OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a news release from Simcoe County 4 Palestine, published Oct. 11.
I feel the need to express my disappointment with a recent unedited press release advertising the Oct.12 ‘vigil for Gaza’ in Orillia.
It was completely one-sided, with no mention of the Hamas-initiated brutal attack one year ago that took over 1,000 Israeli civilian lives and over 200 hostages.
The use of the word ‘genocide’ to describe Israel’s quest to defang the Hamas terrorists furthers the simplistic victim-versus-oppressor narrative, as opposed to nuanced understanding. No mention of Hamas’ mandate to rid the world of all Jews (actual genocide). No mention of the remaining Israeli hostages. Personally, I absolutely deplore the suffering of so many innocent Palestinians.
Missing from this press release is the certainty that there would be far less suffering if Hamas did not use its own people, hospitals, schools and refugee camps as human shields.
My hope is that, eventually, Palestinians and Israelis can focus on their shared humanity, each respecting the right of the other to exist in peace. May that day come soon. One-sided vigils do nothing to bring that day closer.
Gerald Levine
Oro-Medonte Township
