In the year since the Hamas attack on Israel, a battle for the hearts, minds, support and sympathy has been raging in Canada, particularly in Montreal.
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On Oct. 7, 2023, the world was plunged into a nightmare from which we have yet to awaken.
Early that morning, over 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, raped, mutilated and burned, when Hamas terrorists breached a border wall and carried out a rampage in nearby kibbutzes, on military bases and at a music festival. As many as 250 people, including grandmothers and babies, were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, where about 100 remain, both dead and alive.
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Since last Oct. 7, Israel’s retaliation and goal of eradicating Hamas has led to merciless bombardment, displacement, famine, destruction and suffering in the open-air cage that is Gaza. The death toll now exceeds 41,000 Palestinians. Entire families have been wiped out. Children have lost limbs. Hospitals, schools and apartment blocks lie in ruin. More Palestinians are being killed by the day.
And now, the world may be on the brink of a wider conflict in the Middle East. Israel’s exploding beepers and air raids have assassinated the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon, drawing retribution from its backers in Iran. Missiles rained down on Tel Aviv last week, raising the spectre of direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, a far more dangerous prospect for world peace and stability than the previous skirmishes with its proxies. As Israel pushes deeper into southern Lebanon, and bombs hit Beirut, more innocent civilians are being killed in the widening carnage.
It has been a year of hell that shows no sign of relenting. But another war is playing out closer to home. A battle for the hearts, minds, support and sympathy has been raging in Canada, particularly in Montreal. Instead of coming together in shared grief, people are turning against each other, while the social fabric rips.
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The losses on both sides are an open wound. The parents of Montreal native Alexandre Look were talking to him on the phone when he was killed in a hail of Hamas bullets last Oct. 7, trying to protect others who had escaped the music festival and were hiding in a bunker. The cousin of Sherbrooke assistant medical professor Ayman Oweida was killed as he was trying to reach food aid. Members of Oweida’s wife’s family have also died in Gaza.
Mourning loved ones and compatriots is heart-breaking. Seeing beloved far-off places be destroyed is gut-wrenching. Anger and outrage are normal responses to war — which is always a nasty business. But in some cases, these strong emotions have warped into hatred here in Montreal.
Over the last year, bullets have been fired at Jewish schools on multiple occasions. Synagogues have been firebombed. Ugly swastikas have defaced walls. This is traumatizing in a city that is home to so many Holocaust survivors and their children. But anti-semitism is surging, leaving the Jewish community feeling isolated and uneasy.
Islamophobia is soaring, too, against both individuals and institutions. Mosques and Muslim community centres have been targeted by vandalism, including one in St-Léonard, which was also spray-painted with a swastika and a threatening message.
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Universities in Montreal have found themselves on the front lines of a war they have no control over. While campuses have long been hotbeds of protest and the sparks igniting social movements, there’s something amiss this time. Differences of opinion have turned personal. Reasoned debate has descended into intimidation. Hate speech has been amplified under the guise of free speech. Some students, especially those who are Jewish, fear revealing their identities, let alone voicing their views, as an intolerance for dissent grows.
The lower field at McGill University was occupied for months by pro-Palestinian protesters who erected tents. After failing to obtain injunctions and pleading for help from governments and police, McGill only succeeded in dislodging the protesters by hiring private security to dismantle the fenced-in enclave.
Université du Québec à Montréal was the site of a smaller and shorter-lived encampment at its science pavilion, though it managed to defuse the standoff with negotiations.
Concordia has been riven by clashes between groups on opposing sides of the conflict. Windows were smashed on its downtown campus during a protest in solidarity with Gaza and against the spread of the war to Lebanon last weekend. Concordia also obtained an injunction preventing two pro-Palestinian organizations from engaging in “threatening and harassing activities which interrupt and disrupt” classes, services or events at the university.
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Some accuse universities of trying to stifle protest and free expression. But tensions on campuses have escalated to the point some students and staff don’t feel safe.
With the anniversary of Oct. 7, the city is even more on edge.
Five people, including teens, were arrested outside two separate Jewish institutions and found to have incendiary materials in their vehicles.
McGill University has announced its grounds will be closed to the public Monday, and that courses will move online, to ensure the campus doesn’t become a flashpoint (again).
There will be vigils to remember the dead. Protests are planned. Students are poised to walk out from classes during a Week of Rage. Montreal police are on high alert.
The polarization since last Oct. 7 has not only endured but intensified, as the shock has worn off and positions on the war have become more entrenched.
This climate will not stop the bloodshed, bring about a ceasefire, ensure the release of the remaining hostages and kickstart negotiations for a two-state solution.
If we, in the relatively safe and peaceful country of Canada, are this divided, if we, in the diverse and vibrant city of Montreal, are this torn, if we as human beings can’t have a civil discussion with our neighbours, colleagues or classmates, how can we hope to undertake the difficult dialogue and make the painful compromises needed to end the war and find a permanent way out of one of the world’s most intractable tragedies?
If we’ve learned anything at all after this year of hell and heartbreak, it’s that fighting only leads to more fear, misery, pain, suffering, violence, loss, destruction, strife and death. Unless we start talking and reclaim our common humanity, there will be no peace, either in the Middle East or in Montreal.
ahanes@postmedia.com
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