Ceasefire deal leaves N.L. Palestinian and Jewish communities feeling grief and hope
Activists, Jewish and Palestinian communities mourning deaths of thousands
A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas has finally been reached. In St. John's, protests have been happening nearly every week since the war began, demonstrating support for Palestinians and demanding a ceasefire.
While peace activists are feeling a sense of hope, they're also feeling grief for the over 46,000 people in Gaza and 1,200 Israelis killed in the past 15 months.
"It's been entirely senseless, and it's been earth-shattering," said Elise Thorburn, an organizer with Palestine Action YYT.
Shortly after the ceasefire deal was announced, Israeli airstrikes killed 117 people in Gaza, which made Thorburn uncertain if the deal would bring peace.
For Thorburn, protesting is still important, as these recent deaths suggest Israel doesn't want peace but to ethnically cleanse Palestinians.
"The reason that this ceasefire happened and the reason that Palestine still exists is because of the resilience and the resistance of the Palestinian people who persisted through 470 days of genocide with joy, with beauty, with love for one another, with solidarity," Thorburn said.
Palestine Action YYT plans to continue its activism by pushing the province to give MCP cards to Gazans who come to Newfoundland and Labrador.
"That's our big push," said Thorburn. "That is in line with almost every other province in Canada and in line with what the provincial government did for Ukrainians."
Hope for lasting peace
Majed Khraishi left the West Bank as a child and has lived in St. John's for 33 years. He was happy to see the outpouring of support from people in the city over the last year.
"A lot of people stood up to express their support for the people in Palestine, to ask our government to work on the ceasefire, to support the people," he said. "So I wasn't alone."
Khraishi is hopeful that the ceasefire deal will bring lasting peace, but right now his feelings are mixed.
"We feel happiness [about] the fact that this is happening now, that genocide is coming hopefully to an end. [And] we feel mourning and sadness because this happened after 15 months," said Khraishi.
Dean Barnes is part of the Jewish community in St. John's, and he has loved ones in Israel. He has been watching the war closely for the past 15 months and isn't optimistic the ceasefire deal will bring an end to the casualties. He hopes that all the hostages will be returned alive.
"If, God forbid, one of my loved ones was a hostage, I would move heaven and earth to get them home," he said. "It's maximum cruelty being imposed, maximum suffering and maximum anxiety, maximum absolute everything evil of this world."
During World War II, Barnes said his grandfather was a passenger on a ship torpedoed by German U-boats. Despite this, he has been to Germany and has German friends, which he believes demonstrates that peace is possible.
"It is possible for the worst possible enemies to become friends, but there has to be a change in the mentality of the population," said Barnes.
What comes next?
In May 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden proposed a three-phase ceasefire deal that received support from the United Nations in June, but talks failed.
Justin Fantauzzo researches the Middle East at Memorial University, and he said the recent deal is somewhat of a surprise considering that the deal is almost the same as Biden's proposal.
He said incoming pressure from the Trump regime and domestic pressure to have the hostages returned likely encouraged the ceasefire deal.
"I think whether or not Israel will follow through on it, I think will largely be dependent on what the hostage release actually looks like. And what I mean by that is how many are actually alive and how many are dead," said Fantauzzo
Fantauzzo is unsure whether this ceasefire will mean the end of the war, as questions about what happens to Gaza after the deal remains up in the air. He said people shouldn't get their hopes up that this deal will lead to Palestinian statehood or a pathway toward a peaceful resolution.
"We've been at this fork in the road many times before, right where it looks like this can be a turning point," said Fantauzzo. "But we've been here many times before and we're still here."
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Julia Israel
