Tensions between Israel and Hamas have been going on for decades and will not end, according to the owner of the Al Farah market in Trois-Rivières.
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Although he is of Lebanese origin, the conflict, which he describes as a war, will only be resolved once the two territories have reached an agreement that can satisfy everyone in the long term.
He himself witnessed Israeli violence in his own country, Lebanon, before settling in Canada.
“An apartment block with almost ten floors, children playing on the balconies, all that… I was eight years old. The Israeli plane had attacked all the blocks. They fell before me. Nobody came out alive,” recalls Ahmad Fawaz.
He hopes that the current violence does not spread to his country. The same goes for the owner of the El Taouk restaurant, who is Moroccan.
“They gradually began to come and take Israel’s few villages…We all expected that at some point Israel would do something to get all of this back. But in that respect it was a little exaggerated,” said Imad Eddine Afif.
What saddens them most is the realization that civilians and children are being killed in cold blood.
For the Trois-Rivières Solidarity Committee, the conflict is so complex that it is difficult to summarize its causes, but it is easy to understand that it condemns the violence on one side or the other.
“We can very well, as is the case with the Trois Rivières Solidarity Committee, show solidarity with the people and the Palestinian cause without condoning acts of violence or terrorism. We just have to put it into perspective to understand that it is an episode in a decades-long story,” explained the president of the Trois-Rivières Solidarity Committee, Sarah Bourdage.
“It’s like you hit me, hit me, hit me, nobody’s talking and the moment I decided to just push him, everyone thought it was something big,” he said. Example Mr. Fawaz.
One thing is certain: many people look at the pictures and follow the news there, hoping that an agreement will be reached quickly.