against Israeli Apartheid’s message to the people of Halifax, says group member Marwa Al-Mansoob, is “Find out more about what’s happening in Palestine, [don’t] just believe your mainstream media. We just want to raise awareness, which is very important. I find not a lot of people in Halifax know what’s going on, and if they do it’s very, ‘I heard this from this news station, and I’m just going to believe that, and I’m not going to change my mind about it.’ [We hope people will] just have a more open mind and see the truth.”
The group is also organizing a candlelight vigil on Saturday, July 19th, at 9:30 PM, at the main entrance to the Public Gardens.
