Participant in Vernon's Walk of Grief

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/CJPME Okanagan

As the war in Israel and Palestine rages, Jewish, Palestinian and Middle Eastern communities in the Okanagan ultimately want one thing: peace.

The Okanagan Jewish Community Centre as well as the Okanagan branch of the Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East have both stated that they are willing to put their differences aside and come together in the name of community and justice.

“We have had very good relations with the Kelowna Islamic Community, and in the past, we’ve had joint sessions…we’re in the process of organizing a get-together in the Spring,” Steven Finkleman from the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre said. “Ultimately, we all hope that the killing of civilians on both sides comes to a resolution for the security of the state of Israel and the security and wellbeing of the Palestinian people and our local community.”

While a rise in antisemitism has been observed internationally, including in Canada, Finkleman says that the local community has not observed this wave of hate.

“We received about three dozen supportive communications and we’ve not received any negative comments since the recent conflict began,” Finkleman says.

The Okanagan Jewish Community Centre remains affected by the ongoing war and has set up some resources.

“I think everyone in both our communities is being affected by the horrors that we see… the Jewish community is relatively small, so we all know of people or are friends with people that know those who were killed or taken hostage,” Finkleman says. “We have one specific prayer session to help local Jews through this process.”

Debbie Hubbard from the Okanagan branch of the Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East has also noticed local people being affected by this crisis.

“Those of us who are citizens concerned about human rights, justice, and peace are hugely shocked and unsettled at the view of the genocide and by the fact that our government is not calling for a ceasefire,” Hubbard says.

The Okanagan organization has seen itself targeted by a hateful message and protesters showing their discontent with their rallies.

“I got a horrible letter sent to me in response to an article I wrote, and I won’t repeat the language that was used, but it was horrible,” Hubbard says. “We’ve been harassed at events, where people will challenge us when there are speakers or, when we rally, they will challenge what we are standing for.”

The organization ultimately also seeks peace and justice and is open to collaborating with communities to achieve this goal.

“The organization that we work most closely with is Independent Jewish Voices which is a national organization, but at a local level the few people that routinely show up from the “other side” are mostly there to challenge whatever the speakers say, so it’s hard to work with someone who won’t understand our view. However, we would be open to working with anyone from the Jewish community or any community in the Okanagan to work towards our goal which is getting justice for people in that part of Israel and the occupied territory of Palestine; we believe that everybody should have equal rights and citizenship and if they were open to agree to this, we would love to work together towards that,” Hubbard says. “We had people both at our Vernon event and at our Kelowna event who are Jewish and came up to us to introduce themselves, the problem is they don’t want to be publicly named because they’re scared of what their community might think.”

As the war rages, the organization provides resources for people in the Okanagan who are seeking people to talk to, are seeking to help people in Palestine or are looking for accurate sources of information.

“We sell locally made Palestinian oils and soaps, and the money goes directly to the producers in the West Bank and CJPME has a foundation at the national level that does fundraising for the people in Gaza,” Hubbard says. “We encourage people to go to the CJPME website that has well-researched, accurate information, the OCHA (the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to get an accurate depiction of the situation in Palestine.”

The Okanagan Jewish Community is a community centre based on the Jewish faith that hosts religious and community gatherings and is based in Kelowna.

The Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Okanagan is the regional branch of the national organization that strives to enable Canadians to demand justice, peace and development in the Middle East and for the Middle Eastern Canadian community.

The ongoing war in Israel and Palestine is a conflict involving Hamas, Palestine and Israel. So far, approximately 1,400 Israelis have been killed including many civilians and more than 9,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, with more than 30,000 injured.

In the Central Okanagan, 595 people identify as Jewish and 455 as Middle Eastern according to the Canadian Census.

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