Overview:
Two weeks ago, Canadian Affairs published an article detailing how members of the Canadian Jewish community learned about Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel. Today’s article features the recent experiences and observations of a few Palestinian-Canadians.
Zahir Zeid, a Canadian of Palestinian descent, was in Winnipeg for business when the war began. His wife and four children — ages nine, seven, four, and two — were living in the West Bank at the time.
Zeid met his wife, who wishes to remain anonymous, in Winnipeg 13 years ago. They had decided this summer that they would spend a year living in the West Bank to meet Zeid’s family and immerse themselves in Palestinian culture.
They had been there only 65 days when Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday, October 7.
“I saw what was happening and called my daughter [in the West Bank] right away, who didn’t even know what was going on,” said Jan Currier, Zeid’s mother in law. “She turned on the TV and found out. From that moment on, it was nonstop communication to make sure the family was safe.”
The Curriers pulled “every string they could” to get their family out of the West Bank, speaking with a variety of media and government officials. They contacted their Member of Parliament, Marty Morantz, who quickly connected them with Global Affairs Canada.
The following Sunday, “I got an email from the Canadian embassy [in Tel Aviv] saying that we can get my daughter and the children out,” Currier said.
At first, the embassy said that if Currier’s daughter and children could make it to Tel Aviv, the Canadian government was flying people out. But because of the Israeli government’s segregated license plate system, that wasn’t possible. The family’s car had a white license plate, which permitted them to approach the border but not leave the West Bank, Currier said.
Days later, Zeid’s family received word from Global Affairs that they would be evacuating Canadian citizens from the West Bank. The Canadian government offers consular services to Canadian citizens living in the West Bank and Gaza through an office in Ramallah, a West Bank city that serves as the de-facto administrative capital of the state of Palestine.
Zeid’s wife and her children drove to Ramallah, then boarded a bus to take them out of the West Bank via Jordan. Currier says the family cheered when they made it across the border.
“It makes you feel guilty when you’re seeing a war from afar, like in Ukraine. But until you’ve gone through it yourselves, as I believe we just have, you’re watching with hope and anticipation every moment that your family will be safe. It’s a feeling like no other,” said Currier.
The Curriers have always been a conservative household, she said. But politics took a back seat during the crisis. “When your family is in peril, politics should not come into play.”
“If I had to vote today, I’d be voting for [the minister of foreign affairs] Melanie Joly as our next prime minister. I think she has done a terrific job at coming into this area and working with Palestine, Jordan and Israel to get Canadians to safety.”
Trapped in Gaza
There are 453 Canadian citizens living in the West Bank and Gaza who have registered with the Canadian government, Global Affairs said in an emailed statement on October 26. Evacuations are ongoing in the West Bank, where Canadians like Zeid’s family are being provided safe passage to Jordan by bus.
But everyone living in Gaza, Canadians included, are trapped.
Ghada Ageel Hamdan and her husband, Nasser Hamdan, Palestinian Canadians living in Edmonton, have watched with horror as dozens of members of their families in Gaza have been killed.
“I’ve already lost three family members: my cousin Heba and her two children,” said Ghada, who is a visiting professor of political science at the University of Alberta. “Twenty relatives of mine have also been killed: families of their families. It’s really a horror beyond belief.”
“When you’re talking about the Hamdan family, you’re not talking about a small family,” Nasser said. “You’re talking about a tribe. Thousands of them. From the north to the south.”
Ghada says she and Nasser now live “glued to the TV.”
“Sometimes you see your relative on TV in the hospital. With no water, no communication, expecting the worst to happen and seeing the worst,” she said.
“All I held dear in this life is gone: my memories, my photographs, gone in a blink of an eye… And it wasn’t only my home, 24 towers: an entire town has been wiped from the face of the earth,” Ghada said, referring to the Khan Younis refugee camp.
According to the UN, at least 45 per cent of housing units in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the conflict began.
‘I feel the fear’
Ghada and Nasser moved to Canada in 2010 as highly-skilled immigrants and became Canadian citizens in 2015. Nasser had continued to visit family in Gaza every two or three years.
Nasser says that the experience of living in Gaza under Hamas rule was no different than living in any other society.
“I feel at home. I feel that I am in my country. I feel there is no difference between how [Hamas officials] treated us” and how government officials treat citizens in other countries, Nasser said.
“For Palestinians, Hamas is a resistance movement,” said Ghada. “Not different from the Palestine Liberation Organization. Hamas came to power through a free and fair election.”
“After this war, the support of the people for Hamas is going to be huge,” she said. “Hamas is an idea of resistance. The problem is with the [Israeli] occupation. The problem is with the apartheid. The problem is with the blockade. End the occupation, there will be no Hamas, no resistance.”
Nasser, who was born and raised in Gaza, experienced the 1967 Arab–Israeli War as a six-year-old boy.
“I remember as a child leaving my home,” he said, recalling that time. “We used to hide under the trees with my mom and brother and sisters there and we couldn’t find water to drink. We started drinking water from the ground, where the frogs are swimming in the water. The colour of that water was green. But I needed water. We stayed for just one week there. That was a six-day war.”
“Now I’m thinking about these people [in Gaza today],” Nasser said, contrasting his six-day experience with the children in Gaza today, who have been under attack for more than three weeks. “I feel the fear the children are in. They cannot find water, power, food.”
The Hamdans believe that the Israelis’ retaliatory attacks, which have killed an estimated 3,195 children in Gaza since October 7 according to Save the Children, will only further inflame the conflict.
“If [the Israelis] want to kill Hamas, they can go fight them. But the children, why are they doing this?” Nasser said.
“They’re making two billion Muslims around the world angry. When you make people angry, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
