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'We cannot be quiet'
Locals gather to protest conflict in Gaza Strip
Elise Phillips, Assistant Pulse Editor
Issue date: 1/13/09 Section: News
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A crowd of about 100 gathered at the Pitt Co. courthouse in downtown Greenville on Friday to protest the conflict between Israel and Palestinians and to promote peace between the two entities. Saeed Dar, a professor in the Brody School of Medicine and chair for the administration board for the Islamic Association, was key in organizing the event, stating that the conflict in the Gaza Strip is something that affects Muslims around the world.
"The conflict in Palestine is a Muslim thing. It's a brotherhood around the world and it affects everyone who is Muslim," said Dar.
Dar says that the population in Greenville that practices Islam felt that they needed to do something to show the citizens of a town in eastern North Carolina that the serious violence in the Gaza Strip is not unimportant here in the United States.
"There was a feeling that we needed to explain our support and have other important people in the community come and raise awareness and consciousness of the gravity of what is going on over there," Dar said. "We cannot be quiet."
The rally began around 2 p.m. on Friday, and rally attendees marched from the courthouse to the Islamic Association's center on the corner of Evans and 13th Streets. Protesters raised signs indicating their desire for peace in Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state, something that Dar, although not a Palestinian himself, believes is possible.
"I think that there can be peace if Muslims, Jews and Christians can learn to respect each other's differences and live together," Dar said. "Jews and Muslims have done it before, and they can do it now."
Many Palestinians attended the rally for peace, some giving testimonials of the atrocities of warfare in that region of the world. Dar says that some of the rally members still have family over there, and engaging in a peaceful protest is the least that they could do to show their support of family members so far away.
Mehad Odeh was one of the attendees at the rally who still has family members living in Palestinian territory. An ECU junior and political science major, Odeh believes that this conflict touches everyone, not just Palestinians and Muslims.
"I mean it's about human rights," said Odeh. "It's about people not having the basic necessities to live, it's not about who's Muslim or who's not. Women and children are dying in Palestine. Death doesn't matter if you're Muslim or not, it affects everybody."
Odeh, like Dar, believes that there can be peace between Israel and Palestinians if they adopt a two-state system, something she hopes will happen after living in Palestinian territory for a year.
"I lived there for a year, and getting shot at and seeing how they [Palestinians] live, I don't see how people can live there their whole lives," Odeh explained. "I mean, I lived without water. Going there and coming back just shows me how I take the basics of life for granted."
Dar says that the rally on Friday has been long overdue.
"We haven't done anything here [in Greenville]," Dar said. "The least we can do is ask fellow citizens in Greenville to get together and speak up."
The Islamic Association of Eastern North Carolina is a center open five times daily for prayer and includes two prayer halls (one for men and one for women), a library, kitchen and a second floor facility used for prayer and other religious activities. For more information about the association, call 252-758-4411.
This writer can be contacted at editor@theeastcarolinian.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 6
Sinjun
posted 1/13/09 @ 6:13 PM EST
might want to take a stand against those countries that want to wipe Isreal off the face of the map. You can't honestly hope to actually do anything about this until you can actually provide security to Isreal. (Continued…)
Edward
posted 1/13/09 @ 7:31 PM EST
I think that the Palestinians should have a homeland and be recognized as an independant state....with that being said, I also have to say this....I watched a portion of this rally and it seemed to me that the protest was about the IDF incursions into the Gaza and not about Hamas firing rockets into Israel. (Continued…)
sandy
posted 1/13/09 @ 8:21 PM EST
free israel.
hello
posted 1/14/09 @ 3:03 PM EST
Who cheered when 9/11 ocurred? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the Israelies...
America is for Isreal.
Brian
posted 1/14/09 @ 5:34 PM EST
Um how about the Palestinians protest Hamas using their people as human shields...hiding weapons in religious buildings...launching rockets from schools. (Continued…)
truth pigeion
posted 1/16/09 @ 11:42 AM EST
How to be stupid . . .
. . . Hamas style
Refuse to recognize Israel. Remind the world that the establishment of Israel in 1948 was accompanied by the often violent displacement of 700,000 Palestinians, but ignore the fact that more than 60 years have gone by, making it a bit late for a do-over. (Continued…)
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