In an article in the Gateway, a student newspaper at the University of Alberta titled: “U of A students rally for a ceasefire in Gaza,” Aparajita Raham wrote about the recent rally for a ceasefire in Gaza that was held by students on November 9.

Unfortunately, Raham’s coverage includes several inaccuracies, without any clarification from the journalist.

While quoting one of the rally’s speakers, who said “People are without clean water, food, and medical supplies,” Raham failed to acknowledge that Israel has put in place humanitarian pauses to ensure that aid is able to cross at the Rafah border. Daily, there are trucks with food, medical supplies, water, fuel, etc. Israel itself has even left supplies at the Shifa hospital, including incubators, baby food and medical supplies. Medical teams and Arabic speaking soldiers were brought to ensure that these supplies reached those in need, even as Hamas steals supplies from Palestinian civilians.

Raham noted that the November 9 demonstration “was the second protest held in favour of Palestine at the U of A”. However, Raham failed to point out to readers that this protest, like many others, did not include any condemnation of Hamas, which cynically hides behind civilians and uses them as human shields. Raham failed to include the fact that there has been clear evidence that Hamas uses hospitals as command centres, putting innocent Palestinians in danger. Most recently, CCTV footage released shows Hamas terrorists bringing hostages into the hospital, after kidnapping them from their homes in Israel.

Across Canada, the United States, Europe and elsewhere, there has been a spike in antisemitic incidents, from Jewish schools, to synagogues, to Jewish businesses being targeted. Rather than just writing little more than a stenography of how the protest happened, Raham missed the opportunity to address several worrisome speeches, including the speaker who compared Israel’s war against Hamas to the Holocaust, which is minimization at best, and at worst, overt Holocaust denial.

Raham quoted one rally attendee as bemoaning that critics “accuse protests like this of being hate marches of anti-semitism (sic),” without adding that in fact, many of the anti-Israel protests across the country have included antisemitic chants, notably “resistance is justified”, which legitimizes Hamas’ massacre of over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals.

False allegation against Israel, like that it is committing a genocide against Palestinians have been catalysts for antisemitic acts here in Canada. Genocide is a very specific term within international law, it is in fact Hamas that is explicitly committed to the genocide of the Jewish people. It is very clearly outlined in the group’s charter, and their leaders have publicly declared that they will continue to seek the destruction of Israel. In an interview with LBC TV, a Lebanon based TV channel, Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas leader, told an interviewer that Hamas will repeatedly commit the “Al Aqsa flood operation”, the name for their October 7 terrorist attack, over and over again until Israel is annihilated.

Raham wrote completely uncritically of the march in a number of respects. To start, the Instagram post advertising the event included a list of rally chants, one being “there is only one solution! Intifada revolution.” This is a call for further terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians, and a justification of the appalling events on October 7.  

Raham also completely failed to address the fact that any protest for a ceasefire that fails to mention the culpability of Hamas, and more importantly that doesn’t include a call for the release of the 240 Israelis and foreign nationals being held hostage in Gaza cannot be taken seriously.

For nearly seven weeks, Hamas has been holding infants, toddlers, and the elderly hostage inside the Gaza Strip. A ceasefire is just an opportunity for Hamas to rearm and to continue its war of extermination against Israel, should it be allowed to do so. Following the atrocities of October 7, it is clear that Israel cannot live securely with Hamas on their borders. Israelis and Palestinians both deserve to live freely and securely, and this will only happen with the end of Hamas’ destructive reign over Gaza.